Pressuring Iran to Abandon Nuclear Power
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr is keeping track of the rhetoric on Iran. He assesses the pressure being put on Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.
DANIEL SCHORR reporting:
American-Iranian relations have entered a troubled twilight zone in which the talk is of diplomacy but the hand signals are of force.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
NPR's senior news analyst Daniel Schorr.
SCHORR: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says on weekend television that Iran is a troublemaker in the international system, but we have man steps yet to take. She rules out giving Iran security guarantees and repeats the all options are on the table mantra.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is coming to Washington this week with the message that Iran is very close to gaining the capacity to make weapons grade uranium. A few weeks, he says, rather than a few years and he says, other nations, read the United States, must take the necessary steps to stop it.
So, is war with Iran inevitable? Brookings Institution scholar Ivo Daalder acknowledges that there is an emerging consensus that it is only a matter of time. But Daalder himself believes that with 54 percent of Americans no longer trusting President Bush to make the right decision on Iran, war is unlikely.
Meanwhile, however, the administration takes concrete steps to keep the pressure on. Under American pressure, says The New York Times, four of Europe's biggest banks have started restricting their activities in Iran. The Pentagon is planning a joint Army/Navy/Air Force taskforce to stage exercises with Turkey reportedly aimed at demonstrating how the transfer of nuclear technology could be interdicted. Friendly countries in the Persian Gulf are being urged to join the exercise and the Bush Administration is reportedly moving to establish a new anti-missile site in Europe designed to stop future possible Iranian attacks on the United States and its European allies.
One way or another, the administration, without making outright threats, wants to let Iran know that it is heading for more serious trouble than it thinks.
This is Daniel Schorr.
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