Obama's best bet on Iran is opposition, not nukes
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 10:03PM OP-ED: Iran's nuclear diversion, By Ray Takeyh, Washington Post, November 5, 2009
The usual smart stuff from Roy Takeyh:
As the Obama administration grapples with the conundrum of Iran, it must balance its proliferation concerns with its moral responsibilities. Iran's post-election tremors have hardly subsided; in fact, the regime is systematically eviscerating its democratic opposition. Amid their merciless efforts to consolidate power, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies see discussion of the nuclear program as a means to silence the criticism that their domestic behavior merits. In the coming months, Iran will no doubt seek to prolong negotiations by accepting and then rejecting agreed-upon compacts and offering countless counterproposals. The United States and its allies must decide how to approach an Iranian diplomatic stratagem born out of cynical desire to clamp down on peaceful dissent with relative impunity.
Couldn't agree more, and we need to make this choice explicit in our debates: Obama can focus on nukes or the opposition movement, but he can't have both. To me, focusing on nukes is a losing proposition for reasons I've cited repeatedly now for four years, whereas focusing on human rights, the protests, etc. fits nicely with a long-term soft-kill strategy.
(Via WPR Media Roundup)
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