Iran should stop playing games and pursue it real best interests

Iranian sabre-rattling, aimed pri- marily at the United States, appears to be having an unintended effect. European allies are becoming more convinced that Iran and its nuclear weapons program is a threat that should be reckoned with now.

On Monday, Iran test-fired a surface-to-surface cruise missile near the Strait of Hormuz, an exclamation point of sorts to 10 days of Iranian naval exercises. That was accompanied by a warning from Iran’s army chief, Gen. Ataollah Salehi, against a return of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis to the Persian Gulf. A spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strait. And the White House characterized the threat as a sign that Tehran was becoming increasingly isolated internationally and was trying to divert attention from that fact and its deepening economic problems.

Iran’s single-mindedness in pursuing a nuclear weapons program is reminiscent of North Korea’s myopic pursuit of the same goal. And it is likely to have the same effect: an economic isolation that leaves the nation with two allies that have the ability, but not always the inclination, to prop it up. Those allies would be China and Russia.

The sanction option

The United States, Canada and Great Britain have already shown a willingness to use sanctions to discourage Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. And now France has joined the effort and has called for other European nations to sign on.

France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there is “no doubt” that Iran is moving toward a nuclear weapon and urged Europe to match the tighter sanctions the United States set in motion last week. Juppe suggested targeting Iran’s Central Bank and imposing an Iranian oil embargo.

Those are the type of tough actions that Iran has warned against, threatening to respond by sealing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a sixth of the world’s oil exports passes every day. The strait is the only link from the oil-rich Persian Gulf region to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

If Iran were to attempt to block the strait, which would violate international law, the United States would not be alone in responding. Such a provocation would demand action from Europe and Canada as well.

It would be better if all sides stopped thinking in bellicose terms and instead started looking for ways to take a step back.

Iran can no doubt create problems for the rest of the world’s economy by threatening the free flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. But its own economy is already crippled, which has been adding to domestic unrest. Is it prepared to pay a price as high as that of North Korea for the luxury of developing nuclear weapons?

And from the U.S. perspective, military action against Iran is not an option, no matter what some Republican presidential candidates have been saying in an effort to look tougher than anyone else on the block.

The Iranian military is not to be taken lightly. Its ability to sustain enormous losses was proved in years of war with Iraq. And its potential to wreak havoc through support of international terrorists is impossible to predict.

This is a good time for Europe to join in putting pressure on Iran to negotiate and a good time for Iran to respond in its own interest of self preservation. And that interest does not lie in joining the nuclear fraternity.