Nearly one year ago, I wrote about how the Obama administration’s weak foreign policy was undermining the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people, after their country’s presidential election (read “selection”) took place. President Obama failed the world on a moral level.
Now, Mr. Obama is failing the world on a more practical level. And we have every reason to be concerned.
Sixteen months into his presidency, Mr. Obama continues to undermine the legitimacy of his allies while attempting to appease his enemies. His diplomatic attempts at engaging Iran and Syria have failed. His promised sanctions against the fundamentalist regime in Iran are coming eight months late. Worst of all, Iran is creating a new world order and the US can’t do anything about it.
In an attempt to paralyze Western powers, Iran recently signed a deal with Turkey and Brazil in which Iran would send some of its uranium to Turkey which it would enrich and transform into fuel rods for peaceful use. This is the exact same deal offered by Russia and France this past fall, which Iran rejected.
Iran orchestrated this deal for three reasons.
First, as was the case in the fall deal, Iran will ship 2,640 pounds of uranium abroad for further enrichment. This would have represented 80 percent of Iran’s uranium stockpile in the fall. Yet it only represents 50 percent of its total uranium now, as Iran has increased its stockpile steadily over the past eight months. This leaves Iran with a large amount of low-enriched uranium which it says it will now enrich to 20 percent of U235 isotope concentration, which will allow it to reach 90 percent enrichment much faster, the level necessary to activate a nuclear weapon.
Second, if the uranium is not converted into fuel rods by Turkey within a year’s time, Turkey is obliged to return the uranium to Iran. With Turkey beginning to align itself with the “axis of resistance”, led by Iran, the latter trusts that the former will not convert the entire shipment of uranium, something that it could not expect from France.
Last, Iran seeks to undermine American influence in the region by signing a treaty with two countries traditionally viewed by the US as close allies: Turkey and Brazil. Furthermore, Iran is forcing the US to choose between accepting the deal, and hence doing nothing to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons proliferation program, or rejecting it outright, and therefore appearing to undermine alleged Iranian attempts to peacefully reduce tensions between itself and the West.
The Obama administration responded to this deal by composing a set of watered-down sanctions against the Iranian regime, using the United Nations Security Council as its forum for passing them. As usual, the resolution speaks of economic sanctions and an arms embargo, yet has no concrete means of implementation.
The sanctions don’t touch Iran’s central banking system or its oil and gas industries. Nuclear inspections will proceed only with consent, as usual, allowing Iran to continue to hide many of its facilities. Worst of all, Russia will be allowed to continue to help Iran build an air defense system against a potential Israeli or American attack to slow down the regime’s nuclear program, seeing as surface-to-air missiles are exempt from the UN Register on Conventional Arms.
In summary, Iran will continue to develop nuclear weapons which could be used against Israel and the West, and will spark a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East. Meanwhile, for ideological reasons, the Obama administration has made it rather clear that it doesn’t really intend to do anything about it.
We’re in trouble.
Zach Paikin is a student at McGill University.
