Despite thousands of articles and studies, more of which appear every day, no one seems to know for certain the status of the Iranian nuclear program. Every now and then, a different US government official or top Iran expert issues a statement saying that Iran is so-and-so years away from nuclear development, but no one does this with certainty. Thus, one cannot completely preclude the possibility that Iran already has some kind of nuclear device. And this, when it is clear that their aim is not one such device, but a nuclear capability that would bring first all of Europe and then all of the Continental United States into range.
There seems now to be progress in European countries and the IAEA's readiness to refer Iran to the Security Council for its failure to halt its nuclear progress. But Russia and China have made it clear that this step would be futile anyway, as they would veto any proposal for sanctions against Iran.
Meantime, in Iran itself, the work towards making Iran a nuclear power continues unimpeded. In contrast, the US and the Western world are going at a snail's pace in confronting Iran and acting as if time did not much matter at all.
For Israel, the situation is critical. The current president of Iran concurs with the previous one in asserting that the "Zionist entity" must be destroyed. But he is much more vociferous, open and bold in doing so. He declared on October 26, 2005, that the Zionist entity must be "wiped off the map."
Moreover, Iran openly supports groups aimed at undermining Israel. Both the Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah have Iran as a major patron. Thus, their hostility to Israel is not a matter of words alone. And their threats against Israel are threats of far more dangerous future action than they are engaged in now.
Meanwhile, the Iranians are greatly benefiting from the oil-boom. This has given them the means to subsidize many basic food products at home and thus take certain domestic pressure off the regime. The Iranians also, thanks to the oil-boom, are greatly able to expand their purchase of military products and increase the pace of their race for nuclear weapons.
There have been hundreds of statements of warning in regard to Iran, primarily by Israeli and US officials, but also, at times, by various Europeans. The warnings from Israel's side go back to the time of the Rabin government in the early 1990s, but all that they have produced so far is hot air.
Iran has had those years for development of its nuclear program. And it has continued to work on this even after the program was exposed by Iranian dissidents and supposedly placed under IAEA supervision in 2003. Iran's continual defiance of the IAEA, the Europeans and the US, plus its attacks on the US and the West and its anti- Semitic call for the destruction of Israel, have lost it some favor in Western opinion, but this does not seem to much concern the Iranians. They continue to trust in their strengthening relations with China and Russia, and in the support of a good share of the Islamic world.
It is also perhaps this Chinese and Russian support that gives them the chutzpah to threaten to bring down the United States and to eventually establish Islamic rule throughout the world.
A nuclear Iran would set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, make the whole energy supply situation in the world even more subject to Iranian influence than it is now, and open up the Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation worldwide. It is a clearly a major imperative for the safety of Mankind that Iran be prevented from achieving nuclear weapons. But, as it is now, no one is really doing anything to stop them. And this, when everything points to the conclusion that it is not by words or sanctions, not by diplomatic means alone, that Iran will be stopped.
There seems now to be progress in European countries and the IAEA's readiness to refer Iran to the Security Council for its failure to halt its nuclear progress. But Russia and China have made it clear that this step would be futile anyway, as they would veto any proposal for sanctions against Iran.
Meantime, in Iran itself, the work towards making Iran a nuclear power continues unimpeded. In contrast, the US and the Western world are going at a snail's pace in confronting Iran and acting as if time did not much matter at all.
For Israel, the situation is critical. The current president of Iran concurs with the previous one in asserting that the "Zionist entity" must be destroyed. But he is much more vociferous, open and bold in doing so. He declared on October 26, 2005, that the Zionist entity must be "wiped off the map."
Moreover, Iran openly supports groups aimed at undermining Israel. Both the Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah have Iran as a major patron. Thus, their hostility to Israel is not a matter of words alone. And their threats against Israel are threats of far more dangerous future action than they are engaged in now.
Meanwhile, the Iranians are greatly benefiting from the oil-boom. This has given them the means to subsidize many basic food products at home and thus take certain domestic pressure off the regime. The Iranians also, thanks to the oil-boom, are greatly able to expand their purchase of military products and increase the pace of their race for nuclear weapons.
There have been hundreds of statements of warning in regard to Iran, primarily by Israeli and US officials, but also, at times, by various Europeans. The warnings from Israel's side go back to the time of the Rabin government in the early 1990s, but all that they have produced so far is hot air.
Iran has had those years for development of its nuclear program. And it has continued to work on this even after the program was exposed by Iranian dissidents and supposedly placed under IAEA supervision in 2003. Iran's continual defiance of the IAEA, the Europeans and the US, plus its attacks on the US and the West and its anti- Semitic call for the destruction of Israel, have lost it some favor in Western opinion, but this does not seem to much concern the Iranians. They continue to trust in their strengthening relations with China and Russia, and in the support of a good share of the Islamic world.
It is also perhaps this Chinese and Russian support that gives them the chutzpah to threaten to bring down the United States and to eventually establish Islamic rule throughout the world.
A nuclear Iran would set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, make the whole energy supply situation in the world even more subject to Iranian influence than it is now, and open up the Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation worldwide. It is a clearly a major imperative for the safety of Mankind that Iran be prevented from achieving nuclear weapons. But, as it is now, no one is really doing anything to stop them. And this, when everything points to the conclusion that it is not by words or sanctions, not by diplomatic means alone, that Iran will be stopped.