December 03, 2007 ... The Iran problem.

As far as the Arabs and their regional counterparts are concerned, the outcome of the Annapolis peace conference is a foregone conclusion: For Arab politics to survive, the Palestinians and the majority of their Arab counterparts demand outright victory, not the compromise of a temporary two-state solution which prolongs Israel's exit from the middle-east. Until this happens, the continuing conflict provides the established Arab regimes including Hamas the excuse with which to mobilise violent action and deflect criticism from their unending failures. Fatah need the conflict to sloganise and legitimise their pursuit of power in the eyes of misguided, international sympathisers.

Minus the impending nuclear weapons capability of Iran, this should be manageable. Even a rock will wear down over time. However, if Iran is permitted to achieve nuclear weapons status, as it most certainly intends to, given that 40% of its population live below the poverty line in one of the world’s most carbon-rich countries, the bolstering of Arab confidence will become an unassailable threat. Israel will then be placed in the line of fire from Iranian long-range missiles replete with nuclear warheads. And the EU will be held to ransom on a multiplicity of fronts in the face of radical Muslim demands.

Iran's Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar: 'The Ashoura missile has been produced at a factory related to the ministry. The Ashoura missle has a range of 2,000.0 Kilometres. Israel and United States military bases in the middle-east are now within range'.

It has been argued that a nuclear weaponised Iran would be no match against the French and United Kingdom nuclear capability. But France, Denmark, Germany, Holland and the United Kingdom are pretty much powerless in the face of the comparatively trifling radical Muslim activity which threatens them already. So there is scant likelihood of any meaningful facing down of an Iran that has run diplomatic circles around the EU, so far. The Arabs have time and determination at their disposal. Western culture is too busy undermining itself by beating itself up over competing and conflicting ideologies, and the Arabs, who have no such philosophical difficulties, know it.

Israel knows all of this, yet shares too much of that which afflicts EU inaction. Even so, Israel knows that a nuclear weaponised Iran would be the beginning of the end. Thus, irrespective of the subsequent international criticism or affront to Arab sensibilities and ambitions, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons must be thwarted.

Update: December 10, 2007... Subsequent to this Op-Ed's publication a new report has suggested that Iran has ceased its nuclear weapons development programme since the Iraq invasion of 2003. However, Iran has not ceased its production of enriched Uranium. Given that Iran already has the technical details form many foreign sources including Pakistan's Dr. A.Q Kahn, the expertise to use Iranian enriched Uranium for the production of a viable nuclear weapon/s is not at all impeded. This is because Iran has the money needled to buy in the necessary hardware and expertise from China, Russia, North Korea, India and Pakistan, for example. Even late 1950's nuclear technology, over half a century old, would be more than sufficient for Iran's purposes.