Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of Russian immigrant party Yisrael Beiteinu said that the Jewish State will not be able to depend on the international community to protect Israel from the Iranian threat. The Strategic Affairs Minister said bluntly that the world will not defend Israel against a nuclear Iran. “We will have to face the Iranians alone, Lieberman said in an interview broadcast on Israel Radio . Israel cannot remain with its arms folded, waiting patiently for Iran to develop non-conventional weapons.” European Union Admits Diplomacy Is Ineffective An internal European Union report leaked to the media this week documented that diplomatic interventions have been ineffective and probably will continue to be so. “In practice…the Iranians have pursued their program at their own pace, the limiting factor being technical difficulties rather than resolutions by the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel cannot remain with its arms folded, waiting patiently for Iran to develop non-conventional weapons. “The problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone,” read the report. “Iran has shown great resilience to outside pressure in the past……” The EU report noted that “At some point we must expect that Iran will acquire the capacity to enrich uranium on the scale required for a weapons program.” Nonetheless, EU sources hurried to deny that it was “despairing of a negotiated solution.” A senior diplomat complained to the Reuters news agency, “What we don’t like is the implication that sanctions are not going to work and that we are [therefore] contemplating military action.” Until now, the U.N. has imposed sanctions which ban the transfer of nuclear technology to the Islamic Republic. The world body threatened to tighten the diplomatic noose if Iran has not ended its nuclear activities by February 21st. Lieberman has criticized the EU report. “Any surrender to Iran can only encourage the aggressiveness and unbridled aspirations of this country, which wants to foist its power on the Middle East,” he said pointedly. Continued UN Opposition to Stronger Measures The French Foreign Ministry has strongly opposed a military response to the growing nuclear threat from Iran despite its continued defiance of a U.N. Security Council mandate to end uranium enrichment activities. “We have faith in diplomacy and believe a united international community can convince Iran to retreat, whether through diplomacy or sanctions,” said French Ambassador to Israel, Jean-Michel Casa. Although Casa reiterated his country’s stance that “we will absolutely not accept a situation in which Iran becomes a nuclear power,” he offered no alternatives to the measures which have proved ineffective. Moreover, France is still offering to “assist Iran’s civilian nuclear program under tight international supervision, on condition that they abandon their uranium enrichment program and any military program.” Russia has been equally adamant in limiting sanctions against the Islamic Republic, expressing its support two weeks ago for an initiative to offer a “time out” proposal to hold off sanctions. The International Atomic Agency suggested at the time that the United Nations delay its plan to impose the sanctions. Although the United States has urged the UN for the past year to impose heavy sanctions against Iran in an effort to stop the Iranians, it too has offered little else. U.S. President George W. Bush said in November 2006 he would "understand" if Israel attacked the Islamic Republic, but that America would not help the Jewish State to do so. A New Threat From Iran Iran has also been sharing its largess with terrorist organizations to the immediate north and south of Israel – Hizbullah and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar met with the head of Iranian national security at approximately the same time the US announced its reluctance to step up the severity of its response to Iran’s nuclear activities. “Iran has handed out, until now, over $120 million and says it will supply more aid,” al-Zahar informed reporters in November 2006. “Its support is very important for us," he added. Iran has also been supplying Hizbullah with weapons and financial support. Iranian long-range missiles were fired by Hizbullah at the Jewish State during last summer’s war with Lebanon, and intelligence reports indicate that the Islamic Republic has already re-supplied the Lebanese terrorists. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has in turn repeatedly warned that Iran is building a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. He has pointed out in numerous speeches at various forums that this poses a threat not only to the Middle East, but in fact to the entire world. Israel has also warned the international community that Israel will not tolerate an existential threat from the Islamic Republic.
