With the first week of United Nation addresses wrapping up, the United States is still in a sticky situation with what to do about Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn’t make any remarks concerning the future of Iran’s nuclear program, so we are led to believe that Iran will continue forward with the program even with the current economic sanctions being imposed. While Iranian leaders do admit that the sanctions have had a, “severe impact”, they have still done too little to curb the country’s nuclear desires.
The administration needs to take a much harder stance against Iran and continue to cultivate the productive relationships that it already has in the Middle East. With military intervention being a political impossibility right now, the United States needs to ramp up the sanctions and work with our allies to further isolate Iran. Baring a significant political shift, Iran doesn’t look like they will be changing their current stance anytime soon. We saw the repercussions that took place when protestors took to the streets against Ahmadinejad during the last elections in Iran.
Bloomberg makes a sound point by noting that former CIA Iranian officer Reuel Marc Gerecht believes that the toned down UN address may be a way for Ahmadinejad to portray himself as a “peace-seeker” before his final term is up. The United States doesn’t have to resort to full on military action to address the problem of Iran, but they don’t have to stand by on the sidelines either.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81625.html?hp=l2
Policy Interns 