A nuclear Iran will be a major danger to Mankind. All nuclear non- proliferation agreements will be worthless. A nuclear arms- race will breakout in the Middle East.
Iran will have a veto- power on Gulf energy supplies.
Israel's very existence will be threatened as will be that of millions of others in the Middle East.
The world has to stop Iran before it is too late. It seems now that it is not going to do this.
The U.S. seems to be backtracking on Iran now, and Israel seems without the proper leadership required to wisely deal with the Iranian threat.

A nuclear Iran will be a major danger to Mankind. All nuclear non- proliferation agreements will be worthless. A nuclear arms- race will breakout in the Middle East.
Iran will have a veto- power on Gulf energy supplies.
Israel's very existence will be threatened as will be that of millions of others in the Middle East.
The world has to stop Iran before it is too late. It seems now that it is not going to do this.
The U.S. seems to be backtracking on Iran now, and Israel seems without the proper leadership required to wisely deal with the Iranian threat.

Hassan ,its a shame we dont hear more from people like u and we sympathise with your plight of iranian suppression if there are so many of you ,you should all rise up and get rid of those dispicable people and mullars who are messengers of death for your country ,if you cant rise up help the us with the whereabouts of the secret nuke sights or something ,one thing is for sure those rotton terroists need to be dealt with in no uncertain terms as they have showed they are liars and that you can never trust the word of a mullar ,we wish you all well and hope you fight for your freedom too against this terrible fanatical regime !

Nuclear weapons for sure have become Ahmadinejad's obsession and a big EGO issue like similar traits seen in other world leaders(?) as well: Bush - Iraq, Israel's leadership-Palestine, Pakistan's ruler - Kashmir, etc. etc. ... Hope A's EGO doesn't prompt the US to teach him a lesson because in this whole issue the Iranians and the world at large are going to be huge losers.

I agree. I think the quick release was the result of the anti-Ahmadinejad pragmatists seizing the moment. I can think of no other reason explaining this rapid-fire about face.

PS: Yossi, dude, love those cool shades! I mean, like, did you hang with Kerouac? Too much, dude!

While I do appreciate the WP providing space here for the readers to intelectually debate the core of issue on hands , it should forbid people such as the writer above kurdistan and few more like jeff who find free space here to display their extreme degree of their intellect deficiencies .

what i am saying or suggesting,is mullah should be whipped and Iran must be split to 8 federal states.
Persian nationalist are running Iran for ages and it is obvious why they still on power because Persian served and protected western interests in the region for ages. in correspondence to Mr AMAZE WHO CLAIMED THAT 9/11 TRAGEDY OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF ZIONIST SECRET PLAN. NO, SIR YOUR ARE ENTIRELY WRONG AND MISS UNDERSTOOD BY RADICAL MUSLIM. 9/11 WAS DONE BY MUSLIMS AND ARAB PEOPLE. IT IS CLEAR, AND DOESN'T NEED FURTHER EXPLANATIONS. SO, WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY AND CONDEMN YOUR LEADER AND CRITIC'S YOUR RELIGION" ISLAM".

BY THE WAY, IF AMERICA DO NOT ATTACK IRAN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, MULLAH WILL FIGHT AMERICA IN ITS OWN SOIL .

Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear technology is mutlifaceted. It all evolves around security. Iran is basically a lonely country in the middle of hostile nations. Israel has the bomb and firm allies. Saudi Arabia is cushioned by the sense of US protection and it could definitely count on Pakistan, Egypt and even Turkey in times of crisis. In realm of security, Pakistan feels superior to Iran. Turkey in the north is cushioned from feeling insecure by being a NATO member and also have strong military build up of its own. What do you think of this if you are Iran, ethnically and religiously distinct from everyone else?

Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear technology is mutlifaceted. It all evolves around security. Iran is basically a lonely country in the middle of hostile nations. Israel has the bomb and firm allies. Saudi Arabia is cushioned by the sense of US protection and it could definitely count on Pakistan, Egypt and even Turkey in times of crisis. In realm of security, Pakistan feels superior to Iran. Turkey in the north is cushioned from feeling insecure by being a NATO member and also have strong military build up of its own. What do you think of this if you are Iran, ethnically and religiously distinct from everyone else?

Hello SATANIC VERSE LOVERS OF JIHADISM IN Iran and elswhere on Space-Ship Earth & Beyond.

(((((((( U N C L E ----- S A M )))))))

Is Watching You..... Ya Ya. :=) Come to Poppa Bush. He will Push Push in your Bushy Pushy. Ya Ya Satan Acters of Iran & Company....

Maybe our President Mr. Bush was right when he said these two thing that I find WISE.
1)"YOU Are Either With Us Or Against US." Similar.

2)On Pakistan reluctance to help US post 911, "We can BOMB YOU Back To the Stone-Age.." Similar.

WE COULD NUKE Iran-Afghanistan & Pakman country ALL AT THE Same-Time and call it a day!

Then TRUE & Genuine PEACE and healing of Nations on EARTH will truly become the Bloom of our future. Because the real SATAN will lose. And we will win. Just a matter of clock time.
PEACE-LOVE-ROCKnROLL. Ya Ya.

US media reporting on Iran's nuclear program never mentions Israel's not so secretive nuclear arsenal. Does that have anything to do with the fact that most US media outlets are owned or controlled by the Jews or the Israel Lobby's clout. Whenever the US media reports about tensions between India and Pakistan, it never fails to point out that the two are nuclear-armed countries. Shouldn't the media clarify that keeping Iran from getting nuclear wouldn't ensure a nuclear-free Middle East?

Folks, Bush Strategy really WORKS! It is so kool! See the effect of the US Navy Carriers conducting war-games in the Persian Gulf: it un-nerved that Iranian bit of the Axis of Evil, and they did yield--although they our enemies won this bout of the propaganda war. Do I believe this? Well, for sure, some would agree with all that, and whole-heartedly too. So what if the US does not have a foreign policy--the US can make it on the run. The US has all the might, can fight multiple wars, and surge, emerge, bulge--break all that china in the shop--and can even say that it accomplishes missions. So it has all that, and it can can can something or the other--and it is that one nation under God, etc. too. USA USA USA: Go Bush Go.

My late mother used to have a saying when us kids used to make fun of or criticize someone who was like Jacob Jozevz a/k/a/ YAKUB YOSIF.

She would say "be glad that's not you".

This guy simply isn't playing with a full deck of cards (one fry short of a happy meal, lights are on but nobody's home...pick your cliche), so most on here smartly ignore his nonsensical rants.

In general I agree with the conclusions of this commentary. Namely that the taking of the 15 British soldiers had everything to do with internal Iranian politics and little with an actual war footing.

However I disagree on the details. The Iranian people are only luke warm on the nukes issue. Now they are facing very real, very painful economic sanctions if they continue down this path.

Ahmadinejad and Kahmenei need to sell them on the idea that having nukes is worth that price. Hence the taking of the soldiers in 'Iranian waters.'

The implication is that they were in Iranian waters spying as a prelude to an invasion. Using fear mongering to motivate the poeple is a long established practice dating back to the Greeks (at least).

The choice of British soldiers makes good sense as they are very unlikely to use this as an excuse for a war they don't want anyway. As well the British are legitimately suspect as being in cohoots with the Americans.

Of course both the British and American governments know this, which is why thankfully this molehill didn't turn in to yet one more mountain of a war nobody wants (besides a few unmentionable incompetents).

JACOB OR WHOEVER YOU ARE, PLEASE BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR LAST NAME. YOU ARE A MF ZIONIST AND YOU CAN'T HIDE IT. STOP BEING A PROVOCATEUR. THIS FORUM IS NOT FOR THE LIKES OF YOU. GO TO ONE OF THOSE PROPAGANDA SITES BUILT BY AND FOR THE RACISTS AND SPEW YOUR VENOM THERE.

FOLKS, PLEASE KEEP THE DISCUSSIONS IN THE ACADEMIC REALM AND DON'T STRAY INTO THE MADNESS.

About the recent crisis with the arrested British soldiers we have to remember that 5 Iranian diplomats were arrested in Arbil (and Iraqi government confirmed that they were diplomats contrary to the US claims and asked for their release from American custody but to no avail) and 1 diplomat was kidnapped in Baghdad by the Americans (released yesterday after two months). Also Iran's ex vice-defense minister has been kidnapped by Western intellegence in Turkey. Americans have been escalating tensions with Iran constantly. They helped Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, armed him with WMDs, and today surround Iran with their military presence. Iran simply feels vulnarable and acts out of this vulnurability. Read the following news (link below) for example. We in the West claim that we are fighting against terrorism while our governments dispatch terrorists on missions to hurt these countries and so should we be surprised when they hit back ? Hell, US trained 100,000 Wahabi fundamentalist terrorists in the 80s and dispatched them to fight the Soviets. Also at that time they burned girl schools and killed women who dared to work or teach but at the time we in the West wanted them to. A 1992 WashingtonPost article even writes how in the 80s CIA published Quran and smuggled them into the Soviet muslim states !

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3384474,00.html

ZIONISTS JEWS AND THEIR PUPPETS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR 911.... FACE IT, FOLLOW THE FACTS... ISRAEL WANTS MORE CONTROL OVER THE MIDDLE EAST SO ZIONISTS CONTINUE TO DECIEVE THE WORLD WITH DISINFORMATION. IRAN SHOULD HAVE NUKES EVERYONE AROUND THEM HAS THEM. ASHKENAZIS ARE NOT REAL JEWS SO GO BACK TO (KHAZARIA.~ADOPTED JUDAISM 780 AD) AMERICA IS RUN BY ZIONISTS ALONG WITH GREAT BRITAIN, AUSTRAILIA AND ALOT OF THE WORLDS LEADING NATIONS. THE WORLD WOULD BE BETTER WITHOUT ZIONISTS WE DONT NEED ONE WORLD GOVERNMEN T DONT LET THEM FOOL YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT, ITS TO GAIN MORE CONTROL OF THE FREE WORLD. ITS NOT ABOUT SCIENCE OR RELIGION THEY SAY THAT TO TRICK YOU, ITS ABOUT MONEY GREED AND POWER. GO TO IAMTHEWITNESS.COM AND LEARN THE TRUTH. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ZIONISM. IF YOU THINK THIS IS ANTI-SEMEITC THINK ABOUT HOW 85% OF JEWS ARE ASHKENAZI JEWS AND THEY COME FROM AN OLD EMPIRE THAT ADOPTED JUDAISM IN 780 AD AND THEN ALL THE PEOPLE STARTED TO CALL THEMSELVES JEWS, THEY ARENT EVEN SEMETIC,THEY ARENT FROM JUDAEA.

The Iran-USA Nuclear Coopertion Agreement is dated 18 March 1957.....that is 50 years ago. And, legally, it remains valid! Even at the beginning, USA was disingenuous with its offer of "technical assistance".

Just In:

((((((((( B R E A K I N G N.E.W.S. )))))))))

Afew minutes ago An F15 was deliberately smashed into the AL AQSA "Golden Dome of the Rock" in Jerusalem, Israel.

The death toll is rising and ewe will report on further coverage as it comes in. AND,

"The unHoly "KABBA" in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was just destroyed by "Exiles" of the "SHAH" PALAHVIs secret Army who smashed a hijacked Saudi Commercial Airline into it and killing around 3,000 people.

Its as though every muslim has gotten a dagger shot in their hearts and or minds. This means that ISLAM is now Dead! People are yelling: Death to Iran!

please Stay tuned for further developments as the reports come in. Thank You. AND BE WELL!

Well, at the end of the day Its all going to be

the same SHIATT any way we all look at it. And

there will be nothing SUNNI about it!

Its POOF-TIME Ayatollah and all your Mullah!

Ya Ya.

If someone were looking for an explanation as to why conflicts errupt into violent confrontation one need look no further than some of the posts in response to this article. It's unfortunate, to say the least, to see banner terms and statements like: "Americans are violent" or that all Persians are racist. Even more frightening is the suggestion we should blow Iran up and that that will fix all our problems.

Diplomacy may not be sexy or the fastest solution to this problem but it's surely safer for everone involved than bombs and the testosterone packed pissing contests displayed in some of these posts.

Decisions of the Iran-bomb magnitude are complex and I can't believe even stellar newspapers and media outlets have all the information one would need to say the U.S should do x or Iran should do y. As Moliere said: "la critique est aisee mais l'art est difficile" (ROUGH translation: criticism is easy but art is difficult)

Yossi Melman's commentary is probably the classic state department view on Iran, but from the concept of how a soverign nation should present itself it belies the bigger problem which makes Iran at best an immature and dysfunctionally schizoid state.

Iran doesn't speak like a government with one voice, but as a disparate family with different vested interests and competing franchises. Its like a tribal embankment where under each tent is a completely different personality. Its confused and governed like a confused state, so confused, how can it possibly be a responsible nuclear power?

There are individual army's in Iran with different loyalties, different command structures, opaque funding, and mysterious international policies and endevours. It isn't that it has its terror wings. Its that it has different armys doing totally different things answering to competing constituencys.

Iran is an example of the worst kind of governing. I think western analysis is wrong in its assumptions that all nation states are rational unless run by one despot who is also looney. Iran is co-run by a crazy assortment of looneys without anything resembling a job description.

To me its amazing that they would send in muscular hard-core looking 30 year old military men in plain clothes to pretend to be students, in thier teens and early twenties, shouting death to whomever on such a repetitive basis whenever they want to send a televised message to the world. And they look so bored doing it.

They are so primative in their thinking that they fail to realize the rest of the world is moving foward on so many fronts and this kind of demonstration truly falls flat. They look retarded in their rigidity and it shows in their economic failure. Their only claim to fame is their ability to arm non-state actors in foriegn lands who practice terror on civilians.

Mohammed grew and evolved in his own life and underwent a lot of personal change concurrent in carrying out his mission. This is something Iran totally lacks and I think this is not Islam at work, but a rigid cultural structure locked in competition with itself. The end result is no-growth. Iran seems hell-bent on fullfilling its autistic dreams at other's expense and they can't blame that on the west. Its themselves. Its what they are doing to themselves.

The Iraninan government's defiant stand has indeed put the whole world into a virtual crisis. Their continued stance of defiance and pursuance of clandestine policies, a fundamentalist system has indeed denied the Iranians an actual feel of the modernity and the progress of the new world order where dictation is not by things political, but by actual economical and mutual and self progressive ideals and ambitions!

In my view it is necessary that the Iranian Government stop spoiling Islam's name and take the lead to merge with the international Community and work towards the upliftment of its people and the entire world and its people! Only then Iran would regain the old world charm and fervour it once enjoyed!

To misquote the come-on, "who's running America?" Think about it....

Iran needs to understand that if it decides to get nukes, it will be punished by the civilized world. After 9/11, we can't risk these nukes falling into al qaeda's hands and destroying our cities. if you thought 9/11 was bad, think of 9/11 x 1000, because that's what will happen if the democrats get their way. It is up to MY President to deal with Iran so we don't suffer from Iranian terror in the future. I still remember Pan Am 103, the marine barracks in beirut, the african embassies, khobar towers, and the first WTC attack. Never forget these victimes of Iranian terrorism.

There's nothing in Iran that 20 megatons of nuclear explosive over Teheran wouldn't cure

Dear OLD ATLANTIC has it crossed your mind that you Americans are violent and dangerous. If the US followed advice from people like you the world would destroy itself. Take a deep breath. Ask yourself: what will be the consequences of sending 2 million US citizens into another war? I note that armchair generals sit at home watching '24' and thinking of ways to kill people around the world. Why not kill yoourself?

OLD ATLANTIC, Are you going to join up in the marines for that invasion of Iran? Let's spend more money and American lives fighting Israel's wars. Why does an Israeli get to comment on an American newspaper about Iran?

Hassan is right about Iranian-Persian chauvinism and nationalism. Even secular ones here display that. We can't let them have nukes.

Whether the Shah would have had nukes we should still stop Iran and work to get Pakistan to give up its nukes. We should draft 2 million men and invade Iran.

The author may be right about Iran's strategic objectives but I find this article unconvincing. It will take years and years before Iran would have the necessary quantity of uranium that is necessary to manufacture ONE nuclear weapon. I suspect that western hysteria fuels this debate. Nowadays, the Americans seem unable to be rational and calm. It deliberately turns everything into a crisis. Its rationale is simplistic: on one side we have the good and on the other we have the bad. At every turn, the US maligns, demonises, condemns and alienates the Iranians. Why? Bush is saying that he knows who should and should not have nuclear power stations and nuclear weapons. He also says that if Iran gets them it will be because they intend to use them. Well, I am sure Iran knows that if they do they will be nuked out of existence. Some decades ago the British and the Americans objected to France acquiring nuclear weapons. In reply De Gaulle dismissed the US and the UK as hypocritical. He said that they could not acquire nuclear weapons and then tell France that it could not have them. He said France wanted the weapons as a deterrent against a possible Russian attack. He acknowledged that if France attacked Russia it could not wipe out Russia but, if Russia attacked France, he could blow off an arm. In other words, it was not worth Russia's while to attack France. If Iran does intend to build a nuclear arsenal then maybe it feels a need to defensively protect itself from what it perceives as dangerously hostile Americans, Israelis and Europeans. Iran has seen the West invade Iraq on trumped up charges. A little while ago Bush threatened to bomb Iran. Its aggressive neighbours, the Israelis, have nuclear weapons as does Pakistan and India. If, today, the US did not have a nuclear arsenal but its neighbours did then Bush would acquire one. How and why should Bush decide who should have them? If we unequivocally assume that Iran is trigger happy than we stop ourselves from considering the possibility that we are wrong. Many people around the world are saying that the most unstable and reckless leader on the world stage is Bush and that he is capable of using nuclear weapons and starting WWIII. Why should the US have a HUGE arsenal of nuclear weapons - which is not being reduced - while insisting that other nations should not have any? This is: do as I say and not as I do. The US is relying on an unconvincing argument. Bush makes the poorest of arguments and asks his citizens to engage in uncritical thinking of the same calibre that the US used to justify its invasion of the Middle East.

Europe will be an Islamic continent by 2050, because no country there has the guts to stop these radical savages.

Many people do not know, but the war with Iran has already begun. A Time magazine article reported that on Sept. 7th '06, there was a huge firefight between US, Iraq and Iranian troops who snuck over the border into Iraq. No US soldiers were killed, but 4 Iraqi troops, 1 border guard and 1 interrogator were captured by the Iranians.

Iran must be punished for taken the 15 British hostages while in Iraqi waters, contrary to some peoples posts in the Washington Post and NY Times blogs. They must not acquire a nuclear weapon. There is a plan in place by both the US and Israel to take Iranians nuclear facilities out early September.

Iran took the 15 British sailors and Marines as a diversion from their nuclear program.

Iran also did it to "test the waters" of our allies strenght. Britain failed and this will give Iran a green light do more terrorists activitites.

Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Iran would terrorize the whole Middle East and oil will be over $100 a barrel, with $5 a gallon gas. This would destroy our ecomony.

The world is letting Iran get away with murder because they are cowards. So far only the US has stepped up to Islamic fascism.

is not a civilised way of politics and isnt the Iran a state like all others? What have they done wrong?

hey hey folks, this is not about Iran, it is all about Israel. And saddest thing is Israel is not helping Jewish cause.

If Ahmadinejad thinks that he is "a man of destiny," so was Hitler. Look what happened. Europe was destroyed in economic,social and political terms. Some of the European leaders of that time did not believe Hitler's aspirations to conquer the world, either. So is the case with Iran's President.

The French, Chinese and Russian leaders do not mind helping Ahmadinejad because they think that Iran's President is like a parrot and nothing else. Well, let them continue selling nuclear technology to Iran until this country is well-armed and drops the bomb in the Middle-East. By then, their regrets will be not only too late but above all worst than Hitler's actions.

Reading the comments above, I can just assure you, neither the US, Israel or UK can do much about Iran. They have to come to terms with Iran and accept the reality in that country.

Reading the comments above, I can just assure you, neither the US, Israel or UK can do much about Iran. They have to come to terms with Iran and accept the reality in that country.

I am an Iranian Azarbayjani. (South Azerbayjani). These persians (people who speek Farsi) are the most racist and chauvinist people on earth. You would wonder why. Because we Azeris in Iran make up more than 37.5 percent of the population of the country called"iran". You can see this site for more information. www.ethnologue.com
But we are suffering cultural,(especially linguistic)and economic aparthide in iran. We are deptived of the right to be educated in our own language and Azarbayjan is one of the poorest part of the country. You now why? Because these persians hate us. In a nutshell, they are belittling us in every aspect of our life.
Now they want to do the same with Britains. This is part of their culture and history. So when you speak about iranians, please bear these points in mind.

Bottom line: talk is cheap. Sanctions and attacks are the only things that matter to the "moderate" Khamenei. So let's cut the talk and get on with the sanctions. Khamenei will offer a deal. Then what? Will Khamenei really be willing to deal away the "dream" of the bomb? Or will any dealing be subterfuge? Doesn't the bad cop always come before the good cop? Don't the bad cop and the good cop want the same things? Don't they coordinate their efforts before the interrogation even begins?

Why are we putting up with this transparent nonsense? Shouldn't we have a strategy to get rid of these mullahs?

As a first generation American of Iranian heritiage I worry that Iran having a nuclear power might consolidate the power base of the mullahs. With that kind of deterrence they may never give up power. However, an attack by the US or Israel on Iran's nuclear infrastructe is also of concern. When Israel bombed the facilities at Osirak they were not operational. In Iran most of these facilities are operational and the fallout from a potential attack will be devastating to the local population. The Iranian people are not are enemies but I can't help but think that such an attack would have disasterous consequences for us or our allies. I think diplomacy coupled with the squeezing of Iran's oil infrastructure is the best way to eventually get the pragmatic mullahs in check.

Since when "For Iranians, nuclear weapons boost national pride."? why most western media and "thinkers" playing with balls that governments and mullahs in Iran through for them? I am an Iranian American, lived half of my life there, No one in Iran care more about atom bomb than 100s other social and political demands they have. Why Western Media is not interested to point out that , Most Iranian want a decent government , they want to live like most of the free world? .....Now atom bomb became "the pride" of poor people in third world countries. And not the means of dictators regimes to secure their future ruling agendas. Through reading articles form many journalists and analysts I learnt that their base to evaluate one nation mostly come from their ruling regimes propaganda and not reality of people’s life.
For past 19 years Islamic regime in Iran tried non-stop to make the bomb. Now our thinkers relate this to desire and pride of millions. That is not true. Iranian people have many other MORE important demands that this regime has denied . Why people should have pride see a anti-democratic regime gets more power to crash their demand easier? Our thinkers not interested to respond.