The World Accommodates Iran

The greatest terror-sponsoring nation in the world is developing nuclear technology. The world is alarmed, right? And nations are coming together to do something about it, right? Wrong.

May 25, the EU3—Britain, France and Germany—promised to draft within three months a set of detailed proposals for economic, political and security incentives for Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing to continue suspending its uranium enrichment program.

The very next day, the Islamic Republic was rewarded by being invited to begin World Trade Organization entry negotiations. The “right” to join the wto has been one of Iran’s main demands in recent months of negotiations.

After blocking Iran’s application on 22 separate occasions, the U.S.—forced to respond to Iran’s gesture of extending its suspension of uranium processing—backed down and lifted its opposition to Iran’s entry into the wto. “President Bush offered a big economic carrot to Iran …. This U.S. shift, from threatening the Islamic Republic to wooing it, hasn’t been in Mr. Bush’s antiterrorism playbook up to now” (Christian Science Monitor, May 27).

In a further indication of who is doing the accommodating, the May 25 meetings featured Europe’s representatives reinforcing Iran’s right to pursue a nuclear program and Iran’s representative reiterating that Tehran’s freeze on uranium enrichment was only temporary. Speaking for Iran, Hassan Rowhani described the deal as a victory.

Iran seems to be getting all the desires of its heart. Without giving an inch—using merely the threat of resuming what it wasn’t supposed to be doing to start with—Iran gained three months’ reprieve, an agreement for Europe to come up with a definite plan of rewards, and an invitation to enter the World Trade Organization. Not bad for what has been a pariah state and terrorist-sponsoring nation whose declared enemy is the U.S.