Here is what happens what you let foolish Europeans dictate US foreign policy — this from Yahoo News:
“A package of incentives presented Tuesday to Iran includes a provision for the United States to supply Tehran with some nuclear technology if it stops enriching uranium — a major concession by Washington, diplomats said.” [US to give Iran nuclear technology]
“The package includes a promise of Western technical help in developing peaceful civilian nuclear energy if Iran stops enriching uranium, a waiver of U.S. legal restrictions to allow export of some agricultural technology, access to U.S. aircraft parts or new Boeing Co. planes to upgrade Iran’s aging fleet and U.S. and European backing for Iran to join the World Trade Organization, diplomats and others said.” [Link]
In the early 1980s, alarmed at North Korea’s construction of a nuclear reactor capable of yielding weapons-grade material, America tried to induce the North to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. By 1985, after much stonewalling, Pyongyang finally agreed to ratify the treaty–but then demanded military concessions in return for promising to forgo nuclear weapons. Rather than dismissing these demands as extortion by a hostile nation, by 1992 the United States had agreed to cancel its military exercises in the area and to withdraw U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in South Korea; the South gave up its nuclear program and also offered a non-aggression pact and economic benefits. During this period, meanwhile, the North, bolstered by guarantees of security and the West’s willingness to swallow its lies, completed two reactors capable of yielding weapons-grade fuel.
In 1993, after preventing required inspections of its nuclear facilities, Pyongyang announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty. Our response? More “diplomacy”–in the form of the “Agreed Framework,” brokered in 1994. Under this scheme the North agreed to freeze its plutonium program in exchange for two light-water nuclear reactors (putatively for generating electricity) and, until the reactors were operational, 500,000 metric tons of oil annually (nearly half its annual needs). The United States, along with Japan and South Korea, paid for these lavish gifts. The agreement also provided for the lifting of trade and diplomatic restrictions, previously imposed as penalties for North Korea’s aggression against its neighbors.
This shameful deal openly rewarded the North–already closer to acquiring nuclear weapons–for its aggression and lies, and furnished it with the means to become a worse threat. And indeed, by 2003–when the North actually did withdraw from the treaty–it was clear that Pyongyang had continued secretly to develop weapons-capable nuclear technology. [Elan Journo, Diplomacy” Aids North Korea’s Nuclear Weapon’s Program]
Unless someother development occurs, Iran will do the same. To paraphrase a famous line: “Those who do not study the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes.”
The proper response to Iran see End States Who Sponsor Terrorism and Iraq: The Wrong War.
From Cox and Forkum:
Meanwhile, from CNN: Israel: Iran ‘months’ from making nukes.
Iran is only months away from joining the club of nations that can make a nuclear weapon, Israel’s prime minister said in a recent interview. “The technological threshold is very close,” Ehud Olmert said on CNN’s “Late Edition” in an interview taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday. “It can be measured by months rather than years.” Asked whether he believes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would halt his nation’s nuclear-enrichment program under international pressure, Olmert said, “I prefer to take the necessary measures to stop it, rather than to find out later that my indifference was so dangerous.” Some observers disagree with Israel’s characterization, saying Iran is five to 10 years away from being able to make a nuclear weapon.