Iran’s strident defiance — VOICES for REASON

President Obama has sought to buy off Iran with concessions and talks, so that Tehran will agree to end its nuclear program. This policy of so-called engagement (in reality, appeasement) has quite predictably shipwrecked (the administration is admitting as much). I have been arguing that Obama’s policy of appeasement works to galvanize Tehran in its belligerence, including notably its nuclear program. That appears to be an intensifying trend.

Secretary of State Clinton starts making noises that the time has come to “pressure” Iran with the additional sanctions. Iran scoffs at a bill in Congress that would sanction its fuel supply. And it successfully test fires an enhanced long-range Sejil 2 missile.

Despite many layers of existing sanctions and restrictions on its access to foreign technology, “Iran has nevertheless learned how to make virtually every bolt and switch in a nuclear weapon, according to assessments by U.N. nuclear officials in internal documents” (Washington Post). Leaked documents purporting to be official Iranian reports describe “a four-year plan by Iran to develop and test a neutron initiator of a type that weapons experts say has no known civilian use.” That initiator is one of the last technical obstacles on the path to developing a warhead.

Gloating in an interview, an Iranian official told the Post “that as Iranian engineers conquer the nuclear sciences, they will ‘jump hundreds of meters up in a short time,’ pulling even with their counterparts from the West.”

Iran’s nuclear program, however, is only one element in the regime’s efforts to export and propagate its militant Islamist goal. Iran’s proxies in that venture are jihadist groups. The leader of Hamas paid an official visit to Iran, which reaffirmed support for that group. Lebanese Hezbollah, another group that counts on Iran’s patronage, has carried out attacks from Buenos Aires to Beirut, and is thought to have cells worldwide.

Speaking on another occasion, Ali Larijani, Iran’s parliament speaker told reporters earlier this year: “We’re proud to defend Hamas and Hezbollah,” and “We are not trying to hide it.”

What these developments illustrate is how the policy of appeasement rewards aggression, resulting over time in progressively more assertive, self-righteous enemies.