6 Powers Near Iran Resolution Agreement

The U.N. Security Council's five permanent members will meet Tuesday in Paris to discuss sanctions against Iran for it's failure to heed demands to halt enrichment of uranium.

According to the article in the Washington Post "Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing can both produce material for atomic warheads, and Iran's lack of complete candor about its programs has fed suspicions in Washington and other capitals that Tehran is trying to make nuclear weapons in violation of its treaty obligations."

Serious sanctions are being opposed by the Russians who favour limiting them to measures that would keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, eliminating any travel ban or freeze on assets. However, the Russians are in the process of completing the nuclear facility at Brushehr, which when completed could allow weapons grade plutonium to be extracted from the reactor allowing the Iranians to construct nuclear weapons.

Although there appears to be conflicting reports about whether deliveries have actually begun, Russia is also intending to supply Iran with Tor-M1 air defense missile systems. The Tor-M1 system, also known as the SA-15 Gauntlet (a variation), has the ability to track up to 48 targets simultaneously while actively engaging two at a time. The short range system can acquire and begin tracking within a range of 25km and engage at 12km. Its primary advantage is the reported ability to engage cruise missiles skimming at very low altitudes, a weapons system that would likely be a major part of any American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

I am by no means an expert on the Middle East, rather just a casual observer. However, having read a lot of what Iranian President Ahmadinejad has to say on the subject of Islam and the destruction of Israel, and looking at developments around the world, it is clear that Iran intends not only to influence the whole of the Middle East, but has real ambitions to control it. The destruction of Israel is at the forefront of these plans, I can't see how you could reach any other conclusion.

In recent times the U.N. has has failed to act in a meaningful way, other than as a talking shop, delaying any serious action until it is either too late, or until world opinion has moved on so that issues can be quietly dropped. The time for sanctions, even if they were to be severe in nature (which they never would be) is long past.

Action needs to be taken now, not when the armament of Iran is completed, the lessons of history are there to see, talking about it just won't get the job done.