It doesn’t sound like good foreign policy to me, trying to ‘save face’ in ending Iran’s nuclear program, or to ‘save face’ in letting Iran continue to develop their nuclear capabilities beyond just electricity production, while keeping your fingers crossed that Iran won’t follow through on wiping Israel off the map, while fueling and funding the insurgency in Iraq.
We’ve tried the crossed-fingers diplomacy with North Korea under the Clinton-Albright administration in the 90’s. The results of that effort is a nuclear bomb wielding North Korea, exactly the opposite of their goal. Buttressing Bush’s label as one of the ‘axis of evil’, future leaders in Iran seem comfortable enough to wear that moniker proudly.
An ultra-conservative Iranian cleric who opposes all dialogue with the West is a frontrunner to become the country’s next supreme spiritual leader.Â
In a move that would push Iran even further into the diplomatic wilderness, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, 71, who publicly backs the use of suicide bombers against Israel, is campaigning to succeed Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameini, 67, as the head of the Islamic state.
‘How do you save face while losing your head’ might be something to explore, since that’s what the current geopolitical environment seems to suggest. In an atmosphere where ‘trust but verify’ is viewed as radical, what else could be expected from an Ayatollah who backs suicide bombers and other extreme Muslim acts of ‘peace?’
