‘I am with you,” President Obama said Sunday in his now-annual address for Nowruz, the Persian New Year. This time, however, he sidestepped the ruling ayatollahs he once tried to lure into “engagement” and instead urged “the young people of Iran” to imitate others in the region and rise up against their oppressors.
Better late than never? Obama must realize that he’s now in the regime-change business. Yes, that same enterprise he has dismissed so cavalierly since becoming a US senator.
Deferring to the United Nations as he launched a Libya airstrike over the weekend only obscured his flip. Yes, the Security Council resolution defined the mission as an attempt to “protect civilians,” and Obama’s aides declare that removing Moammar Khadafy from power isn’t part of their mission. But unless the Libyan tyrant is forced to “leave” (as Obama said he must), no defense of civilians can realistically be sustained.
And as Obama’s switch on Iran shows us, this won’t end with Libya. In the war for the Mideast’s soul, the world will increasingly expect America to lead.
Yet Libya, led by a universally hated madman, is easy compared to Iran — which many Muslims revere, even as others hate it. The mullahs see themselves, and are still seen by many others (including Islamist Sunni rivals), as a model for the Mideast’s future, one that’s the antithesis of our hopes for the region.
Worse, Tehran started building a winning momentum long before the December uprising in Tunisia that unleashed the rolling challenge to the decades-old regional order. Nor does that upheaval slow Iran’s nuclear-weapons progress.
The UN committee charged with enforcing the Security Council’s Iran sanctions is expected to discuss a few recent incidents in its periodic meeting today:
* On Friday, Malaysia intercepted two containers on their way to Iran. The cargo included a stainless-steel holding tank and agitating-mixer devices — materials that can be used for nuclear weapons.
* Back in December, South Korea intercepted 400 suspicious tubes.
* In September, Singapore intercepted aluminum powder that can be used in Iran’s missile technology.
Turkey yesterday stopped for inspection a plane on its way from Iran to Syria. A week earlier, the Turks intercepted another such plane but let it go, saying they’d found nothing suspicious on board. Nevertheless, persistent intelligence data — and even official International Atomic Energy Agency reports — indicate that the nuclear cooperation between Tehran and Damascus didn’t end when Israel bombed a Syrian nuclear plant back in 2007.
Meanwhile, Iran is also supporting like-minded factions across the region, including by sending them arms, again in violation of the UN sanctions. Last week, Israel intercepted a German-owned ship, the Victoria, which was traveling from Syria to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Among the seized weapons: land-to-sea missiles made in Iran from a Chinese design. The missiles could have “changed the strategic balance” in the region had they reached their destination, according to Israeli officials.
As a fascinated world follows the region’s pro-democracy battles, Iran is widening its zone of influence by arming and otherwise supporting allies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, to name a few. Last month, British troops on the Afghan-Iranian border intercepted an arms delivery to the Taliban, likely destined for use against US troops.
Unless interrupted, Iran will continue to intervene in conflicts caused by young people yearning for freedom — hijacking democratic revolts to produce Islamist regimes, as Ayatollah Khomeini did in 1979.
Worse, if it’s allowed to complete its nuclear quest, Iran’s influence will quickly turn into outright dominance — bad news for anyone hoping the Arab Spring would change the region for the better.
Obama must do much more than issue the occasional Persian holiday greeting. Ultimately, the ayatollah regime must end. But even before that, we must return America’s — and the world’s — gaze to Iran’s nuclear threat.
Obama must reiterate and make sure the mullahs know it, too: that “all options” mean all options. Because adding Iranian nukes to a Mideast already aflame would be much more catastrophic than losing just another battle for Arab democracy.
beavni@gmail.com