Syria supports Iran in standoff with West

"We support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology," Syrian President Bashar Assad told a news conference... "It is the right every state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason," Assad said.

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Meanwhile, as worries about a potential showdown with Iran pushed the price of oil above $67 a barrel, Iran also floated a proposal to OPEC to reduce its oil output by a million barrels of oil a day, a move that was expected to push the price of gas even higher.

An editorial in Lebanon's Daily Star argues that "Iran has the west over a barrel, or rather 2.5 million barrels, that being Iran's daily total of oil exports." This could result in the a barrel of oil reaching $80, even before the question of the proliferation of nuclear weapons is even discussed.

The Associated Press reported that Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for a cautious approach to the issue of sanctions. This came the day after US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called for a swift referral of Iran to the UN Security Council.

"In this situation, it is essential not to harm the global community, the nuclear non-proliferation regime," he said.

Russia and China carry great weight with other IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] board countries and both have vetoes on the 15-member UN Security Council. They are opposed to sanctioning a country with which they have strong economic and strategic ties. In recent days, they have expressed reluctance even to the idea of referral.

Ha'aretz reports that Russia rejected a proposal put forward by Israel this week to place immediate sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to abandon its nuclear program.

Diplomatic sources in Moscow said after the meetings with Israeli officials that "Russia listened very intently" to the proposals, but did not commit to taking any measures – a tactful way of saying that Russia has rejected Israel's proposal.

In an analysis for The Age of Melbourne, Australia, however, Robert Tait writes that there is little evidence that Iran is wilting under the pressure being exerted on it by the US, Germany, Britain and others.

Far from being forced into a humiliating retreat, however, the Iranians have responded with remarkable sangfroid.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, became the latest senior government figure to strike a pose of studied reasonableness on Thursday when he told the BBC that he still favoured compromise and negotiation. With the stakes rising, it has been left to the EU and the US to appear intransigent and unyielding. With US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice playing down the prospect of further negotiations on the grounds that "there is not much to talk about", the British Foreign Office dismissed Tehran's continued emphasis on discussion as "not credible."

And one issue that has continued to pop up as Iran's nuclear weapons program is discussed is Israel's nuclear program, mentioned above. Despite the US's reluctance to talk about it publicly, The Carnegie Endowment's Joe Cirincione argues that Israel has a great interest in a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, and that the situation with Iran has given President Bush the opportunity to "untie the gordian knot."

Even if democratic transformations sweep the Middle East, a new Iraq and a new Iran would still want nuclear weapons as long as Israel has them ��� and as long as they are seen as the currency of great powers.

The Iranian nuclear program began under the Shah in 1958, with the first US-supplied reactor going online in 1967. The program will likely continue under future governments unless fundamental regional dynamics are altered.

The first step toward emerging from the nuclear impasse is for there to be public acknowledgement of Israel's weaponry and subjection of the Jewish State to the same rules as every other nuclear power. The next is to begin to remove the biggest single source of aggression in the area by creating a Palestinian state. And the last is to accept that even in a balance of terror, nuclear weapons are locally irrelevant. Wiping out Damascus with a nuclear blast or destroying life in Tel Aviv with chemical or biological weapons is a lose-lose draw. Acceptance of the reality on the ground might hopefully lead one day to the declaration of the oil-rich Middle East as a nuclear-free zone.

Also...
• Mofaz: Iran-Syria 'Axis of Terror' to blame for Tel Aviv suicide bombing (Ha'aretz)
• Trial illuminates dark tactics of interrogation (Los Angeles Times)
• Chirac prepared to use nuclear strike against terror states (Guardian)
• Congressional agency questions legality of wiretaps (Washington Post)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan .