Israel Matzav: Britain, France and Israel try to lead the free world

Britain, France and Israel try to lead the free world

With President Obama having abdicated leadership of the free world, Britain, France and Israel are attempting to assume the burden. One place where this is painfully obvious is in confronting Iran over its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The United States has taken a very lackadaisical attitude to forcing Iran to give up its nuclear weapons, and the Brits are said to be furious about it.

“It is important that IAEA inspectors are given access to Qom immediately,” said a senior British government official. “We regret that Iran is delaying this until October 25. We see no reason for a delay. What possible reason can there be for it?”

From Iran's perspective, the reason for the delay is obvious: The three week delay gives Iran the opportunity to scrub the place clean from any signs of its real purpose: weaponization. For the Obama administration, which seeks to avoid confrontation at all costs, that's just fine. But for the rest of the world, which seeks to put an end to the Iranian menace, giving Iran time to destroy the evidence is a lost opportunity to show any doubters that Iran means to weaponize.

Another issue where the same question is being presented is on export of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU).

The export would allow the LEU to be processed into fuel that helps create medical isotopes for cancer treatment. European diplomats made clear yesterday that Iran would establish confidence with this measure only if the 1,200kg of LEU were to leave the country in one go.

“We don’t think it can be taken out gradually,” said a British diplomat. “The stock of LEU could be put in a container and shipped out at once.”

However, diplomats from France and Israel believe Iran will insist on reducing its stockpile in incremental steps.

“If they insist on removing only 100kg a month of LEU, it hardly builds confidence, especially if they simply go on producing fresh stocks at the same rate of 100kg a month,” said one diplomat.

US officials describe the agreement as not only a temporary confidence-building measure but also as a way to deal with one of the main elements of Iran’s emerging nuclear weapons capability – its stockpile of low enriched uranium.

Again, it's the often passive Europeans taking the lead on confronting Iran rather than the United States. Who ever thought we would see the day when Britain and France would once again be more highly regarded as world leaders than the United States? And it's taken less than nine months of the Obama administration, which still has at least three years to go.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Britain, France and Israel try to lead the free world