Don't feed Crocodiles

Fire of Liberty

The Europeans and the UN are so willing to give Iran the kitchen sink in an effort to dissuade the mullahs from building the bomb that they make Neville Chamberlain look like a steel giant. For me, holding talks with individuals, offering them light-water reactors or the mention of eliminating sanctions is pretty much like feeding Churchill's proverbial crocodile hoping it wont bite you back. Well one individual that seems to share such sentiments is David Frum who has some things to say about the futility of holding direct talks with Iran in his most recent column in Canada's National Post. Though I recommend you read Frum's wonderful piece in its entirety, I figured you'd prefer a mere sampling. Here's a look:

1. The United States will learn nothing from direct negotiations with Iran that it does not already know. Three European governments--Britain, France, and Germany--have been negotiating directly with Iran since October 2003. The U.S. has repeatedly and publicly authorized these so-called "EU-3" governments to speak on America's behalf. The governments have reported back every Iranian demand. If the world is heading for a crisis over the Iranian nuclear program, it is not for lack of information about Iranian demands.

2. The Iranians do not negotiate in good faith. I had a chance a little while ago to talk to one of the senior EU-3 negotiators. He described how at the end of one intense bargaining session, he asked his Iranian counterpart to sign the minutes of their talk, so there would be no mistake when they resumed the next morning. The Iranian signed--and then next morning claimed that the minutes were erroneous and that the signature was a forgery.

3. For the Iranians, the main purpose of negotiations is delay. They hope to run out the clock on the Bush Presidency, in the belief that any Bush successor will revert to the Clinton-era policy of accommodating the mullahs. If the U.S. takes over the talks from the EU-3, it risks finding that it must start again from zero--and that Iran has gained three risk-free years for nuclear research.

4. The Iranians will score a propaganda victory. If the U.S. replaces the EU-3 across the negotiating table from Iran, what had been an Iran vs. the world confrontation will be transformed into an Iran vs. the United States confrontation--allowing Iran to present itself to the Muslim world (and indeed to radical anti-Americans everywhere) as a victim of American bullying.

And to think that there's a large part of the US foreign policy community that's actually calling on us to talk directly with the mullahs in Tehran. Thank G-d there's folks like Frum, the Weekly Standard, National Review, Commentary, as well as think-tanks like AEI and Heritage seeing the light on the regime in Iran.