The New Nation - Internet Edition

The threat that President George W Bush and his European allies gave Tuesday of tougher sanctions to squeeze Iran's finances and derail its potential pursuit of a nuclear weapon did not surprise anybody. It sounded like preparations to launch an attack on a country which at one time was the policeman of the US in the Gulf.

This threat coupled with speculations of an attack by Israel made Iran to warn that such adventures would be dealt with through a 'painful response'. Such kind of threats and counter-threats did precede the invasion of Iraq in 2003. "They can either face isolation, or they can have better relations with all of us," Bush was quoted as saying from the European Union-US summit.

The world facing a recession - like the one of the thirties of the past century - in the wake of three successive wars in the same region cannot afford another in the Gulf.

What baffles all is the one-eyed policy of the world's lone super power which maintains a mysterious silence in respect of the nuclear weapons that Israel, its key ally in the Middle East, is already in full possession of. If the threat of sanction against Iran was coupled with another against Israel for dismantling its weapons of mass destruction, then the people of the region could have understood the genuineness of the anxiety against nuclear proliferation.

All sane people around the world are against proliferation of nuclear weapons because there would be no winners of a war fought with such weapons. If the US and its European allies are genuinely for a moratorium on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and the Gulf then they should first ask Israel to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

In fact, the Muslim countries of the region which feel threatened by nuclear weapons in the hands of Israel must unitedly demand this instead of resorting to making disjointed bargains that that have so far not proved fruitful.

Nobody wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. But when President Bush flatly says, Iran "can't be trusted with enrichment," adding, "A group of countries can send a clear message to the Iranianst And that is: we're going to continue to isolate you, we'll continue to work on sanctions, we'll find new sanctions if need be if you continue to deny the just demands of a free world," people from the rest of the world cannot but raise their eye brows for his silence in respect of Israel and lack of concern for security needs of other countries of the region.

Iran has been consistently denying the charges of going ahead with its plan to proliferate weapons and that its nuclear programme is only for peaceful use of nuclear energy. Nuclear weapons know no friends. If there are sanctions to check a threat against their proliferation by Iran how the free world can afford to remain silent on another country in the same region that is known for already the possession of a stock of such weapons? Can a problem be solved without going to its roots?

The hyprocrisy of the west is glaring and will not succeed in stopping spread of nuclear weapon when Israel is being helped to become stronger as a nuclear power. The Muslim countries in the Middle East cannot be expected to remain helpless against nuclear threat from belligerent Israel. It is a relief that President Bush's visit to Europe is a farewell visit as President of the United States.