US sticking to diplomacy on Iran, says UK envoy
October 1, 2007
“The outgoing British ambassador to the United States, Sir David Manning, insists the US remains committed to the diplomatic route over Iran rather than contemplating air strikes, despite recent sabre-rattling from the White House.”
This article from the Guardian seems to reinforce my opinion that the US is showing a strong hand, but holding weak cards. The IAEA have given the Neocons a very weak position to confront Iran; El Baradei, the head of the Atomic Agency, has gone to lengths to prevent any distortion of Iran’s dossier in favour of the US warmongers.
The extraneous factor is an Israeli confrontation with Syria (I don’t think that Israel has the ability to fly jets and bomb Iran and the failure of such a difficult mission would look very embarrassing indeed).
