More on Iran

BTW, if you haven't already seen it, Oliver Kamm has a superb piece today on Iran. Here's the key point:

The likeliest way to increase tension and exacerbate Iran's obstructionism is to act as if the regime has done nothing wrong. Avoiding military action requires that the UN pressure Iran to abide by its international obligations as a signatory of the NPT.

...With concerted diplomatic pressure, sanctions and luck, our message might yet be effective. Iran has an extremist regime but, unlike North Korea or Ba'athist Iraq, is not a totalitarian state. Its civil society, according to anecdotal evidence from journalists and academics, contains much sympathy for the US; it may prove a potent ally in turning Iran away from support for terrorism and studied nuclear ambiguities. But, as Blair rightly maintained, western diplomacy cannot afford any "grand bargain" while the message remains unheeded.