Israel Matzav

Jawdropping statement of the day: NATO starting to take interest in Iran's nuclear program

This is amazing. The Jerusalem Post reports this morning that according to Israeli 'defense officials' NATO is starting to take interest in Iran's nuclear program. Starting to take interest? Where the ^%$#$ have they been for the last three years?

According to the official, Iran was, until now, a "taboo" issue for NATO and was rarely brought up in official functions and talks between member countries. The official said that recently senior military officials in NATO have expressed growing interest in the up-to-date Israeli assessment on Iran.

A diplomatic official said that Iran was a "sensitive issue" for NATO and that while there were certainly countries - like the United States - that would like to see possible NATO involvement on the issue, other members from Europe were so far preventing this from happening. [And to think, I thought that because NATO is the club of nations that is protected by the United States, the United States sets the agenda. Silly me. CiJ]

"There are people who want this issue to come up and want NATO to start talking about Iran," the official said. An important organization with great military capabilities, NATO, the official said, should at least begin to discuss the nuclear threat emanating from Iran even without connection to possible military action against the Islamic Republic.

"This should be on NATO's agenda," the official said. "But since NATO works by consensus among its members, countries have the ability to prevent discussions on certain issues."

Hey Europe, after the 'Saturday people,' Iran is going after the 'Sunday people.' And you - with your irredentist population of Muslims who can take care of you from within - are right after us on the list.

Message to the Bush administration: Time to re-assert control of NATO. You can't rely on Europe for anything.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:41 AM