March 11, 2012 | 7:25 am

March 11, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano (Photo: Reuters)

U.N. Won’t Back Down on Iran Nuclear Inspections

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano speaks to The Daily Beast about the UN agency’s policy on Iran.

In his first report, in February 2010, Amano clearly spoke about “concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.” He continued in this vein, issuing a detailed 12-page annex to a report in November that outlined Iran’s alleged weapons work.

A Misreading of Law and History on Preemptive Strikes

While the United States does have a tradition of preemptive military action, a strike on Iran involves consideration of many complex issues other than its legality, writes Peter Berkowitz in Real Clear Politics. 

Whether to launch a strike to destroy or disable Iran’s nuclear program is the weightiest decision Obama and Netanyahu face. It depends on multilayered judgments about the efficacy of diplomacy and sanctions, windows of opportunity for military action, and how far the program can be set back at this late stage.

How Not to Intervene in Syria

The international community has no ideal solution for the horrors unfolding in Syria, writes Aaron David Miller for Foreign Policy.

The takeaway from any honest and unforgiving analysis of Syria produces a series of options that range from bad to worse. So we continue to play at the margins. We can’t significantly ease the humanitarian crisis, unify the opposition, and stop the killing—let alone get rid of the Assads.

David Grossman Speaks Out Against War With Iran

One of Israel’s most respected novelists tells Larry Derfner for The Nation why, should diplomacy fail, he believes Israel must learn to live with a nuclear Iran.

“If Israel bombs Iran,” he said, “I think it will be seen as an arrogant, megalomaniacal, violent nation even by the most sober, moderate Iranians.” Israel’s hope for peace, or even just quiet, with a future, better Iranian government “would be eradicated for generations.”

Palestinians Elections: Postponed Again

The Palestinian inability to hold elections is a further setback for the stagnant peace process, writes Elliott Abrams in the Council on Foreign Relations.

President Abbas is in the seventh year of his four year term. Just as the advance of electoral democracy in 2005 (when Abbas was chosen as president after Arafat’s death, in a free election) advanced the cause of Palestinian statehood, the inability to hold an election or form a government must raise questions about moving toward Palestinian statehood.

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