Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the United States and the international community Monday to halt Iran’s nuclear program by refusing to export refined petroleum to that country.
If the United Nation’s Security Council fails to impose this kind of “crippling sanction” on Iran, then the US and the international community should take this step on their own, Netanyahu said, in a lengthy interview with ABC.
“If you stop… Iran from importing refined petroleum – that’s a fancy word for gasoline – then Iran simply doesn’t have refining capacity, and this regime comes to a halt. I think that’s crippling sanctions,” the prime minister said.
“Now if the UN Security Council doesn’t pass it because they’ll dilute the resolution to get acquiescence of their members, then certainly the United States and other willing partners in the international community can enforce these sanctions outside the Security Council,” he went on.
“There is a way to deliver these crippling sanctions. This should be done now,” Netanyahu asserted.
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People like me tend to focus on problems, mostly because we are interested in finding ways to address them and thereby improve the human condition. Nonetheless, we should occasionally remind ourselves that all is not doom-and-gloom. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the state of the world today, and maybe even about the future. The overall level of global violence is at historic lows (despite some tragic conflicts that still defy solution), the world economy has done very well over the past half-century (despite its recent problems) and life expectancy, public health, and education levels have risen dramatically in many parts of the world (though conditions in a few places have deteriorated badly).
So Cassandra-like pessimism may not be appropriate, even for a realist. Nonetheless, I am beginning to wonder if our
ability to deal with various global problems is decreasing, mostly due to the deterioration of political institutions at both the global and domestic level. Here are some tentative thoughts in that direction.
One way to think about the current state of world politics is as a ratio of the number of important problems to be solved and our overall "problem-solving capacity." When the ratio of "emerging problems" to "problem-solving capacity" rises, challenges pile up faster than we can deal with them and we end up neglecting some important issues and mishandling others. Something of this sort happened during the 1930s, for example, when a fatal combination of global economic depression, aggressive dictatorships, inadequate institutions, declining empires, and incomplete knowledge overwhelmed leaders around the world and led to a devastating world war.
Human society is not static, which means that new challenges are an inevitable part of the human condition. New problems arise from the growth of societies, from new ideas, from our interactions with the natural world, and even from the unintended consequences of past successes. As a result, policymakers are always going to face new problems, even when the old ones remain unresolved.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to boost U.S. military assistance to Yemen's special operations forces to lead an offensive targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, officials said on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in February authorized $150 million in security assistance for Yemen for fiscal 2010, up from $67 million last year, but the Pentagon has offered few details about the highly sensitive program.
Officials briefed on the matter said the Pentagon informed Congress that it would provide $34 million in "tactical assistance" to Yemen's special operations forces.
"Special Operations forces are uniquely qualified for counterterrorism missions," a U.S. defense official said of the funding. "The United States wants to work with partners in the region to address their terrorist threats."
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ERUSALEM—The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington's blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability.
Some officials here fear that Washington is willing to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, an eventuality that Israel says it won't accept. Compounding Israeli concerns were U.S. statements this past weekend that underscored U.S. resistance to a military option. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday discussed a memo to National Security Adviser James Jones warning that the U.S. needed new strategies, including how to contain a nuclear Iran—suggesting that Iran could reach nuclear capability without any foreign military force trying to stop it.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated Sunday the U.S. position that a military strike against Iran is a "last option."
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Turkey has offered to mediate between Iran and the West in the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.
The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, announced the offer after talks with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.
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