In an article entitled Iran & the Bomb in the New York Review of Books Christopher de Bellaigue explores the possibility of members of the international community imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran. He then spells out the consquences. If an embargo similar to the one imposed on Iraq were repeated, the result would be an increase in poverty in Iraq, an increase in oil prices, Iran blocking oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and destablization of the world economy.

Brian Adcock

de Bellaigue states that these consequences would make China and Russia, as members of the the Security Council, reluctant to agree to the US/UK request to impose sanctions. This then increases the likelihood of an Israeli or US air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The likelihood of the US bombing Iran to deprive it of its nuclear fuel cycle is increased by the Bush administration's division of the world into "friends" and "enemies"; those who are "with us" and those who are "against us". Buried beneath this division are double standards and a disregard for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Thus Washington's "friends" - eg, India, Pakistan, Israel - are allowed to enrich uranium, and/or even to possess nuclear weapons, whether they are signatories to the treaty or not. But Iran is part of an "axis of evil", despite being an NPT signatory with a perfectly legal right to develop a uranium fuel cycle. Therefore Iran has to be forced to submit to Washington's will.