Thursday Iran Talking Points

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for December 2nd, 2010:

Commentary: Abe Greenwald writes on Commentary’s Contentions blog that the Obama administration’s “paralysis” in responding to North Korea’s recent artillery attack on South Korea “makes one thing clear: we cannot, for any reason, allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.” Greenwald warns that, “If guessing at Kim Jong-il’s motives makes fools of us all, just imagine trying to react to a nuclear theocratic thug-state perpetually sponsoring regional terror and frozen in a cold domestic revolution.” While Pyongyang might settle for talks or further aid, he argues Iran’s leaders seek only to destroy the United States and Israel.

The Weekly Standard: Thomas Joscelyn blogs that WikiLeaks cables have shown a link between Iran and al-Qaeda. Citing a cable which summarizes a conversation with Saudia Arabia’s Prince Nayif bi Abdulaziz, Joscelyn points to Iran’s alleged hosting Osama bin Laden’s youngest son, Ibrahim bin Laden. Joscelyn rather looks into this and finds “There is little publicly-available information on him. However, U.S. intelligence officials contacted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD say that he is quickly rising through al Qaeda’s ranks – just like his brothers.” He concludes, “The State Department’s September 2009 cable is just the latest U.S. government document released by WikiLeaks that connects Iran and al Qaeda.”

National Review Online: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies president, Clifford May, writes that when being frisked at the airport it’s important to remember that “jihadi terrorists are the enemy” and thus responsible for our privacy invasions — and not the TSA. May segues into the warning that “the Islamic Republic of Iran has long been the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism,” and takes a swipe at Turkey. “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been moving closer to Iran’s rulers even as they have unleashed waves of repression against Iranian dissenters,” he writes. May concludes, “For the traveling public, that means directing our anger not at the TSA but at the Islamist terrorists…who see[s] the airport as a field of battle in the great war of the 21st century.”