British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the US Capitol today. His message on Iran was, well, incomplete: “And our shared message to Iran is simple – we are ready for you to rejoin the world community. But first, you must cease your threats and suspend your nuclear programme. And we will work tirelessly with all those in the international community who are ready to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation.” Iran does not have to cease its support for terrorist groups, apparently, so long as stops with the threats and the nukes. So supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and yes, al Qaeda, is “not a barrier to rejoining the world community.” Hillary Clinton, in comments today in Brussels, at least mentioned terrorism, even if her language was weak. But she breezed right by that troubling detail to announce, once again, that the Obama administration wants to engage Iran. “It is clear that Iran intends to interfere with the internal affairs of all of these people and try to continue their efforts to fund terrorism whether it is Hezbollah or other proxies. We have said consistently that we are ready to engage but we want to make sure it is constructive and that goes for Afghanistan and it goes for all the rest of the region.” Iran is, in fact, funding terrorism — not just “making efforts to fund terrorism.” Secretary Clinton would know this if she consulted the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror.
And, as former CIA Director Mike Hayden put it before he left: “It is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to the highest levels of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq.” Engagement is not an end in itself. And ignoring this reality in order to sit across the table from the Iranians may be a lot of things, but it is surely not “constructive.”
