There are just four sentences one needs to read in the AP’s account of Iran’s return of their British hostages:

Iran’s release of the eight sailors and seven marines raised hopes among some that Tehran might be open to compromise on other matters, particularly Western demands for a halt to Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

But Iran already was warning it would retaliate if the West pushed too hard, and U.S. officials intensified their criticism of Tehran after restraining their comments during the 13-day standoff over the British naval crew.
…
Countries ranging from Syria to Colombia pressed Iran for the release of the crew, whose capture began at the start of the two-week Iranian new year celebrations.

“By the time the senior Iranian leaders were getting back from their holiday, they were finding that their phone was ringing off the hook and they were finding that an awful lot of countries — including some quarters they weren’t expecting — were ringing them and saying they were in the wrong place and they should be releasing the people quickly,” [a British] official said, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The whole hostage episode was a diplomatic sideshow, and observers should not think Iran has wavered from their nuclear grand strategy. The only thing that got the Brits released so soon was pressure from within the region, and so long as Iran aspires to dominate the region, regional pressures are all that matter.

And the supporters of diplomacy are wrong, America currently has no real options for dealing with Iran. OTB mistakenly thinks there’s something useful that can be done with Iran, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 and is filed under Iran, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.