With over a tenth of the world’s oil reserves in their hands, and a location which gives them the ability to disrupt energy traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the mullahs controlling Iran don’t appear to be particulary moved by the oratorial efforts to stop them from developing a nuclear program. It seems that world leaders have forgotten their Mother Goose, particularly the part about “sticks and stones”.
Iran has bought itself a third of humanity and a veto on the U.N. Security Council by signing big energy deals with China and India, so the chance of sanctions passing is so small as to be laughable.
Some illustrations of who the world is dealing with:
A regime that during the Iran-Iraq war utilized thousands of children as human mine clearers:
“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. “Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.” (Strongly recommend reading the whole article.)
A regime that has announced it has 40,000 suicide bombers ready and waiting for activation.
Iranian dissident Amir Taheri writes:
“Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed “the nuclear club,” President Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tete-a-tete) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into “grand occultation” in 941. Last year, after another khalvat, Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency to provoke a “clash of civilizations” in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the “infidel” West, led by the U.S., and defeats it in a prolonged contest that sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war [...]
“Ahmadinejad has also reactivated Iran’s network of Shia organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen, while resuming contact with Sunni fundamentalist groups in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. From childhood, Shia boys are told to cultivate two qualities. The first is entezar, the capacity patiently to wait for the Imam to return. The second is taajil, the actions needed to hasten the return. For the Imam’s return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear.”