U.N. SANCTIONS MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR ISRAEL AND U.S. TO ATTACK IRAN – FOR NOW.

The latest round of sanctions levelled against Iran by the United Nations Security Council in many ways is a victory for Iran. The decision has at least saved Iran from immediate attack by the US and Israel. Russia and China, by supporting the sanctions and whose support was vital for the sanctions to be approved, has saved Iran from being attacked – at least for now.

The sanctions are unlikely to badly affect the average Iranian and will have little effect on the Iranian economy.

Despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UNs nuclear monitor, has still not found any evidence that Iran has a nuclear program, the US and Israel continue to claim Iran does have such a program. While the IAEA have not found any evidence, nor have the US or Israel presented any evidence to support their claim.

The only items that the IAEA claimed to have found that have anything to do with ‘nuclear weapons’ are a few “sketches and a video that appear to have come from Iran’s own military laboratories” that are indicative of nuclear research, according to Olli Heinonen, a senior IAEA inspector. A ‘few sketches and a video’ seems to me to be more indicative of a crude attempt to set up the Iranians than the advanced nuclear program that the US and Israel have claimed Iran has been working on for years.

Unfortunately, all the latest round of sanctions achieves is putting off the inevitable. It does not change Israel’s need for regime change in Iran. Israel and the US will now need to find some other ‘casus belli’ to attack Iran. Perhaps increased interference in Iraq or sophisticated Iranian weaponry finding its way into Hamas and Hezbollah hands and used against the Israelis. Time will tell, but meanwhile, the Israelis will be sure to continue to provoke the Palestinians in the Gaza toward that end just as soon as Condoleeza Rice has departed the region after discussing a new strategy of how to attack Iran.