Roger Boyes in the Times, on the increasing tensions between Israel and Iran, and the unfortunate "boy-scoutish" naivete of the new US administration:
Perhaps the most dangerous factor in the mix is the hubris of a US administration that has yet to accept that 2021 is not 2015. It craves an Obamian restoration, a return to what it sees as the golden age of diplomacy. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, said this week: “If Biden is able to exit Afghanistan, end US participation in the Yemen war and return to the Iran deal it could be a transformative year in terms of ending the post-9/11 era and restoring diplomacy as the principal means of engagement.”
It was a liberal cry from the heart but also described the hub of the problem. Exiting Afghanistan will mean handing Kabul to the Taliban and almost certainly the crushing of women’s rights, a comeback for public floggings and a safe haven yet again for jihadists. And there is something boy-scoutish about his belief that returning to the Iran deal, the lifting of sanctions, will lead to a situation where Tehran abandons its aggressive attempts to dominate the region. As for “ending the post-9/11 era”, what that will mean in practice is inviting Russia and China to fill the gaps left by American retreat.
It is rash to assume that any Iranian government, any future supreme leader, will abandon the dream of nuclear weapons. Tackling that threat demands realism rather than bluster about transformative policy-making. And as far as Israel is concerned it means making clear, with its extraordinary clandestine campaign of derring-do, that Iran will pay a huge cumulative price for its sprint towards the bomb.
Meanwhile, in further boy-scoutish news, the UN has just elected Iran to a four year term on its Commission on the Status of Women, an organization that claims to be the global champion for gender equality.
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