Mennonite
Central
Committee

Fork in the road

Daryl Byler
October 10, 2006

The day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in New York with a group of U.S. religious leaders hastily assembled by Mennonite Central Committee, a senior State Department official began prepping U.S. Senators for a major confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"Iran's regime poses a complex threat to an array of fundamental American interests in the Middle East and across the world," Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sept. 19.

"The United States has no higher priority than facing and overcoming this threat," he testified. Burns -- considered a moderate voice in the administration -- insisted that Iran refuses "to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

In his hour-long exchange with nearly 45 Christian and Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad confirmed that Iran is pursuing a nuclear energy program, but flatly denied that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. He said that principles of the Islamic faith are fundamentally opposed to the production and use of nuclear weapons.

"Our nation does not need a nuclear weapon," he continued. "They cannot bring strength to nations. Otherwise the former Soviet Union would have used them to prevent its demise."

Ahmadinejad said that all nations should work toward nuclear disarmament and called for a uniform standard of inspections for all countries with nuclear energy programs. He said Iranians are tired of what they see as double standards and domination in U.S. practices and policies.

Fear is driving the current U.S. response to Iran. Some U.S. lawmakers are even calling for U.S. military strikes against Iran's suspected nuclear sites. They recognize that the consequences of bombing Iran could be devastating, but believe the consequences of Iran possessing a nuclear weapon are even worse.

The situation is eerily similar to events before the United States invaded Iraq. A senior Iraqi government official told our MCC delegation in May 2002, "We do not have weapons of mass destruction. Tell your members of Congress to come and see for themselves."

At the time, the Bush administration was convinced otherwise. It is now clear that their fears were founded on faulty intelligence.

Will it happen again? Will the United States go to war against Iran on the pretext of nuclear weapons? When pressed, U.S. officials admit that the intelligence on Iran's nuclear program is not compelling.

But the United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relationship for the past 27 years, and the trust level is extremely low.

We are at a fork in the road.

On the one hand, Ahmadinejad and Bush seem to be grasping for a hopeful way forward. In May, Ahmadinejad sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, calling for direct talks. And in a recent White House interview, Bush sounded unusually conciliatory towards Iran. These are hopeful signs.

But on the other hand, these two proud leaders seem to be repelling each other. Both gave fiery speeches at the United Nations in late September.

Choices made in the next six months will have ripple effects for good or harm that will span multiple decades.

There's a fork in the road. The impulses for peace and for destruction reside side by side. My hope and prayer is that Bush's and Ahmadinejad's better impulses will win out.

 

 

J. Daryl Byler is the director of MCC's Washington Office.