David Miliband is Britain’s foreign secretary.

Iran’s nuclear program, and the world’s reaction to it, raise the most profound questions about the strength of international law, the purpose of the United Nations and the rights of states that feel threatened by others. More prosaically, Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a potential flashpoint for war in the Middle East.

…Then there is an Iran whose economy is a mess. Despite sitting on the world’s second largest gas reserves, it imports gas. Corruption is rife — Transparency International ranks Iran 168 out of 180 countries. According to the I.M.F. it has the highest brain drain in the world.

…The nuclear issue cuts to the future of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and the future of the Middle East. Gulf countries would likely join the nuclear bandwagon if Iran goes nuclear. Israel has made it clear that it sees a nuclear Iran as an existential threat and would act if necessary in its self-defense. The consequences of both would be devastating.

To avoid this we need action that shows unity and resolve. That is one reason I went to China last week. The U.N. Security Council needs to take seriously its responsibilities, not just countries such as Britain and China but non-permanent members such as Brazil and Turkey.

…Sceptics say sanctions can be blunt; that Iran would never accept humiliation; and that Iran is still some way from a nuclear capability. All are true — but not the point. Sanctions can be blunt, but they can also be targeted, on the financial system, on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and on nuclear technology. The offer on the table, proposed in June 2008 and still waiting for a reply, allows Iran to claim the rights enjoyed by other states. But with those rights come responsibilities, and Iran’s refusal to clarify its activities means that there is a fundamental lack of confidence in its assertions that the program is for peaceful purposes.

Sanctions are not a silver bullet. But that is not the test. The question is whether targeted, proportionate and reversible sanctions would add to the pressure inside this complex and teeming society for a more sensible attitude on the nuclear issue. I believe they would, that they are needed urgently, and that they can help avert one of the most dangerous flashpoints in world politics today.

Free Iran:  It seems unlikely that any UN sponsored sanction(s) would  persuade this regime to give up on its nuclear pursuit. By focusing so much on the international sanctions for the nuclear issue, Mr. Miliband is falling for the regime’s diversionary tactics.  England, America and their willing Western allies need to focus on unilateral sanctions that focus on the regime’s oil income and tie these sanctions NOT to the nuclear issue but to the Iranian people’s struggle for democracy and human rights.   If the oil income is not cut off, all other sanctions wouldn’t make much of a difference.   Unilateral sanctions, targeted on the regime’s oil income and tied to human rights – that’s the ticket.

Go to NY Times.

The West needs to convince ordinary Iranians that it cares as much about peace in the Middle East and political freedom inside Iran as it does about the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, Britain’s envoy to the United States said in a speech today before Jewish leaders in Miami, Florida. Free Iran: Absolutely!

The address by British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald appeared calculated to reinforce the Obama administration’s attempts to prod Israel into pursuing a new round of political talks with the Palestinians. He also called for greater patience to allow U.S. and European governments time to show they can rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions without resorting to the use of force.

“We need to work with our allies in the region to contain Iran’s unhelpful influence and increase the price to Iran of its dangerous behavior. Properly handled, this can help us on the nuclear file,” Sheinwald told a gathering of the American Jewish Committee of Miami/Broward County. “Most importantly, progress on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians will … help squeeze Iranian political space.”

The call for patience comes as the U.N. Security Council appears stalled by China from moving ahead on a new round of sanctions. France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said it may take until June before the council can approve new sanctions.

Sheinwald said that Tehran’s motivation for pursuing an alleged nuclear weapons program has roots in Iraq’s use of chemical and ballistic missiles against Iranian targets during the Iran-Iraq war. The experience, he said, “left many Iranians feeling that they needed their own deterrent. The nuclear issue is a nationalist issue inside Iran.”

…Sheinwald said that financial and economic sanctions have hit Iran where it hurts — in the financial sector and oil sectors. The oil industry –which accounts for 80 percent of Iran’s exports and 50 percent of government revenues — saw a 10 percent decline in levels of production and exports. And Iranian banks have seen a steep decline in international business. For instance, Bank Sepah has seen an 80 percent drop in foreign exchange transactions and a 100 percent drop in lines of credit.

“I am acutely conscious that we are up against an Iranian nuclear clock and that the Iranians remain defiant,” he said. “But in international relations there are rarely overnight solutions to complex problems, and patience is usually a virtue.”

Go to Foreign Policy.

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Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on the “paranoid” Iranian regime to respect its people’s “basic human rights”.

Iran has cut links with the British Museum over its failure to lend the Islamic Republic an ancient Persian treasure, Iranian media reported on Saturday, in the latest sign of worsening relations between the two countries.

Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organisation said in October it had set a two-month deadline for the British Museum to allow the public display in Iran of the so-called Cyrus Cylinder, linked to the Persian ruler’s 6th century BC conquest of Babylon.

The museum, which houses a vast collection of world art and artefacts, said in September that plans to hand over the 2,500-year-old clay cylinder had been delayed due to unspecified “practicalities.”

Hamid Baqaie, head of the state Cultural Heritage Organisation, said the museum had failed to meet the deadline, ISNA news agency reported. He said it had offered to deliver the cylinder by July instead but that this was not acceptable.

“The Cultural Heritage Organisation has cut all its relations and cooperation with the British Museum,” he said, adding the move concerned archaeological, exhibition and research cooperation. Go to Reuters.

Liam Fox described the threat posed by Iran as the “single most important issue facing the West” and added that 2010 was the year in which the Islamic state had to be confronted.

Mr Fox said that while military action would be in “no one’s interest”, he maintained that the use of force was an option which “must remain on the table” if Iran developed nuclear weapons.

Defence sources said an attack on Iran would be likely to consist of a missile attack rather than an Iraq-style invasion, with nuclear and uranium enrichment sites being targeted by cruise missiles launched from submarines and aeroplanes.

Britain could play a direct role – the Royal Navy has ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and could provide early warning aircraft and tankers for in-flight refuelling for other aircraft taking part in an operation. Go to Telegraph.

Source: The blog of Mr. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary of the UK

Yet again the eyes of the world are on Iran. Yet again for all the wrong reasons.

1 February marked the start of the 10 Days of Dawn, commemorating the return to Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 and the victory of the Islamic Revolution on 11 February. In a blatant attempt to cow the opposition movement ahead of the 31st  anniversary of the Revolution, the Iranian regime has resorted to a chilling campaign of threats and intimidation in the form of mass arrests, executions and calls for hangings to quell demonstrations. Reports that nine people will be executed imminently in connection with the post election unrest are utterly deplorable.

This in response to peaceful calls for democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms. These are not western prerogatives, but universal rights to which we are all entitled. We in the international community will continue to speak out in defence of those who are killed, arrested or brutalised in the name of free speech and freedom of expression.  We have a right to do so, and a duty. The people of Iran have legitimate concerns which their government must address.  Such brutality and hateful rhetoric can only serve to further erode whatever remains of the fragile bond of trust between the Iranian regime and its people.

IND:  Thank you, Mr. Miliband.

Gordon Brown has called for further sanctions against Iran as a test of the international community’s “strength”.

The prime minister said Iran was continuing to defy the UN in seeking to develop nuclear weapons “under the cover” of a civil nuclear programme.

If Tehran did not start to co-operate, it must be “isolated”, he told MPs.

Mr Brown said he was “shocked” by reports Iran may execute nine more people accused of inciting violence after last year’s disputed election.

‘Essential action’

He said Tehran had a duty to respect the right of its citizens to peaceful protest.

Facing questions from senior MPs, Mr Brown said he believed the time had come for further sanctions against Iran for its continued defiance of the UN over its nuclear programme.

Mr Brown said a “balance” had to be struck between concerns that sanctions would harm ordinary Iranians and the need to send a clear message to the Iranian leadership, insisting that the international community’s fight was not with the Iranian people.

Diplomats suggested on Tuesday that the UK, Germany, France and the US hoped to blacklist Iran’s central bank and firms linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Go to BBC.

Iran is reviewing all areas of co-operation with Britain in the wake of calls by its MPs to cut diplomatic relations, its foreign minister has said. Go to Telegraph.

IND:  An excellent backgrounder on conspiracy theories in Iran.  By projecting the blame onto others, this cancer is preventing Iranians from judging their own mistaken actions.  Personally, I seldom discuss politics with Iranians above 60.  The aggravation is not worth it.  If you are not an Iranian and want to follow Iranian politics, this is an absolute must read.

Iranian conspiracy theories are above all centred on the British, and an obsession with a pervasive, quasi-omnipotent British power, a siasat-e engelis, dates back at least to the start of the 20th century. This obsession reached the very highest levels: Reza Shah, Iran’s first Pahlavi monarch, suspected his own son of working as a British agent. In turn, when that son Muhammad Reza became shah he blamed the British for virtually every international incident, according to the diaries of Asadollah Alam, his confidant and minister of court. Muhammad Reza was even convinced that Muhammad Mosaddeq, leader of the anti-British oil nationalisation movement, was a British employee.

Conspiracy theories persist under the republic: lift up Khomeini’s beard – so the popular joke goes – and you’ll find it stamped “Made in England”. Years back, a diplomatic friend told me of a meeting in Qom with senior clerics who appealed for Jack Straw to change some aspect or other of Iranian domestic policy, seemingly convinced – despite the diplomat’s protestations – that Britain actually had this level of control over domestic Iranian affairs. Others have told me similar stories from ambassadors and other members of Iran’s political elite, as well as from the regime’s apparatchiks more generally.

IND:  Excellent suggestion. In engaging with Iran and its leadership the international community should be mindful of this conspiracy mentality. They must be transparent and candid in their dealings with Iran. They should be open in their opposition to Iran’s violence against peaceful protest which patently contravenes treaties including the UN international covenant on civil and political rights of which Iran is a signatory. Go to Guardian.

Emotional reunion with relatives at Heathrow hotel this morning for men held after straying into Iranian waters. Go to Guardian.

The British authorities said Wednesday that Iran has released five sailors detained after their 60-foot racing yacht apparently drifted into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on the way to a race.

A Foreign Office spokesman in London, speaking in return for customary anonymity, said the men had been released and their yacht, Kingdom of Bahrain, was being towed to international waters where it would be met by race organizers. Go to NY Times.

A sleek 60-foot sailing yacht and its five-member British crew en route to a race were seized by Iran last week after the vessel accidentally crossed into Iranian waters, British and racing officials said Monday. The episode could further strain the volatile relations between Iran and Western nations. Go to NY Times.

Europe has joined in condemnation of the jail sentence handed down to Hossein Rassam, a British embassy worker accused of fomenting violence in protests after the disputed election in Iran. Go to Telegraph.

The corrosive mistrust that festers between Iran and the West stretches from the British and US-backed coup of 1953 to the present day, with continuing covert foreign programmes aimed at regime change. British intelligence sources strongly deny Iranian assertions that Britain is backing the Sunni rebel group behind the weekend’s suicide attack on the Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan. Washington also denies involvement.

In 2005, the year that the opposition Jundallah turned to violence, Washington began the latest covert programme of lending assistance to Iranian militant opposition groups, hoping to effect regime change from within.

In 2007 President Bush requested, and received, a budget of $400 million from Congress to back such groups violently opposing the Islamic regime — among them Jundallah and the Mujahidin e-Khalq. The latter, although proscribed by the State Department as a terror organisation, has proved valuable in passing intelligence on Iran’s nuclear programme, including the 2002 reports of a secret nuclear plant at Natanz that blew the lid on Iran’s current nuclear programme. The group, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has an office in London. Go to Times UK.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards today vowed to take revenge against Britain and the United States whom he claims backed the group that killed six commanders.

Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guards commander-in-chief, said that he had seen documents indicating direct ties between Jundollah, which carried out yesterday’s suicide bombing in southern Iran, and the US, British and “unfortunately” the Pakistani intelligence organisations. The explosion killed 42 people.

The incident threatens to overshadow talks between Iran and global powers in Vienna today about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them,” Mr Jafari said, according to the ISNA news agency. Go to Times UK.