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April 10, 2007
An Ignored Addendum to Bolton on Britain vs Iran
Over at LGF, they link to this:
Britain's "weakness" in standing up to Iran in the detained sailors stand-off handed Tehran an improbable victory and left it dangerously emboldened, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Monday.Iran was deliberately probing for allied weaknesses and found them in abundance, Bolton wrote in a hard-hitting article in the Financial Times newspaper.
"Against all odds, Iran emerged with a win-win from the crisis: winning by its provocation in seizing the hostages in the first place and winning again by its unilateral decision to release them," wrote the 2005-2006 US ambassador to the United Nations.
I think overriding opinion is that Iran came out on top of this whole miserable incident, image-wise. Visiting my usual haunts yesterday, I found there was actually QUITE a handsome payoff for the Iranians as they roiled international waters ~ from all of us.
So, what did Iran get out of holding on to 15 British sailors and marines for some 10 days?A lot of attention from the West, that's for sure -- and possibly an extra $167 million in oil revenue.
No, there wasn't a ransom paid, but the standoff did push the price of crude oil abruptly higher around the world.
So how long before they're back in their shrimp boats with nets, looking for another $100 million or so to help pay off that Russian reactor?
Posted by tree hugging sister at April 10, 2007 11:09 AM