Iran crisis: Paging Angela Merkel

It is now official: Iran and the international community are on a collision course. Watching the news at lunchtime, the Western response seemed to consist of a John Bolton statement to camera and a written statement by Jack Straw. But the Brits and the Yanks should take a back seat on this one. Rightly or ...

It is now official: Iran and the international community are on a collision course. Watching the news at lunchtime, the Western response seemed to consist of a John Bolton statement to camera and a written statement by Jack Straw. But the Brits and the Yanks should take a back seat on this one. Rightly or wrongly, Iraq has left the world feeling that these two countries are too keen to go to war and manipulate intelligence to that end. Whenever they say anything on Iran people are going to suspect that it is a prelude to military action. The speed at which the Seymour Hersh piece shot round the globe is evidence of this.

The Western spokesperson on Iran should be the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She is not tainted by Iraq, her presence stresses the broadness of the coalition, and for obvious historical reasons it doesn’t seem trite when Merkel compares Ahmadinejad to Hitler or talks of the dangers of appeasing an anti-Semitic madman.

It is now official: Iran and the international community are on a collision course. Watching the news at lunchtime, the Western response seemed to consist of a John Bolton statement to camera and a written statement by Jack Straw. But the Brits and the Yanks should take a back seat on this one. Rightly or wrongly, Iraq has left the world feeling that these two countries are too keen to go to war and manipulate intelligence to that end. Whenever they say anything on Iran people are going to suspect that it is a prelude to military action. The speed at which the Seymour Hersh piece shot round the globe is evidence of this.

The Western spokesperson on Iran should be the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She is not tainted by Iraq, her presence stresses the broadness of the coalition, and for obvious historical reasons it doesn’t seem trite when Merkel compares Ahmadinejad to Hitler or talks of the dangers of appeasing an anti-Semitic madman.

Merkel gets a hearing from people who just stick their fingers in their ears when Bush and Blair start talking. Her involvement should also help prevent an Iraq style trans-Atlantic split and illustrate to the Russians that there are no Western divisions to exploit this time. We already have proof that Merkel can play this role. At the Munich Security Conference in February, Merkel gave a blisteringly good speech along these lines which received much positive press coverage around the globe. Ultimately the only way to stop Iran getting the bomb might be through military action. But the appalling costs of that mean that it is worth exhausting every diplomatic possibility first. The West's aim should be to follow the lead of the Rolling Stones: “Angie, Angie, they can’t say we never tried.”

Update: Great Minds Think Alike, Fools Seldom Differ. Reading the transcript of Bush's presser, it seems like the president sees Merkel as the ideal point person on Iran: "I spoke to Chancellor Merkel this morning about this issue. She will be coming to Washington next week." Bush should let Merkel hog the limelight on this one.

James Forsyth is assistant editor at Foreign Policy.

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