IRAN BECOMES THE REGIONAL SUPERPOWER?

A British Conservative MP has admitted saber rattling and sanctions are “having no effect whatsoever” on Iran saying everyone should quit “yesterday’s policies and recognize “Iran’s status as a regional superpower.”
“The policy of saber rattling and sanctions has not worked. They are yesterday’s policies. Iran is not going to be deterred from pursuing its nuclear program,” said John Baron in an interview with Russia Today news channel.
“I think we have to be realistic. The present policies have failed. The present policies are heightening tensions. What we want is now to pull back from any chances of military conflict and take a fresh look at the situation and adopt a fresh approach which I think should include an implicit recognition of Iran’s status as a regional superpower,” he added.

• Baron further stressed resorting to the option of military force against Iran over its peaceful nuclear program entails disaster stressing the responsibility for any conflict in the region would lie with the US, the Israeli regime and their allies, including Britain.
• “I think we all know that a military strike by Israel or anybody else would be a disaster for the region. It would ignite Iranian fury. It would not work,” he said.
• His remarks come as ‘taking no options off the table’ has become a familiar part of the rhetoric by the most senior British politicians, including Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague, over the past months.
• Cameron repeated the policy line in his joint press conference with US president Barack Obama on Wednesday saying “the President and I have said nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran.
• Baron also suggested, any attack on Iran, far from producing any results, would be illegal, “naïve” and “illogical” as there is no substantive evidence supporting the western accusations that Iran is pursuing nukes.
• “We’ve got first of all to look at the evidence. The latest IAEA report says … there is no clear substantive evidence of the nuclear weapons program or of a decision to pursue on,” he said.
• He also warned that nuclear accusations against Iran based on “circumstantial evidence” would set in motion another public deception similar to the one that led to the invasion of Iraq stressing the claimed evidence should be made public “before we even think about going down this road.”

Baron then called for a diplomatic solution to the west’s self-produced nuclear stand-off with Iran saying western governments need to engage with Tehran while ending denial of “the reality of Iran’s power.”
“And what the US must do is put behind it, its antagonism towards Iran which sort of defines this crisis, try to engage and realize and offer implicit recognition of Iran’s status as a regional superpower,” he said.

Source: Press TV