The key ingredient lacking in the current US administration's approach to the Iran nuclear enrichment impasse is a willingness to talk to the Iranian government. Only through dialogue could both sides determine how to repair relations, a former senior US official for non-proliferation said yesterday.
Speaking in Taipei, Robert Eihorn, former US assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation from 1999 to 2001, yesterday said "the key ingredient is our willingness to sit down with Iran and talk about the conditions under which we will be prepared to normalize relations with the regime currently in Tehran."
Eihorn is in Taiwan until Saturday on a five-day visit. He made the comments yesterday in a speech entitled "Can We Stop Nuclear Proliferation?" which was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foundation on International and Cross-Strait Studies.
Eihorn is a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Regarding the US' attitude toward solving the nuclear issue, Eihorn said that the administration of US President George W. Bush should seek "engagement" before resorting to tougher action with countries such as Iran and North Korea.
He said he disagreed with the Bush administration's view that regime change in North Korea and Iran was the preferable solution to stymie the nuclear ambitions of the two "rogue states."
"I think they [factions within the Bush administration] are fooling themselves," Eihorn said.
He said the Bush administration was not offering enough carrots to Iran and acting tough with the Iranian government would only exacerbate the feud as Tehran was unafraid of Western sanctions due to growing global demand for oil and soaring oil prices.
He said that in engaging with the Iranian regime, it should not only offer the carrot, but also strengthen the stick and obtain the support of the Russian and Chinese governments.
"Military means may be necessary for undeterrable groups. But military action can only be considered when diplomatic means have been exhausted," Eihorn said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift