Former Mossad head Meir Dagan, who since leaving office last year has been
outspoken in his opposition to an Israeli strike at this time on Iran, joined
two other former intelligence heads, one American and the other German, in
writing in The Wall Street Journal Thursday that crushing new sanctions need to
be imposed against Tehran.
“As the Iranian regime races to fulfill its
nuclear ambitions, the world faces a stark choice,” read the
article.
“Our near future carries the risk of a military conflict with
Iran, or a nuclear arms race in the already volatile Middle East. It is still
possible to avoid these outcomes, but only if like-minded nations act
immediately to deliver a potentially decisive economic blow to the
regime.”
In addition to Dagan, the piece was signed by former German
intelligence chief August Hanning and former CIA head James Woolsey, as well as
Charles Guthrie, the former chief of staff of the British armed forces; former
US ambassador to the EU Kristen Silverberg; and Mark Wallace, the head of a
group called United Against Nuclear Iran and a former US diplomat at the
UN.
The group said that with stringent financial sanctions against Iran
recently imposed by the US and EU, including actions by the Swift international
banking consortium to block access to Iranian banks and the European ban on
Iranian oil to go into effect on July 1, now was the time for further sanctions
on four key areas to convince the Iranians of the world’s
determination.
The steps include completely cutting off Iran from the
international banking system, requiring business to disclose all investments and
transactions with Iran, denying Iran access to international shipping and
prohibiting insurance companies that do business with Tehran from doing business
in the EU and US.
“We cannot state with certainty that sanctions and
pressure will compel the Iranian regime to change course,” the piece
read.
“But it’s common sense that before undertaking military action
against a country, we should first try to dissuade it from its current course by
applying decisive economic pressure. Doing so will show the regime that the
world is serious and committed, willing to do whatever it takes to stop Iran’s
pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
The op-ed was published just ahead of the
upcoming talks in Baghdad next Wednesday between Iran and the world’s powers –
the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.