Australia needs to do more to stop a nuclear Iran: expert
Naomi Levin
AUSTRALIA can do more to pressure Iran into halting its nuclear weapons program, according to counterterrorism expert Dr Matt Levitt.
Dr Levitt, director of The Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, was brought to Australia by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council for a whirlwind tour of Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
Speaking in Melbourne last week, he praised the Rudd Government’s sanctions against Iran, but said there was more Australia could do. He recommended adding Bank Melat to the list of Iranian banks banned from conducting transactions with Australia.
Bank Melat, along with two other banks on the banned list, played a key role in financing Iran’s nuclear program, he said.
“Australia could also use its leverage with countries like South Korea, where Bank Melat has its Asian branch,” Dr Levitt said.
It could use its leverage with Malaysia [where] small Malaysian banks are picking up some of the international bank transfer services for some of the Iranian banks.” Speaking to The AJN the day after Iran had successfully test-fired a medium-range missile, he said it was not too late to give up using diplomacy as a persuasive tool.
Dr Levitt said no-one knows whether “targeted sanctions, military presence in the Gulf or engagement … will work on their own”, but what is certain, he added, is that “it is not an either or it really is a package deal”. Dr Levitt, who formerly worked as a senior official in intelligence and analysis in the US Treasury, said US President Barack Obama was going into negotiations with Iran with his “eyes wide open”.
He said the US wanted to create leverage for diplomacy by using sanctions and added that “ratcheted up” sanctions were more likely to succeed now that Iran was feeling the effects of the financial crisis.
“In terms of targeting the Iranian economy, especially now the international financial crisis has hit Iran as well -— oil is now far below US$100 a barrel, and when oil was over $US100 a barrel Iran could legitimately say it could weather the storm, now it is not clear they can,” he said. Dr Levitt, who met with government advisers and counterterrorism experts in Australia, said despite Iran not being in Australia’s immediate sphere of interest, the federal Government was aware of the dangers.
“The consequences of a war with Iran, of any type, or strike against the nuclear facilities, would be significant and would be felt worldwide, much the same way that a housing crisis in middle America now affects you in Melbourne no less than it does me in the suburbs of Washington.”
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