Madam, - Could anything be calculated more to inflame tensions in the Middle East, or to thwart diplomatic efforts to calm the situation, than for the US president to use an appearance on Israeli TV to threaten Iran with military action if it did not discontinue its nuclear programme?
The US is the only state ever to have used nuclear weapons. Israel, a state created by the will of the international community through the United Nations, secretly developed one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world contrary to the wishes of the world community, yet the US makes no criticism whatever of Israel's nuclear capability. Iran's military history in the past 25 years is dominated by the protracted aggressive war waged on it by Iraq, when Saddam Hussein was the client of the America of Reagan and Rumsfeld.
There seem to be double standards in US policy on Middle East nuclear programmes, since the policy seems to take no account of the actual distribution of nuclear technology in the region. Could we really be looking at the cynical manipulation of international tension to keep oil prices surging to the benefit of certain business interests? - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN,
Stratford on Slaney,
Co Wicklow.