Obama - Another Chamberlain?

The BBC News website reports that
"Iran agrees to curb nuclear activity"
Reading the detail one finds that:
"Iran has agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities in return for about £4.3bn ($7bn) in sanctions relief."
And in a statement, William Hague said that
"[The] Nuclear programme won't move forward for six months and parts [will be] rolled back"
Presumably the words in brackets were inserted by the BBC to clarify the statement, but why do they  assume that parts "will be rolled back" rather than "MIGHT be rolled back"?

The agreement was reached after John Kerry, presumably acting on Obama's  orders, joined the conference and somehow managed to placate the French who opposed the previous draft.
So Iran is going to stop enriching uranium for six months, and they might roll back some of their programme, although no details are give. In exchange the West is going to lift sanctions.

In that the other day Iran declared that it "has an inalienable right to enrich uranium", this doesn't seem to be a very good deal for the West. A six month's break in a project of this nature (even if it happens) is nothing and who knows what the lifting of sanctions will allow them to acquire. As far as I can see, there is no suggestion of any inspection scheme to confirm that the agreement is being kept, so it hardly seems to be worth the paper it's written on

Israel, quite rightly in my view, is angry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet it was a "historic mistake" and that "Today the world became a much more dangerous place".

To me, it is very much like the Munich agreement with Hitler promising "Peace in our time" with Israel being in the position of Poland. All we need now is Kerry or Hague getting off their aircraft and waving a piece of paper to provide the full Chamberlain scenario.

Revolution in the Middle East

I've been watching and reading the reports of the events in Egypt following those in Tunisia. Most of the media seem to interpret it as a cry from the "people" for democracy, and I hope this is so and they get what they seek.
However, I'm old enough to remember the revolution in Persia, aka Iran, and the eviction of the Shah from the "Peacock Throne". At the time there was similar rejoicing, particularly amongst the  anti-monarchists, but over the years it has become apparent that the change was hardly for the better with the country now controlled by self-appointed religious zealots who can veto any candidates for the so-called "free" elections.
To the extremist Muslims, Egypt has become an evil place over the years with its western style ambitions and freedom. This evil is compounded by the fact that Egypt has reached an accomodation with Israel.

We need to be very concerned that, in both Tunisia and Egypt, the extreme Islamists don't get control and we end up with another Iran just the width of the Mediterranean away from the EU.

Beware of celebrating too soon!