The Toronto Star, "No option but to engage the Iranian regime"

This article appeared in the Toronto Star on June 25 2009. My letter to the editor, copied below, was published in the Star on June 28 2009.

Siddiqui strongly underestimates the severe threat Iran poses. Currently, Iran is pushing for greater control in the Middle East through a variety of mechanisms. Iran retains its strong alliance with Syria, the only remaining state fighting Israel (other than Lebanon). Iran funds Syrian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, an arrangement worth keeping for Syria, who is then able to maintain the Lebanese border as an active military front against Israel and ensure her presence in the Middle East security complex.

Iran has maintained its ties with the Shiites in Iraq, when the Hussein secular ba’ath ideology posed a threat to the religious Shiites and Iran uses these relations to threaten the American motives in Iraq.

This Iranian regime has been brutal. When Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2005, Iran filled in the gaps of the international community, who refused to recognize Hamas, and provided Hamas with military supplies and medical assistance, which it continues to do today. This fosters great instability in the region as Iranian arms allow Hamas and Hezbollah to carry out their destructive activities.

Iran’s hardline leaders shape her foreign policy and these hard-liners will never end their hatred for American interests, evident by the burning of American and European flags yesterday in Iran. Let's not engage a regime that is responsible for the murder of innocent civilians.

Iran is heading towards a bomb and frankly, I’m scared for it to go off.