Obama, Iran, Venezuela: Threat levels

by Mark Silva

Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, who attended the Summit of the Americas over the weekend, says that President Barack Obama "allowed a dialog to take place and a good spirit to animate the room.''

The Canadian leader, who shares the United States' and others' concerns about Iran and its nuclear intentions - a far greater threat than any challenge that, say, Venezuela poses -- also suggests that Obama has not weakened the U.S. hand by reaching out and shaking the hand of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the summit in Trinidad.

"I thought the president's approach of not being pulled down to a level of confrontation by states like Venezuelan - I thought he did that in a way that represented a remarkable sense of human openness without in any compromising other countries like Canada that share the values of the United States,'' Harper said in a conference call with reporters this morning, including Tribune's Washington Bureau. "The United States is bigger than Venezuela. In the end the United States is the United States.''

Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House and Republican with his own view of such things, sees the summit quite differently:

"This administration is opposed to looking for oil in America, but bows to the Saudi king, embraces the Venezuelan dictator, I think it's a very unhealthy strategy for us,'' Gingrich said in an appearance on FOX and Friends this morning. "We want America to be strong enough to ignore Chavez, and frankly, shake hands with the Saudi king.

"I think there is something fundamentally wrong with weakness in America, and then playing to placate dictators,'' Gingrich told his friends on FOX. "This does look a lot like Jimmy Carter. Carter tried weakness and the world got tougher and tougher because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators, when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead."

Harper, for his part, suggests that a new tack is required in negotiations with Iran, which insists that its program of nuclear material enrichment is supporting a civilian electrical power program, but which others view as the makings of a bomb in the not-too-distant future.

"I don't take any of these rogues states lightly,'' Harper told reporters this morning. "Iran is of a threat that is significantly greater than the Venezuelas of the world.

"Let me be a bit of a conservative defender of the president in this regard,'' Harper said of the hemispheric summit in Port-of-Spain. "I was present at the summit meetings, all of the plenary sessions. I thought President Obama did an excellent job of expressing the values and priorities of the United States of America.

"The present approach to Iran hasn't been working - what do we do next?'' Harper asked. "I am always open in trying to approach this. But it is important that we not be under any illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime, what its intentions are... particularly as it develops nuclear weapons capacities.''

Inasmuch as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is committed to the destruction of Israel, a reporter for the Jerusalem Post on the call this morning had a pointed question for the prime minister: Does the West have "the will to stop Iran from getting nuclear capacity'' and is it "important to set a time limit on talks?''

"Our primary involvement, at last my primary involvement, has been though discussions we've had at the G-8,'' said Harper, who says he has seen a growing recognition "around the table'' of the need to deal with the Iranian threat.

"What we all are struggling with is how can we best be effective,'' Harper said. "I don't think it's a matter of will...Tthe united states and its allies do not have an unlimited ability to make what needs to happen happen... I don't think I could be clearer... about how concerned I am about Iran and its activities... It's deeply worrisome to me, but I don't think there are simple answers to this.

"I don't think it's simply a matter of will. I think it's a matter of getting our heads together to find a way to get what we want.''