The most recent IAEA report on the Iranian nuclear program offers hope to some that it will lead to great cooperation between various countries and the United Nations to pass more severe sanctions against Tehran. As the UK Telegraph editorializes, “We have seen too much subterfuge and procrastination from Iran as it has sought to hide its true intentions from the world. An unambiguous confirmation by the IAEA of what everyone believes to be true could be a decisive step towards settling this crisis without recourse to military action.”
Anne Applebaum goes even further to declare that the likelihood is that military action, by someone, will become a reality.
Others are similarly pessimistic. Especially as regarding coordination on Iran between staunch allies like the United States and Israel. Take, for example, this recent exchange between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a friendly audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Barak would not answer the question of how the numerous recent discussions regarding Iran between the U.S. and Israel had gone. The closest he would come to characterizing those discussions was to acknowledge that the two countries are not on the same page. “We understand that we are not the United States and … I believe the government understands, that they are not in the same situation as we are. And I think that this mutual respect and capacity to listen, to take into account the considerations of the other, even without speaking about them explicitly or publicly, is more important than the other aspects.”