Getting chummy with Iran

The recent chumminess the west has shown towards Iran is somewhat troubling. It's true that we need to offer them practical encouragement for their recent change fo heart with respect to WMD—but we need to be careful too. An excellent recent article in The Economist poignantly says:

HOW ironic it was that Iran's President Muhammad Khatami welcomed Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, on the prince's surprise visit to Tehran on Monday February 9th. While Charles will one day be the largely powerless figurehead of a parliamentary democracy that pretends to be a monarchy, events of recent days have shown his host to be the largely powerless figurehead of a pretend parliamentary democracy that is in fact a theocracy.

That the reformist party has called off it's boycott isn't going to help keep the pressure on the ruling clerics either. Although that may be just good pragmatism, as it seems not even the Ayatollah Khomeini can pressure the upper house (not it's real name!) into re-instating the 2500 reformist candidates. Even if so, it is dangerous pragmatism. As The Economist says:

The danger now is that just enough of the "vetted" reformist candidates stand to allow the clerics to claim that there was a proper election, while voter apathy and a dearth of liberal candidates ensure a shoo-in for hardline candidates.