COMMENT: Cutting diplomatic links with Iran

Things have been hitting-up with regard to the West's relationship with Iran (well, now that Iraq and Libya are "solved", Obama needs a new war to help his election campaign). The West keep saying that Iran shouldn't be developing nuclear weapons while Iran point out the hypocrisy of the nuclear powers telling them they can't join the gang!

Earlier this week, the British Embassy in Tehran was attacked and taken over. The UK government's response was to withdraw all from the embassy and order all Iranian diplomats out of London. Diplomatic links are cut.

At a time of trouble and disagreement isn't that the worst and most idiotic thing to do? When there is disagreement that is the time when diplomats should be doing their job: talking, negotiating, working out a peace, keeping the peace.

Cutting diplomatic ties is like taking your ball home and ending the game. Worse, it's more akin to preparing for war. And what will this war achieve? Nothing.

Sure, there will be Americans who see it as an heroic struggle against the Iranians and, I'm sure, it will bolster Obama's presidency (and his lack of substance continues to be exposed - he, more than anyone, needs another war if he is to win a second term in the White House).

Cameron, the British PM, probably hopes it will be his Falklands - Thatcher, deeply unpopular after cuts, riots and rising unemployment sent forces to re-capture a few bits of rock we'd been trying to get rid of for decades in the early '80s and, therefore, romped to a second election victory in 1983. And, of course, another big war would be just what Cameron's mates in the Arms industry want (he's recently been campaigning to end the treaty that banned cluster bombs).

Also, Cameron has been sidelined in Europe and has lost a platform where he might have been able to be seen as statesmanlike. He wants, very much as Blair did with GWB, to radiate in the glow that is emanating from Obama. Obama is, now, one of his only international friends left.

After the "dodgy dossier" and the lack of WMD in Iraq, should we take Iran's claims, and the West's concerns, with a pinch of salt?

So, what if Iran IS on the verge of having nuclear weapons? What if they actually already have them? Should I bother buying any Christmas presents or will the world have come to an end in the next few weeks?

Hopefully, that's unlikely, but, and there is no doubt, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President is both unstable and unpredictable. Is that the sort of man who should be let loose like this?

Cutting diplomatic links is a truly idiotic thing to do with any nation - but particularly any nation that could be considered a "rogue state". It is political posturing on a level to which the likes of the unions normally only ever sink. It is dangerous and Cameron is gambling on what might happen next.

Grown-ups discuss their problems. Grown-ups negotiate and compromise. This week Cameron, yet again, has shown himself to be a schoolboy in short trousers when it comes to the world stage.

COMMENT: The Death of Gaddafi

The rolling news channels have all forgotten about the clearing of the illegal travellers' site at Dale Farm as reports are claiming that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed, or captured, or... Well, nobody's actually too sure.

Despite tha, the streets of Sirte, Gaddafi's home town, is full of moronic celebratory gunfire.

Yes, Sirte has fallen to the NTC forces aft a two month siege, and, possibly, Gaddafi has been captured or killed but why fire bullets into the air? The bullets don't disappear into thin air, they don't leave the atmosphere and travel onwards to other planets... they fall back to earth and, fairly often, they hit humans. In Puerto Rico alone, two people die and twenty-five are injured annually! In the past few days there was a religious edict in Libya calling for an end to celebratory gunfire because of the deaths and injuries it caused.

So, ignoring the idiotic behaviour of the men with weapons, should they be celebrating?

If it is confirmed that Gaddafi is dead there can be no real justice. It will be the same as when Osama Bin Laden was killed (and his body rapidly, and rather stupidly, disposed of people celebrated.

It will also mean a lot of information is lost - including the truth about the Lockerbie bombing'

If he had been captured I think there is something to celebrate. A trial, however lengthy, could take place and some extent of justice could be seen to be done. Simply killing him, as seems increasingly likely, prevents this.

It seems, whether he is alive or dead, that Gaddafi has fallen and the NTC (heavily assisted by NATO) have won the war. That is something for Libyans to celebrate - some element of normality mig be able to return in a country that has been torn apart by civil war over the past few months.

But is it something for the world to celebrate?

I don't think so.

The NTC is a very strange coming together of opposing factions. The plan is for democratic elections in two years. I won't hold my breath.

And then there's Al-Qaida....

Let's hope my pessimism is ill-founded. Let's hope for a peaceful future for the people of Libya - and for the other nations that had an Arab Spring uprising.

For me, I hope Gaddafi has been captured. His death, particularly if NATO were responsible, which seems likely, would make things more problematic. I fear how the NTC will rule the country and I do not see this finishing Libya's troubles.

As Anne Frank wrote in her famous diary:

This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.