Because they have to. Iran has successfully tested missiles that can reach Europe.
The intelligence agencies of the United States have taken over de facto of foreign policy in the NIE report by claiming that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 — likely based on a single source. The incredibly well-connected author Ken Timmerman writes:
A highly controversial, 150 page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear programs was coordinated and written by former State Department political and intelligence analysts — not by more seasoned members of the U.S. intelligence community, Newsmax has learned.
Its most dramatic conclusion — that Iran shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003 in response to international pressure — is based on a single, unvetted source who provided information to a foreign intelligence service and has not been interviewed directly by the United States.
So what has Iran been up to since 2003? From an opinion piece by Robert Tracinski at Yahoo News:
During those four years, Iran has provided political and military support to both Sunni and Shiite insurgents in Iraq, helping to kill US troops and plunge Iraq into a brutal sectarian civil war. More recently, Iran has provided weapons and training to the Taliban in Afghanistan. During these years, Iran has also forged a closer relationship with its satellite Syria, which has encouraged the flow of insurgents into Iraq while assassinating opposition political leaders in Lebanon. In Southern Lebanon, Iran armed Hezbollah with rockets, which it rained down by the thousands in a terror war against Israel; Iran has subsequently re-armed Hezbollah with more and better rockets. And Iran has supported Hamas as it has launched its own rocket attacks on Israel and staged a brutal Islamist takeover of Gaza.
From Reuters:
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Leaders of the European Union reiterated on Friday their support for possible additional U.N. sanctions against Iran if it fails to give up nuclear enrichment work and repeated an offer of support if it did so.
The statement at a summit in Brussels came despite a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate this month that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003, a surprise announcement diplomats say increased reluctance among already skeptical Russia and China for a third round of sanctions.
A joint statement from leaders of the 27 EU states meeting in Brussels called on Iran to provide “full, clear and credible answers” to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve questions about its nuclear activity.
They added that the council of member states “reiterates its full support to the work in the U.N. Security Council to adopt further measures” and said a decision would be taken at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers due on January 28, in the light of upcoming decisions in the U.N. Security Council.
Sanctions have been imposed because Iran has failed to heed a U.N. demand that it suspend uranium enrichment, which the West believes Tehran is trying to master so it can build bombs. Iran insists it wants only fuel for power plants.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news briefing the European Union had received “no assurances about uranium enrichment and the purpose of it in Iran”.
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