Now Is The Time to Confront Iran

In his contribution on Thursday, internationally recognized human-rights expert Irwin Cotler underscored the importance of focusing on the Iranian regime’s human-rights record. He has introduced the Iran Accountability Act in Parliament to focus attention not only on Iran’s nuclear program, but also on its domestic repression and genocidal incitement. He, too, calls for Canada to leverage its energy riches by putting Iran’s refined petroleum suppliers to a choice between the Canadian and Iranian markets.

Will such a campaign work? It might — especially given Iran’s current vulnerability. But even if it fails, there is moral value in trying peaceful methods before military options present themselves. As Mark Dubowitz of the FDD argued in these pages on Tuesday, “No one could argue that countries threatened by Iran had ignored peaceful alternatives.”