The celebrated American journalist Walter Lippmann wrote in May 1933, "The outer world will do well to accept the evidence of German goodwill and seek by all possible means to meet it and to justify it."
The same year, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull declared, "Mistreatment of Jews in Germany may be considered virtually eliminated."

And British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who told his citizens to "go home and get a nice quiet sleep" after he signed the 1938 Munich Pact with Hitler and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, noted, "In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man [Hitler] who could be relied upon when he had given his word."

Commenting on the Munich Pact, a New York Times journalist wrote, "It declares to those who have ears to hear that Germany henceforth wants peace."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York last week to address the U.N. General Assembly session. His speech, by its aggressive tone, messianic zealotry, and misrepresentation of the facts, revealed once again the threat he poses. It would be well to recall the history of the 1930s -- in particular, how otherwise thoughtful individuals, often backed by the machinery of state, were incapable of believing that Hitler actually meant the chilling things he expressed. Instead, they deluded themselves into thinking he could be appeased or negotiated with.

Inevitably, there are those who will say that any attempt to compare Iran with Germany, Ahmadinejad with Hitler, or 2006 with the 1930s, is way off the mark. But the essential point remains -- the world powers got it wrong in the 1930s and paid a catastrophic price for their mistake.

The world cannot afford to get it wrong again. Ahmadinejad has a long paper and voice trail that is impossible to ignore. He calls openly for the destruction of Israel, threatens the United States, denies the Holocaust, supports terrorist groups outside Iran's borders and suppresses human rights inside them.
Iran's nuclear ambitions are beyond dispute, as documented by the U.N. Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as by Western intelligence agencies. Its missile development program is in high gear. And Ahmadinejad's all-encompassing Shiite brand of theology or, more precisely, eschatology, should give pause to those who believe his regime can be dealt with rationally through Cold War policies of containment and deterrence. After all, this is a country, still in the throes of a 27-year-old Islamic revolution, which sent hundreds of thousands of untrained teens to their deaths in the name of martyrdom during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Like Hitler, Ahmadinejad surely feels emboldened by the world's timid response. Tehran's leaders have negotiated masterfully to date, buying precious time to reach the technical point of no return.
The Iranians have felt no real heat. Deadlines and threats of sanctions have been pushed back and ignored. Iran seems to have concluded that other than the United States no country will consider serious measures against it, from travel bans on its leaders to restrictions on the sale of refined oil products to Iran, from limiting Iranian students' access to science and technology programs at elite Western universities to freezing overseas bank accounts and reviewing trade policy. Instead, Iran confronts a divided and tentative international community which it can skillfully exploit, figuring that the United States is in no position now to act unilaterally.

The challenge posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions has no easy answers. Every potential stratagem presents its own risks and uncertainties. But history teaches that, unless the Iranian leadership is convinced of the key nations' collective resolve, this story will not end well. A nuclear Iran would endanger the region and the world.

David A. Harris is executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

Russian diplomatic and industry sources said Moscow has been negotiating to sell Iran a range of anti-aircraft systems to protect Bushehr from Israeli or U.S. air strikes. The sources said contracts could be signed when Bushehr was ready to begin operations in a move expected to take place in late 2007.

"Russia has already installed and manned SAM systems around Bushehr," a diplomatic source said. "The current talks regard an air defense umbrella that would protect all strategic sites in Iran."

In November 2005, Russia reached agreement for the sale of 29 TOR-M1 short-range anti-aircraft systems to Iran in a deal valued at more than $700 million. The sources said Iran has also sought the strategic S-300PMU SAM system, capable of detecting and intercepting enemy aircraft at a distance of 300 and 150 kilometers, respectively.

"Some of those upset with the council's decision have compared it to hypothetically inviting Hitler to a meeting in the 1930's," the ambassador, Daniel Ayalon, wrote to the council's president, Richard N. Haass. "In fact, meeting with Ahmadinejad is worse: Hitler did not openly call for genocide in the 1930's, and today we have the lessons of the 1930's to guide us. Foremost among those lessons is that appeasing fanatics like Hitler and granting them legitimacy leads to genocide and war."

The five permanent UN Security Council members - Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France and the United States - and Germany drafted a package of incentives to persuade Iran to suspend work on enriching uranium, which could be used in both electricity generation and weapons production.

Tehran's response to these incentives was handed to the Iran-6 group August 22. According to media reports, Iran claims it will consider suspending its uranium enrichment program only after talks.

Some countries propose drafting sanctions against Iran in the event talks fail. But Lavrov said steps should be taken to start talks, and not introduce measures that will only obstruct progress.

Sergei Shmatko, the head of Atomstroiexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, said the supplementary agreement also stipulated a date for the plant's commissioning.

"We have signed a supplementary agreement to the contract for the construction of the Bushehr NPP," Shmatko said. "The agreement stipulates that the date for the power generating launch will be November 2007, and that the plant will be commissioned in September 2007."

Last Monday, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, told journalists on the sidelines of the 50th International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in Vienna that the Bushehr NPP would be launched in November 2007.

"The Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned in September 2007, and the power generating launch will take place in November 2007," Kiriyenko said.

At a meeting Tuesday with Mahmoud Janatian, a vice president of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Shmatko said the fuel would be delivered no later than six months prior to the plant's commissioning.

Atomstroiexport is building Bushehr's first power unit under a $1 billion contract signed by Russia and Iran in 1995. A supplemental agreement signed in 1998 stipulates that Atomstroiexport will complete construction of the plant on the basis of a turnkey arrangement.

Iran's vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, arrived in Moscow Monday for talks with Kiriyenko on the plant.

Traveling to Moscow Monday, Aghazadeh said he intended to propose that some of the work at Bushehr be carried out by Iranian specialists.

He also said the implementation of his proposal would help accelerate the plant's commissioning, adding that Iran was capable of completing its construction alone.

"Iranians can complete the construction of the Bushehr NPP on their own in the event the Russians fail to bring it online," Aghazadeh told Iranian news agency Fars.

"Russia has already installed and manned SAM systems around Bushehr," a diplomatic source said. "The current talks regard an air defense umbrella that would protect all strategic sites in Iran."

In November 2005, Russia reached agreement for the sale of 29 TOR-M1 short-range anti-aircraft systems to Iran in a deal valued at more than $700 million. The sources said Iran has also sought the strategic S-300PMU SAM system, capable of detecting and intercepting enemy aircraft at a distance of 300 and 150 kilometers, respectively.

Iran complained that Russia was dragging its heels over the supply of nuclear fuel before the high-level delegation left for Moscow with the aim of securing a firm delivery date.

"Russia in the past gave written commitments about the timetable for delivering the fuel. However, it has not realized this yet," Iran's deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi was quoted as saying by state television.

"We hope Russia makes clear promises to Iran about the supply of fuel to Bushehr," said Saeedi, who was accompanying Aghazadeh, on his visit to Moscow.

Aghazadeh was to hold talks with Russian Federal Nuclear Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko later Monday. The visit comes just days after Kiriyenko was quoted as saying that the controversial nuclear plant at Bushehr would start operations in September 2007.

Russia has a US$800 million contract to build a nuclear reactor in the southern port city of Bushehr, a project that the United States fears could help Tehran develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear activities are purely aimed at generating electricity.

While Moscow has rejected US demands to halt work on Bushehr, it has delayed supplying the fuel apparently to pressure Tehran to halt uranium enrichment. Enrichment is key step in the Iranian nuclear program which could produce fuel for a nuclear warhead or for power generation.
Bushehr had been due become operational this year.

"During this visit, barriers in the way of quick completion of the plant will be reviewed," Saeedi said, adding that Iran hoped to complete the timing of the delivery of the fuel.

The United States has long objected to Russia's deal to build Bushehr, saying it could be used by Iran to produce fissionable material for weapons.
Russia last year eventually worked out a deal with Iran for all the plant's spent fuel to be sent to Russia, eliminating the possibility that Iran could reprocess it for weapons.

However, Iran has resisted Russia's proposal to conduct all of Iran's uranium enrichment on Russian soil.