Iran Featured Prominently in Leaked Diplomatic Documents

It seems that a lot of the diplomatic traffic now being leaked to the world involved Iran and their nuclear ambitions:

Reporting from Beirut — Leaders of the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula monarchies repeatedly have beseeched the United States to attack Iran and take out its nuclear facilities, according to a series of classified diplomatic cables released to news organizations by the website Wikileaks.

King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa of Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, were among the Arab leaders lobbying the U.S. for an attack on Iran. One Saudi official reminded Americans that the king had repeatedly asked them to “cut off the head of the snake” before it was too late.

“That program must be stopped,” one Nov. 4, 2009, cable quotes Khalifa as telling Gen. David H. Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command. “The danger of letting it go is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

The Saudis weren't the only ones hoping for an attack on Iran:

A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."

That ship has just about sailed, though depending on Iran's activities the attack option is probably always on the table.

The Iranians, meanwhile, are trying to claim the leaks were in fact planned releases:

Iran’s President has questioned the recent leaked documents obtained and published by the Wikileaks website, saying the US administration "released" material intentionally.

In response to a question by Press TV on Monday over the whistleblower website’s "leaks," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way."

"The US administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek," the Iranian chief executive added at the press briefing in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad stressed that the Wikileaks "game" is "not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them."

I have really mixed feelings about the leak of all these diplomatic cables. Certainly some of the information can be embarrassing to the US and can damage some relations, but I wonder if clearing the air a bit on how we really feel about certain world leaders might not turn out to be a good thing in the end.

Governments need to have secrets and the leakers should be treated as traitors to United States. But perhaps this newest set of leaks will allow us to reset some relationships around the world and put an end to some of the happy talk kabuki that goes on in these diplomatic summits.