Liberman: World appeasing Iran like Nazis in 1938

The world is treating Iran like 1938 Germany, former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman said Tuesday, comparing the latest round of failed diplomatic talks over Tehran’s nuclear program to the world’s appeasement of the Nazi regime.

Liberman, who heads the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and may re-assume the foreign minister-ship should he be cleared of the breach of trust charges he currently faces, said he made the same comments to Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who is visiting Israel.

“The result of the latest round of talks between the powers and Iran… is a de-facto acceptance by the West of an Iranian nuclear bomb, like the past acceptance of a nuclear North Korea and of the take over of Czechoslovakia by Hitler [in 1938],” Liberman wrote on Facebook, following the meeting with Baird.

Such acceptance means that “by the end of the year Iran will be able to manufacture a nuclear bomb,” Liberman wrote. “That’s a dangerous message for peace in the region and the entire world.”

In 1938, Europe’s powers allowed Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia in a bid to avoid war with Nazi Germany. The so-called Munich agreement is often cited as a historical precedent for the failure of appeasement.

Liberman, like many government officials, has long seen the negotiations between six world powers and Iran as a futile exercise that is buying Tehran time to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear bomb. The six world powers — the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — say time remains for diplomacy.

Last week’s negotiations between Tehran and world powers revealed the sides were still “long way apart” and far from a deal, Western officials said after the talks.

Following the failure of the sides to find common ground and a growing fear in Israel and the US that Iran was playing for time, lawmakers in Washington have started to push for more sanctions against officials in the Islamic republic.