2006年VOA标准英语-Experts: Lebanon Crisis May Complicate Iran Nuc

By Gary Thomas
Washington
31 July 2006

The crisis in Lebanon is greatly complicated by the fact that Iran is a key backer of Hezbollah, which is locked in conflict with Israel. VOA correspondent Gary Thomas, who was recently in Iran, reports that the Lebanon conflict is already affecting the Iranian nuclear issue.

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The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah exploded as an internal debate raged among Iran's decision makers¹ about whether to accept a European offer on its nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad   
  
While there is no direct linkage² between the two issues, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday in Tehran that events in Lebanon and Palestine have, as he put it, "influenced our examination" of the European nuclear offer.

In fact, analysts³ say, the Israeli-Lebanon issue may have already scuttled⁴ any chance that Iran would accept the European offer of incentives⁵ to end uranium enrichment. Iran has said it will give its answer at the end of August, but recent Iranian media reports already suggest the answer will be "no." Sources close the Iranian leadership confirm that inclination⁶.

Middle East scholar Trita Parsi, the author of a recent book on the tangled⁷ relationships between Iran, the United States, and Israel, says the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and its fragile democracy may have reinforced the views of the hardliners in Iran's leadership on the nuclear issue. 

Lebanese soldier retrieves⁸ suitcase with belongings⁹ from  rubble¹⁰ of destroyed building in outskirts¹¹ of Tyre, Lebanon July 26, 2006   
  
"The signal that is sending to the people of the region is that a friendship with the United States and becoming a democracy does not necessarily at all help the security of that specific country," Parsi said. "And the conclusion that, unfortunately, that many people may draw - and this may have happened in Iran as well - is that ultimately you need to have indigenous¹² protection, protective systems, of which obviously a nuclear deterrence¹³ could be one of them."

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, says the conflict may also harden U.N. Security Council members' attitudes on the issue.

"Iran is viewed, widely viewed, as at least complicit in what is going on, supporting Hezbollah," he said. "And that is likely to make some of the fence-sitters, I guess Russia and China perhaps, take a dimmer view of Iranian intentions and perhaps be more amenable¹⁵ to U.S. and other arguments that Iran is playing a destabilizing role in the region and needs to be confronted by the Council."

Iran denies any nuclear weapons ambitions, saying it only wants nuclear energy for electric power generation. The United States and Europe say Iran is embarked¹⁶ on a path to nuclear weapons, although such a weapon is still be believed to be at least five years away. The U.S. and European negotiators want Iranian uranium enrichment to be halted as a precursor¹⁷ to any deal, or else they will push for sanctions against Iran in the Security Council.

Hezbollah has its political and spiritual roots in Iran's own Islamic revolution. In Lebanon, it is both a Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militia¹⁸ and a political party with seats in parliament. Iran repeatedly denies aiding Hezbollah militarily, saying it only offers moral and political support to the group. The United States lists Hezbollah among the terrorist groups of the world.

Western analysts say there is little doubt that Hezbollah gets funds and arms from Iran. But, says Trita Parsi, Hezbollah is independent minded and does not necessarily take direction from Tehran.

"There is not much of a doubt about the fact that Hezbollah does receive different types of support from the Iranians, and the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah is quite a strong one," Parsi said. "That, however, does not mean that everything that Hezbollah does has the approval or the blessing¹⁹ or the explicit²⁰ push by the Iranians. These are at the end of the day two entities²¹. And in very, very many different instances the two have acted in a way that has not necessarily been in line with each other's interest."

The Congressional Research Service's Ken¹⁴ Katzman says Tehran may even be somewhat irked at Hezbollah and its leader Sheik Nazrallah for getting into an open conflict with Israel at this juncture²².

"Iran has sort of fed on the idea that if challenged in the Security Council on the nuclear issue, that they would unleash²³, quote, unquote, unleash Hezbollah against Israel and make a lot of trouble," he said. "Now Hezbollah has made trouble and has been beaten back and is being diminished. So, if anything, Iran is actually positioned to lose this important leverage²⁴ for Iran in Lebanon out of this crisis. And I think Iran in many ways thinks Nasrallah has miscalculated with this battle."

A vote may come in the Security Council this week that calls for Iran to suspend nuclear activities by August 31 or face as-yet unspecified international sanctions.

1 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 linkage   

n.连接；环节

参考例句：

• In their monographic treatment of linkage,they have emphasized this especially.他们在论连锁的专题文章中特别强调了这点。
• Occasionally,problems with block inheritance or linkage are encountered.有时会遇到区段遗传或连锁问题。

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 scuttled   

v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走

参考例句：

• She scuttled off when she heard the sound of his voice. 听到他的说话声，她赶紧跑开了。
• The thief scuttled off when he saw the policeman. 小偷看见警察来了便急忙跑掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

6 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

7 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

8 retrieves   

v.取回( retrieve的第三人称单数 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• The mole comes in later, retrieves the item and packs it back in his gear. 鼹鼠随后到达，找回东西然后用他的传送装置返回。 来自电影对白
• Retrieves the pitch of the current image, in bytes. 得到代表目前图像斜度的字节数。 来自互联网

9 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

10 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

11 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

12 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

13 deterrence   

威慑，制止； 制止物，制止因素； 挽留的事物； 核威慑

参考例句：

• An extreme school of "disarmers" pronounced stable deterrence was a dangerous deception. “裁军论者”中的极端派声称，稳定的威摄是一种危险的骗局。
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。

14 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

15 amenable   

adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的

参考例句：

• His scientific discoveries are amenable to the laws of physics.他在科学上的发现经得起物理定律的检验。
• He is amenable to counsel.他这人听劝。

16 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

17 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

18 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

19 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

20 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

21 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

22 juncture   

n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头

参考例句：

• The project is situated at the juncture of the new and old urban districts.该项目位于新老城区交界处。
• It is very difficult at this juncture to predict the company's future.此时很难预料公司的前景。

23 unleash   

vt.发泄，发出；解带子放开

参考例句：

• They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
• Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。

24 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。