(H/T USS Neverdock)-The Jerusalem Post reports that Syria has been named as co-chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, just two weeks after the IDF targeted what some are saying was a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry had “no public comment” on Syria’s election.

But Gerald Steinberg, chairman of Bar-Ilan University’s political science department and an authority on nonproliferation, said the election “reflects the absurdity of the political process inside the IAEA.”

The deputy chairman has no real power and is merely a symbolic post, similar to a deputy president of the UN General Assembly or a deputy speaker of the Knesset, he said. However, Steinberg added, “this move shows how little these types of international frameworks can really do when some of the main players are also the main violators of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

From what little I remember of my International Relations classes from college, the goal of including would be “rogue nations” in international frameworks is to attempt to moderate their behavior by including them. The problem with the diplomatic equivalent of “If you want them to act like adults treat them like adults”, is that any attempt to initiate the corollary (”if they act like children treat them like children) is blocked. We mustn’t punish them for their behaviors, we have to “understand their feelings.” In essence all you are doing is giving positive reinforcement for a negative behavior. The United Nations is really just an international psychotherapist where the rogue and childish nations of the world go to complain about the responsible adults who are paying the therapist’s bill to begin with. Only instead of drawing on the wall with red crayon, they are funding terrorism, building nuclear weapons, and murdering their neighbors.

Next week it’ll be Iran’s Ahmadinejad, who will get a grand international forum on which to say that he wishes all the mean westerners would just go away. Fortunately, a group will be there to say Enough is Enough! I hope you’ll join them.

Update: I should have linked to this post from Gates of Vienna on an accident with Sarin gas, killing Syrian and Iranian chemical weapon scientists:

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane’s Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.

As the Baron remarks, there’s only, “a single corrupt dictator and his clique standing between traditional despotism and a full-fledged Islamist regime.” I would add that he’s not even really standing between us and them, since its because of the tenuous hold these dictators have that they kow-tow to Islamist agitators, and need to earn “Arab street cred” by financing terrorism. The best we can hope for with dictatorships is a public condemnation while they play a sort of elaborate footsie with the Islamists under the table.