The Security Council decision's timing is significant, coming in the midst of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The extent of Tehran's control of what is transpiring in Lebanon is a subject of debate between those who see Hezbollah as an independent Lebanese organization acting to achieve "Lebanese" objectives, like control of the Shaba Farms, and those who describe Hezbollah as "Iran's advance position," as Defense Minister Amir Peretz has said. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has argued that Iran initiated the crisis in the North to divert attention from its nuclear program.

One can argue over the degree of Iranian influence in Lebanon, in general, and in the current war, in particular. What is important is that Iran itself created the link between Lebanon and the nuclear program when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that the delay in declaring a cease-fire in Lebanon would make it difficult for his government to accept the European-American offer to resolve the nuclear dispute.

It is also clear that the fighting in Lebanon, and even the killing of dozens of Lebanese civilians in the Israel Air Force bombing of Qana, has not caused the international community to lose sight of the Iranian nuclear plan. Former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger wrote in The Washington Post Sunday that curbing the Iranian project is necessary to preserve the international order. Even France, whose foreign minister described Iran as a "stabilizing" force, and rushed to meet his Iranian colleague in Beirut, is a leading partner in the efforts to keep Iran from developing nuclear bombs.

Israel, which sees the Iranian nuclear program as the gravest of threats to its existence and security, must not ignore the connection between the battlefields beyond the Blue Line and the uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz. The defeat of Hezbollah in the current conflict will serve as a stop sign for Iran, which has become stronger over the past year while oil prices have risen, America has remained entangled in Iraq, and the diplomatic efforts to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat have been weak.

The plan being developed for ending the war in Lebanon, which centers around the deployment of a strong multinational force, will be a test of the international community's determination to wrest from Iranian control the outpost Tehran has established among Shiites in Lebanon. And if, at the end of the day, international diplomacy fails with Iran, the dismantling of Hezbollah's rockets will diminish the risk to Israel's home front in the event of military action aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear facilities.

By Haaretz Editorial