| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Euros ready to be hoodwinked by mullahs |
| 2004-11-08 |
| WASHINGTON — Iranian and European officials are close to forging a deal they hope will pause the Islamic republic's enrichment of uranium and persuade the president to drop his insistence that Iran's prior violations of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty be referred to the U.N. Security Council. Since, of course, Bush cares so much about what they think. Iran's chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Hossein Mousavian, told Iranian TV yesterday that talks at the expert level with envoys from Britain, France, and Germany had reached an agreement. ''We had 22 hours of negotiations,'' he said. ''They were very difficult and complicated negotiations but we reached a preliminary agreement at the expert level.'' "Surrender!" "OK." If the respective governments engaged in the negotiations agree to the deal, it would commit the European side to eventually supplying Iran with a second light-water nuclear reactor. In exchange, Iran would agree to answer the outstanding questions of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suspend uranium enrichment during those inspections, and return to Russia the spent nuclear fuel from the Bushehr facility that Moscow helped Iran build. Cause, you know, I heard Iran's gonna run out of oil&gas soon. The deal would also commit Britain, France, and Germany to oppose taking Iran's violations to the U.N. Security Council. A diplomatic source in Washington said yesterday that Europe's impending deal with Iran would make it next to impossible for America to rally the votes to refer Iran's program to the Security Council. What a coincidence! However, one administration official yesterday said that the president would continue to press for the United Nations as the forum to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. As the president prepares to reshuffle his cabinet for his second term, some of the chief advocates for European engagement with Iran are likely to leave the government. That is (and I've snipped the text about this), Powell and Armitage are out, and the neocons look ascendant, with Blackwill also out. Yay. The IAEA's board of governors will next meet November 25, when they will likely consider this very question. The State Department has already said it would oppose Mr. ElBaradei in his quest for a third term as director general for the IAEA. The fate of the world may literally depend on replacing this full-of-Qaqaa doubletalker. |
| Posted by:someone |