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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran: U.S. Not in Position to Start War |
| 2007-02-24 |
| Iran said Saturday the United States was not in a position to take military action against it and urged Washington and its allies to engage in dialogue. "We do not see America in a position to impose another crisis on its tax payers inside America by starting another war in the region," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters. Mottaki was responding to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who renewed Washington's warning to Iran earlier Saturday that "all options" were on the table if Tehran continues to defy U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment. At a joint news conference with Prime Minister John Howard during a visit to Australia, Cheney said the United States was "deeply concerned" about Iran's activities, including the "aggressive" sponsoring of terrorist group Hezbollah and inflammatory statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Cheney said top U.S. officials would meet soon with European allies to decide the next step toward planned tough sanctions against Iran if it continues enriching uranium. "But I've also made the point, and the president has made the point, that all options are on the table," he said, leaving open the possibility of military action. The United States and several of its Western allies fear that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce an atomic weapon _ charges Iran denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Thursday that Iran had ignored a U.N. Security Council ultimatum to freeze its uranium enrichment program and had expanded the program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges. Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb. The IAEA report came after Wednesday's deadline of a 60-day grace period for Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Iran has repeatedly refused to halt enrichment as a precondition to negotiations about its program. Mottaki said negotiations, not threats, were the only way left to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear activities and urged the U.S. and its allies to return to dialogue when they are scheduled to meet in London next week. "The only way to reach a solution for disputes is negotiations and talks. Therefore, we want the London meeting to make a brave decision and resume talks with Iran," Mottaki told reporters during a press conference with Bahrain's visiting foreign minister. Bill Richardson, the governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico and 2008 U.S. presidential candidate, on Saturday also urged the Bush administration to negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program. "Saber-rattling is not a good way to get the Iranians to cooperate," Richardson said in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. "But it is a good way to start a new war." A better approach, said Richardson, who served as U.N. ambassador during former U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration, "would be for the United States to engage directly with the Iranians and to lead a global diplomatic offensive to prevent them from building nuclear weapons." Iran, he said, 'will not end their nuclear program because we threaten them and call them names." Iran has said it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel even at the risk of sanctions. "But...but...Nanci Pelosi said she wouldn't LET the US go to war...(blub). |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #14 The Iranian Miscalculater has been crunching numbers again. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-02-24 23:46 |
| #13 Expect another fake muslim street blowup like the Danish cartoons shortly. Iran will try again to deflect the world's attention through Muslim Victimhood. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2007-02-24 19:43 |
| #12 What are you Mottaki? A democratic party presidential candidate? |
| Posted by: newc 2007-02-24 17:58 |
| #11 There is a huge difference between an invasion and war. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2007-02-24 17:22 |
| #10 ...a county of 75 million with 9th centruy technology, no roads, bridges, telecom, electricity, sewage, potable water... Golly, sounds like an Islamic paradise. There's none of that infidel polio vaccine, is there? OK, just checking. Sign me up! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-02-24 16:00 |
| #9 I love the way that the same bitches that scream bloody murder at our "unilateralism" are the same ones that scream when we let the "allies" undertake to lead the diplomacy for 5 years. What's the matter? France, Germany and the UK aren't worthy of our confidence in this area; but they are in anything else? Richardson and all the rest are a bunch of bullshit artists. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2007-02-24 15:10 |
| #8 Wonder if Mottaki also whistles when he walks past the cemetery late at night? |
| Posted by: GK 2007-02-24 15:10 |
| #7 I think this is what guys like Cheney would call a miscalculation. |
| Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 2007-02-24 15:07 |
| #6 Suppose we aren't. OK. We can sure as hell start one! And there won't be much left to hit back when we're done! |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-02-24 14:18 |
| #5 I think we have shown considerable restraint with the mad mullahs and the smart ass lil nazi sumbitch. The trouble is they believe their own bullshit. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-02-24 14:10 |
| #4 No? One top class US nuclear sub is capable of destroying over 200 large cities. However, all that is needed to stomp the Ayatollahs, is the destruction of the nuke sites and Qom. And the loss of the Khomeini Monument in Teheran would cause Iranians to turn on the clerics. Military professionals in Iran - and they exist - are not to happy with the Ayatollah's looting of the national treasury. The general public gets nothing from the Islamofascist state. |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-02-24 13:58 |
| #3 Cheney should go directly to the triple dog dare. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-02-24 13:53 |
| #2 owever, we are in a positon to rapidly END a war with Iran. Lots and lots of targets there in the civil infrastructure. No need to put a single boot on the ground. Let the Mullahs figure out how to run a county of 75 million with 9th centruy technology, no roads, bridges, telecom, electricity, sewage, potable water... And no modern military to back them up (take out the logistics centers and C3I). Give us 240 hours of continuous GPS guided strkes, and Iran will be the 9th century playground the Mullahs have always wanted. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-02-24 13:20 |
| #1 Hey, Mottaki. We won't start it, you did back in '79. But we darned well will finish it. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-02-24 13:02 |