From The Seattle Times: Iran plans to resume uranium activities.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said yesterday [April 30] it is likely to resume uranium enrichment-related activities within a week, a process it halted last year to build confidence in talks with European countries and avoid referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.Tehran's announcement came a day after talks in London with European negotiators yielded no results. France, Britain and Germany, acting on behalf of the 25-nation European Union, are seeking guarantees from Iran that it will not use its nuclear program to make weapons, as Washington suspects.
UPDATE I -- May 3: This cartoon appears in today's Investor's Business Daily and The Detroit News.
UPDATE II -- May 4: From The New York Times: Iran to Resume Nuclear Plans, Official States at U.N. Conference.
Iran declared Tuesday that it would soon resume some of the nuclear activities it had suspended during negotiations with Europe, and it used a conference here to accuse the United States and other nations of using the fear of nuclear weapons proliferation to deny peaceful nuclear technology to developing nations. ...In October in Paris, Iran agreed with France, Britain and Germany to freeze all enrichment of uranium and "related activities" while negotiations went forward. But Iran has complained that those talks have not included any substantive incentives, and its announcement on Tuesday seemed part of a strategy to press Europe and, by extension, the Bush administration.
The U.N.'s supposed nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, is in full appeasement mode, saying:
"I think in diplomacy if you offer more, you get more," he said during a visit to the editorial board of The New York Times. "Iran is no exception. If you offer trade, technology and security, you ought to be able to get good assurances on the nuclear issue."Dr. ElBaradei urged the United States, which has declined to negotiate with Iran, to act much more forcefully. "I firmly believe that any grand bargain will have to involve the United States," he said, "because on the security side, only the U.S. can do the heavy lifting."
Only in U.N. doublespeak could someone urge the U.S. to "act much more forcefully" against an enemy but actually mean "give in more to their blackmail."
Posted by Forkum at May 1, 2005 08:03 PM
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