An Offer That Can Be Refused.....A Times (Iran)

from the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong March 16, 2005

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GC16Ak02.html



AN OFFER THAT CAN BE REFUSED



By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

TEHRAN - The Bush administration has offered modest incentives - of Iran's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and spare parts for its aging airplanes - rejected by Iran as incommensurate with the huge nuclear card. In making this announcement, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made clear that this decision, reached with the European Three (ie France, Germany and Britain - EU-3) currently holding nuclear talks with Iran, implies that if Iran rejected the offer and insists on resuming its nuclear fuel cycle, then Europe would support the US's bid to take the matter to the United Nations Security Council for further action.


Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said Sunday in a statement that the country was determined to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and "no pressure, bribe or threat" could make Iran give up.

This development is, indeed, troublesome for both Iran-EU relations as well as US-EU ties, notwithstanding the fact that the US continues to insist on Iran's permanent suspension of its uranium enrichment program, whereas the Paris Agreement, signed between Iran and the EU-3 last November, implicitly if not explicitly recognizes Iran's right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to produce the nuclear fuel necessary for its reactors and, what is more, invites Iran to join a club of nuclear fuel-producing countries.

Thus, no matter how urgent the European desire to heal the trans-Atlantic rift with Washington, vividly demonstrated in President George W Bush's recent charm offensive in European capitals, the fact remains that in agreeing to bandwagon with the US on the next steps toward Iran, Europe has potentially bargained away its diplomacy and, worse, put at risk its carefully-cultivated nuanced approach toward Iran; already, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Dr Hassan Rowhani, has warned that in light of Iran's full compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, Iran will immediately cease negotiations with Europe and resume nuclear fuel production if Iran's dossier is sent to the Security Council.

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Eh?
Taking it to the security council will not do the job.
Neither Russia or China is going to allow Iran to be sanctioned.
And making empty threats is much worse than keeping your mouth shut.

.
.
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Iraq never even got a plane in the air, let alone any real "battles"

and the "Superpower" ain't won by a long shot yet . .

if ever.

Iran's been getting "ready" ever since the first bomb fell on Baghdad

THEY BE READY TO "BRING IT ON"

And Russia and China are watching closely too

Remember

The "SuperPower" is playing in THEIR back yard - - -

hmmmmmmm :freak:

...we're not even holding Iraq well, recruitment is horrible in this country, and we are pushing those enlisted to the brink. Just what army are we supposed to go into Iran with? The World knows this. Iran knows this. To invade a nation of 70 million people, half-a-globe away, and to occupy it, would take an effort on the level of WW II. Americans are living in a dreamworld if they don't understand basic logistics.

We bugged the UN HQ, lied to them all about WMD, attacked another country without provocation. So let Kinda Sleazy go to the UN. I'm sure Bolton will liven them up. :eyes:

Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Europe, China, Canada all mocking, even tauting, the big guy about his foreign policy. It's unseemly and it's got to stop. By God!

They're afraid of us, that doesn't mean they're going to cower before us and do what we tell them, there is a major difference. These countries understand that standing together against the schoolyard bully is sufficient much of the time.