Iran Doesn’t Need North Korean Missiles, Envoy Says

Source: Bloomberg

November 29, 2010, 7:18 AM EST
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Iran doesn’t need to buy North Korean missiles to defend itself, the country’s ambassador to Russia said, following allegations in U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.org and provided to newspapers including the New York Times.

“Given Iran’s military potential, we don’t require such deliveries from North Korea,” Ambassador Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi told reporters in Moscow today. The WikiLeaks cables said Iran obtained 19 advanced missiles from North Korea with the potential capability of attacking western Europe and Russia. He said he had “no information” about any such missile sales.

Iran will continue to enrich uranium to the 20 percent threshold needed for its medical program, a level the country plans to reach by September, Sajjadi said. The U.S. has won stiffer United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran, which the Obama administration and European nations say may be using its uranium-enrichment program to develop nuclear weapons.

Diplomatic cables posted by the Guardian newspaper, which also received advance copies from WikiLeaks, indicate that as far back as early 2008, Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments pressed the U.S. for attacks on Iran to stop it getting a nuclear bomb, even as some expressed concern that a military strike may destabilize the region.



Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-29/iran-doesn-t-need-north-korean-missiles-envoy-says.html

Accusations, denials, butt covering, anger, betrayal.

We do indeed live in interesting times.

The claim was that Iran bought and took delivery of these missiles.

It wasn't a claim that Iran required them. I have an 8-string guitar that I bought and took delivery off. I didn't require it. Lack of requirement does not entail lack of possession.

To assume that Sajjadi's assertion denies the cable's assertion is rendered difficult when he says he has no information about any such missile sales.

"I don't know if we acquired them or not, but I know we certainly are omnipotent and glorious enough not to need them, so I, in my omniscient ignorance, will attempt to lead you to infer that we did not acquire them."