Iran Says It Won't Stop Uranium Conversion

[Bmongilly]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear


TEHRAN, Iran -

Iran will never again suspend conversion of uranium ore, but it is willing to pursue talks with the European Union about its uranium enrichment program, Tehran officials said Sunday.

[radwriter0555]

1. Excellent. Many nations rely on nuclear power for their energy uses and

somehow, all these years, they've managed NOT to nuke the USA while doing it.

If bush stops waving his dick at Iran, they'll not bother us either, but, alas, sharon has his eyes on iran, now... doesn't he?

[Massacure]

2. The U.N. should just make sure to take samples randomly.

Make sure it isn't enriched to more than 10-15% for their reactors. If they go to 80-90% enrichment, you know they want bombs.

[Maple]

3. If they wanted nukes

they could just buy em.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. Who knows, they probably have it already

but we don't know that for sure, do we? because our intelligence gathering is completely unreliable and always being fixed around the policy.

[evermind]

4. While I believe Iran has the right to pursue whatever nuclear

programme they see fit, short of making nuclear weapons (assuming they signed up to non-proliferation) - though I'd rather they didn't, personally - I admit I don't understand one thing about this: Iran is the nation most at risk from earthquakes (or so I've read) - at least it isn't short of a few ( http://www.ngdir.ir/Earthquake/EarthquakeList.asp )

So why do they think it's a good idea to build nuclear facilities there?

[54anickel]

6. Iran's options more numerous than the US - There's an understatement

"I think Bush should know that our options are more numerous than the U.S. options," Asefi said. "If the United States makes such a big mistake, then Iran will definitely have more choices to defend itself."

Think of the economic options they have available to them! Euros for oil, reduced output to make America (and the rest of the world to some extent) bleed. How's that Iranian oil bourse coming? They do have other countries watching what the US chooses to do quite closely.


US and European allies provoke confrontation with Iran
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/iran-a11.shtml

snip>

An editorial in the Washington Post on Tuesday went one step further, declaring that the refusal to accept the EU-3 offer was proof that Iran intended to construct a nuclear bomb. “Now there is no further room for obfuscation, and no further reason to give Iranians the benefit of the doubt. The real aim of the Iranian nuclear program is nuclear weapons, not electric power... What remains to be seen is whether the Europeans will come through, as they have promised they would, with a tough-minded push for sanctions.”

Iran’s blunt rejection of the European proposal is no such proof at all. From the outset, Iran has insisted that its nuclear programs are for civilian purposes and that, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the inalienable right to develop every aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment. Faced with the threat that the EU would support Washington’s demand for economic sanctions, Tehran agreed last November to freeze its uranium enrichment programs, temporarily, while negotiations took place.

At that time, the EU-3 pushed for a deal to avert UN sanctions and preserve burgeoning economic ties with Iran, a major source of oil for Europe. In March, however, the Bush administration, which previously rejected any negotiations, agreed to cooperate with the EU-3 in their talks with Tehran. The meaning of such “cooperation” was all too obvious—in return for minor US concessions to Iran, the Bush administration extracted a pledge from the EU-3 to support UN sanctions if the talks failed.

snip>

Washington’s contempt for international law in general and the NPT in particular has provoked concern among other NPT signatories attending the emergency IAEA meeting in Vienna this week. If the US and its European allies are able to effectively rewrite the NPT by forcing Iran to give up its right to uranium enrichment then the nuclear programs of countries such as Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil would also be put into question. A joint statement issued by Malaysia, on behalf of other so-called non-aligned countries, affirmed the “basic and inalienable right of all member states to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes.”

This half-hearted opposition has to date prevented the IAEA emergency meeting from reaching agreement on a resolution referring Iran to the UN Security Council. The EU-3 has confined itself to promoting a draft statement calling for the resumption of talks and the freeze on Iran’s enrichment program. Tehran has also held out the prospect of renewed negotiations. Whatever happens in the short-term, however, the present course of events confirms that Washington and its allies are intent on confrontation with Iran, regardless of the potentially disastrous consequences.