Sen. Biden disses Condi

[rodeodance]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7612147




Senator Urges U.S. to Join European Effort on Iran

Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States must join Europe's effort to persuade Iran to abandon nuclear ambitions or face either Tehran as a nuclear power or the need to invade the country to prevent it, a leading Democratic lawmaker said on Sunday.

"We're at odds with our European friends, and it doesn't leave many options," Sen. Joe Biden, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told "Fox News Sunday."

Biden said the effort of Britain, France and Germany, on behalf of the European Union, only had the chance to succeed if the nations were willing to invoke economic sanctions, including on Iranian oil sales.

......He criticized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for indicating recently that the United States might not sign on to a deal with Iran even if it forswore a missile capability and nuclear weapons in a verifiable way......

[MissMarple]

1. The Iranians are quite proud of their nuclear program, and won't give in.

We're picking a fight with them. James Fallows has an article in December's Atlantic Monthly that explores how Iran would react if we or Israel initiate hostile activity. This is a snip from the cover page, you need to be a subscriber to access the quite lengthy article. The conclusion of the piece is make diplomacy work. Not only does Iran not trust us, they are paranoid in their suspicions of both the U.S. and Israel. Gee, I wonder why. Quite possibly, we are starting the next world war.


" , an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected a proposal by Senator John Kerry that if the United States promised to supply all the nuclear fuel Iran needed for peaceful power-generating purposes, Iran would stop developing enrichment facilities (which could also help it build weapons). Meanwhile, the government of Israel kept sending subtle and not-so-subtle warnings that if Iran went too far with its plans, Israel would act first to protect itself, as it had in 1981 by bombing the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200412/fallows