Hello, uh, Mr. Ahmadinejad?...Yes, this is Kofi...Fine, fine, thank you...Yes, that's right, alhamdulillah...Oh, Kojo is just fine as well, thank you very much...Alhamdulillah, yes...Alhamdulillah indeed...Look, Mr. Ahmadinejad, I just want to give you an update...In the Security Council we've managed to weaken the language condemning your nuclear program...Yes, yes, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah...But Mahmoud -- may I call you Mahmoud?...Thank you...Mahmoud, the resolution still calls upon you to abandon uranium enrichment activities...What's that? The Great Satan? No, not exactly...It was Britain and France...Mahmoud, calm down...Mahmoud? Mahmoud?
From the New York Times, with thanks to JE:
UNITED NATIONS, March 28 — European and American diplomats circulated a new draft statement to the Security Council on Tuesday evening that weakens language condemning Iran's nuclear program but still calls on Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment activities, which the West believes are intended to make weapons.The new draft, written by Britain and France and supported by the United States, eliminates or softens elements in earlier drafts that had raised objections from China and Russia.
The three Western nations hope the new version can be adopted Wednesday, a day before the foreign ministers of the five permanent Council members and Germany meet in Berlin to discuss strategy on Iran.
You can always rely on Mohammed to keep Mamduh in check...
I have recently trained a friendly fox from the neighborhood to guard my chicken-shack....
What would be the Chinese and Russian attitude if they were the likely targets of a rogue nuke of Iranian provenance? China and Russia are betting that Israel, Europe and America preceed them in the list of most likely targets.
Europeans used to play this game with the Barbary States. The Russians and Chinese need to understand that they too will be dragged into the hell of global conflagration if the Iranian nuclear genie is not kept in its bottle.
Softened, or gone limp?