However, Iran probably won't follow the West's example in following up on its deadline with another deadline. And watch for another deadline to be issued in kind. "Iran FM: West has 1 month, or we'll make our own nuclear fuel," from the Associated Press, January 2:
Iran warned on Saturday the West has until the end of the month to accept Teheran's counterproposal to a UN-drafted plan on a nuclear exchange, or the country will start producing nuclear fuel on its own.
The warning was a show of defiance and a hardening in Iran's stance over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears masks an effort to make nuclear weapons. Teheran insists the program is only for peaceful, electricity production purposes and says it has no intention of making a bomb.
"We have given them an ultimatum. There is one month left and that is by the end of January," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, speaking on state television.
However, even if Teheran started working on the fuel production immediately, it would likely take years before it can master the technology to turn uranium, enriched to the level of 20 percent, into rods that make the fuel.
... at which point we may still be playing the deadline game with Tehran.
There! Now I double dog dare ya!
The Supreme leader and his main man Ahmadinijad have a lot of problems on the home front...It's entirely possible that Allahu Akbar is going to storm the Bastille and kick the
resident Allahu Akbar out of there. Hopefully the new Allahu Akbar will be a little more...helpful...to the rest of the world by abandoning any previous plans for a bomb...And decide it's more profitable to do get aid from Rasool Obama than it is fighting Israel, or the US...Rasool has lots of aid for 'cooperative' Islamic countries...I'm sure that Rasool Obama will reach out to the new Allahu Akbar, if there is one, just as he reached out to the one in charge now...You can see the fruits of that idea, maybe it will work better on the next Allahu Akbar...
Well...When you give a young child a gun, he's as likely to shoot himelf as he is to shoot anyone else. Iran is determined to get that gun. Such is the mentality of a tot.
Maybe it will blow up in their faces.
Well, I wonder if the mullahs are trying to provoke Israel into attacking their nuclear sites and hoping that, as a result of such a military action, their domestic opponents will rally to their cause instead of working to topple their theocracy. Perhaps not giving the Iranian opposition any reason to start supporting the mullahs is exactly the reason why Israel hasn't struck those nuclear facilities yet.
The behavior is bizarre. Manouchehr Mottaki is acting like a child in making such pronouncements. It is almost as if he wants Iran to be attacked. President Obama, once again, has a mess on his hands of his own making. He makes George Bush(Jr.) and Jimmy Carter seem like diplomatic geniuses compared to him. His policy of engagement with Iran, as if this had not occurred under G.W. Bush, was the continuation of an absurdity. Now, President Obama faces the prospect of a nuclear Iran and a very likely Iranian attack of Israel without any serious plan to address either problem, much less both.
The only real intelligence on Iran's progress in their nuclear efforts that I would trust is Israeli intelligence and they are not talking.
With Obama's weakness in dealing with Iran, it is no wonder that Iran is making such demands. Obama invited this Iranian response.
It sure would be nice to hear about a catastrophic accident in Iran's transportation fuel network. It would take some minds off of other fuel ideas. Nothing like making unhappy people more so.
I'm not really sure if it's a role reversal for O'Bambi to be on the bottom.
This is a clear sign the Iranians are worried.
The Iranian regime is obviously feeling the pressure.
After Obama's message to the Iranian people - instead of the regime this time - we can expect another attack on Israel, just as Iran's done in 2006.
Standard Arab policy.
We're winning :0) I just hope the international community doesn't fall for the 'distraction' this time.
I have 3 thoughts about the Iran problem and two about Afghanistan.
1 - I think that the US and Britain should make a public announcement to the world that we have no CIA agents or any other covert operators in their country. And we should remove any that we do have so that we can't be proven wrong. THEN tell them, "This is your own people doing this, and you can't prove us wrong. We will continue to tell the world and your people that you are lying to them." This would help to undermine their regime.
2 - We should also tell them privately that on the day an Iranian nuclear weapon explodes over Israel, whether it's done by them directly, done by Hezbollah, Hamas or AL-Qaeda, or by anyone else, we will hold them responsible and hundreds of warheads will rain down on their country
3 - While I am fearful that the first part of #2 will come true one day, I also worry that they are NOT building an Atomic bomb but are instead building hundreds or thousands of dirty bombs and plan to give those to their terrorist friends.
If the Bushies hadn't screwed up by attacking Iraq when they knew damn well that they didn't have WMD's, maybe the world would believe us now when we raise the siren of alarm about Iran. THEY, not the democrats, are the ones who have destroyed our reputation around the world by allowing and encouraging torture and secret prisons, private contractors to run amok, and not even attempting to try diplomatic solutions.
At least with Obama, he is trying diplomacy, so if it fails, we will have a legitimate reasons to go to war, if, god forbid, it comes to that.
As for Afghanistan, Bush AND Obama messed up there. If Bush hadn't been focused on Iraq, and Rumsfeld hadn't denied the CIA the troops they needed when Osama was cornered in the Tora Bora mountains, we would have caught him and Al-Zawahiri a long time ago. As for Obama's troop buildup, he should send 100,000 more troops and put 500 artillery pieces on the Pakistani border and shell them night and day until they give us those two bastards.
(end of rant)