So Iran and the US had their highest diplomatic meeting in 30 years yesterday. What came of it? Oh, the breathless announcement that Iran would hand over most of it's enriched uranium to be further processed in Russia. Iran would then use that returned higher grade uranium for a Tehran nuclear reactor which produces medical isotopes but is running low on fuel. Great. That would buy some time for further negotiations by reducing Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium.
So what happened today regarding that deal? Oh nothing but the predictable backtracking, hemming and hawing and Iranian officials talking out of 4 different sides of their mouths at the same time.
But a senior Iranian official said the deal was preliminary and contested reports that Iran was ready to send 1.2 tons of its 1.5-tonne low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad for refining to the 20 percent purity needed for the Tehran reactor.
"Whatever they've agreed (in Geneva) on 20 percent enrichment is just based on principles," the official told Reuters. "We have not agreed on any amount or any numbers."
http://www.reuters.com/...
yeah suckas, it's just preliminary. We havn't agreed to anything, even tho we said we had, we hadn't. Got it suckas. We just wanted to dangle some bait, to get some positive press and spin on the meeting. Jesus these Western suckas what a bunch of suckas.
The weapons grade enrichment plant at Qom buried in a moiuntain on a Rev Guard military base also came up for discussion. Yes, the one Iran had hidden for years in violation of IAEA protocol - just ask the head of the IAEA. Supposedly inspectors will be allowed access soon. Obama has given a two week deadline.
However......
A more justifiable question is whether Iran will allow the IAEA to inspect all its nuclear facilities, not just one. At Geneva, Jalili apparently agreed to allow inspection of the newly revealed facility in the mountains outside Qom. (The CIA has come in for much battering of late. It deserves plaudits for its detection and monitoring of the Qom site.)
But how many undisclosed facilities does Iran have? In its letter last week to the IAEA, 'fessing up to Qom once it learned the CIA had detected it, Iran talked of undisclosed sites--plural. Western intelligence agencies reckon that Iran has "more than a dozen" construction sites whose purpose is "suspect, according to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate sent by the CIA to President Bush. Daily satellite runs over Iran have enabled the CIA to track work at those sites. But satellite images can't prove their purposes. Will Iran really agree to give the IAEA nationwide access?
http://blog.newsweek.com/...
But how many undisclosed facilities does Iran have? That's an excellent question.
The inspectors will be restricted to requesting visits to facilities that Iran has declared part of its nuclear program, for example. Iran has refused to ratify a 1992 protocol that allows inspectors access to any site they believe may be nuclear-related.
http://online.wsj.com/...
That sounds like a big hindrance to getting to the bottom of Iran's nuke program, eh? I wonder if that was discussed at Geneva.
Speaking of that 2007 NIE report, Alan Dershowitz makes an excellent point. The existance of this weapons grade enrichment plant in Qom has been known about since before 2007, yet it concluded Iran had abandoned it's nuclear weapons program. That sounds like a lie.
It now turns out that at the time this "stupid intelligence" estimate was released, our intelligence agencies were aware that the Iranians were building a secret military facility buried deep in the mountains near the holy city of Qom. The United States recently disclosed the existence of this facility (after Iran was forced to acknowledge its existence) together with its firm conclusion that it could be used only for the development of a nuclear weapons program. If the intelligence community knew then what they know now, then its 2007 National Intelligence Estimate was not only stupid, it was dishonest.
http://cgis.jpost.com/...
And reports have more Arabs getting alarmed at the prospect of a nuclear Iran. Some even favor bombing it's nuclear facilities.
The head of a prominent research center in Dubai said that it might even be better if the West — or Israel — staged a military strike on Iran, rather than letting it emerge as a nuclear power. That kind of talk from Arabs was nearly unheard of before the revelation of the second enrichment plant, and while still rare, it reflects growing alarm.
"Israel can start the attack but they can’t sustain it; the United States can start it and sustain it," said Abdulaziz Sager, a Saudi businessman and former diplomat who is chairman of the Gulf Research Center in the United Arab Emirates. "The region can live with a limited retaliation from Iran better than living with a permanent nuclear deterrent. I favor getting the job done now instead of living the rest of my life with a nuclear hegemony in the region that Iran would like to impose."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
go figga.
So Iran continues to play games, continues to deal cards from the bottom of the deck, continues to deceive. Obama has given a two week deadline for inspection of the Qom facility. Let's see how that goes. Let's see how much enriched uranium Iran hands over for reprocessing, if any.
moon