Iran and the reasoning of the western internal opposition

In the ASIA TIMES this week we find this.....

Iran spinning centrifuges - and half-truths
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Iran's unexpected agreement with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, to resolve old issues surrounding its nuclear program in less than two months, and the fact that it has installed only two-thirds of the centrifuges previously announced, indicate that Tehran may be positioning itself for another bid for a diplomatic solution.

The IAEA report circulated to board members last week, which is still unpublished but has been leaked to the press, says only- 2,000 centrifuges have been activated. In mid-2006 and again in January, Iranian officials had said they planned to have a 3,000-centrifuge cascade spinning by some time last spring.....ElBaradei admitted that both technical difficulties and political considerations could have been factors in the shortfall. But he said, "My gut feeling tells me that Iran has responded positively to my repeated demands that it scale back the program."

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad announced this week that Iran had actually achieved the goal of 3,000 operational centrifuges. That was obviously aimed at appealing to his own domestic base of people who regard the uranium-enrichment program as a matter of national pride.

But as Peter Beaumont, foreign-affairs editor of The Observer in London, reported in January, Western diplomats and technical experts have long been "extremely doubtful that Iran has yet mastered the skills to install and run" such a large cascade of centrifuges. Iranian willingness to reach formal agreement in three separate meetings with ElBaradei in July and August to resolve all remaining issues on its past nuclear research by November was clearly aimed at moving the Iran nuclear dossier from the United Nations Security Council back to the IAEA and averting a military confrontation with the US

So, Iran has 2000 not 3000 (Is that true? If so, strike up the band?), and they want a deal (don't make it 'happy days are here again').

Let's take a close look at the way this is all set up as being a set of facts.

WHO IS GARETH PORTER, AND IS HE WRITING FACT OR DOES HE HAVE A POLITICAL PROJECT?

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