Iran: Nuclear News

The dance continues:

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made the following statement on Friday on behalf of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany after they met to discuss Iran's nuclear program.

"We've just had a positive and productive meeting of five foreign ministers and the vice-foreign minister from China to talk about the next steps in our approach to the grave problem that we see in respect of Iran's nuclear program.

"Firstly, we are united in our belief that the threat posed by this enrichment program to stability is very serious and it's one that we want to address directly.

Big words, must mean they have finally had it, right? Well, no.....

Same tactic, different day:

"Secondly, we are united in our determination to pursue a twin-track strategy. Last month, at our instigation the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1803 setting out a range of sanctions, the third set of sanctions against Iran.
[snip]
"And our meeting today has been dedicated towards taking the offer that we made in June 2006, reviewing it and updating it, and I'm glad to say that we've got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran.

In the meantime, Khamenei has stepped into the ring. You know, just to set the record straight:

Ali Khamenei, mullahs’ supreme leader in a speech on Sunday (5/4/08) vowed that Iranian regime would press ahead with its nuclear program, two days after major powers said they had prepared a new offer to convince Tehran's regime to halt its nuclear activities.

“We will continue on our own path with strength” and “no threats would deter” us to “back down”, the sate-run radio quoted Khamenei as saying on a visit to the southern Fars province.

Khamenei's remarks came after the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- and Germany agreed on Friday to offer a new package of incentives to the Iranian mullahs in return for ceasing uranium enrichment activities, a major component of building a nuclear bomb.

So, it seems the Security Council is still, singing in the wind. And, Rt. Hon. Lord David Waddinton, QC, agrees:

The Iranian Regime’s nuclear ambitions are a threat to world peace. In dealing with this threat and with the Regime’s unbridled meddling in Iraq and the Middle East, the West needs to make a strategic choice.

Iran’s mullahs have managed to remain several moves ahead of us thus far, and last August Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to say with conviction: “Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap.”

The chairman of the United States’ Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael G. Mullen acknowledged in April that Tehran was continuing to funnel weapons and other aid to extremists in Iraq for use against Coalition troops. He highlighted in particular the “increasingly lethal and malign influence” exercised by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s extra-territorial Qods Force, which is bent on destabilizing not only Iraq but the rest of the Middle East.

Admiral Mullen’s words were then backed up by the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, who on Monday told the Security Council that the Revolutionary Guard Qods Force "continues to arm, train, and fund illegal armed groups in Iraq”. He then added, "This lethal aid poses a significant threat to Iraqi and multinational forces and to the stability and sovereignty of Iraq."

The Revolutionary Guard has also had a pivotal role in furthering the regime’s clandestine nuclear weapons program. The main opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), claims that the Revolutionary Guard is running a secret center to build a nuclear warhead at Mojdeh, southeast of Tehran. The Guard also supervises all uranium enrichment activity at the infamous Natanz complex.

Today, the Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany meet in London to expand on an earlier offer of economic incentives to Tehran in return for a promise by the Regime to halt uranium enrichment.

The international community seems to be almost entirely unaware of the regime’s stated intention to pursue its atomic work at any cost, and yet Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been quite brazen about it.
In February he boasted that Iran had gradually managed to pacify the international community’s demands that Iran comply with UN resolutions.

“Those people who used to say Iran's nuclear activity must be dismantled are now saying they are ready to accept our advances, on condition that it will not continue indefinitely,” Khamenei said. “This is a great advance that would not have been realized except with perseverance."

Ahmadinejad is also on record as saying in February,

"If they [the Security Council] want to continue with that path [of sanctions], we will not be harmed. They can issue resolutions for 100 years. ... If they continue [with this pressure], we have designed reciprocal actions." I fear that the “reciprocal actions” would be felt on the streets of Baghdad, Beirut and the Gaza Strip in attacks masterminded by the Revolutionary Guard.

Surely if the West is really determined to address the threat from Tehran, it needs to show some muscle rather than offer more concessions to a regime with no intention of abandoning its unlawful activities.

So what is the answer? Could it be Israel, again?

Israel Has Specific Inelligence On An Iranian Nuke