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November 17, 2004

Iran Lays Basis To Kill Nuke Deal

The Iranians are not going to stick with this "deal" that they have made with France, Britain and Germany:

Iran warned Wednesday that its agreement to suspend sensitive nuclear activities was subject to rapid progress being made in a new round of negotiations due to begin next month.

Already, Iran is messing around with the timeframe, in which it wishes to see "progress" in the nuclear talks:

Khatami said it was also now up to the IAEA board and the EU to respond in kind to Iran's latest "gesture of goodwill." He said this would be a first step in proving to Iran that the diplomacy was worthwhile.

"Before we spoke of a maximum period of six months, but now we do not want to fix a timeframe," he said of his country's pledge to suspend enrichment activities. "We have not fixed a date."

Another top official, nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian, also signaled that Iran was expecting rapid progress in the coming months.

"Within three to four months at the most, we should reach a stage where we have an overall conclusion. If they come to no conclusion or say the only visible guarantee would be to halt enrichment altogether, Iran will not accept this," he told state television.

Soon it will be one or two months, and then a few weeks, and then Iran will see no "progress" and withdrawl together. Iran has no intention of ceasing - for any significant period of time - the enrichment of uranium.

As I said a few days ago, I trust the British to come up with a good, workable deal with Iran. However, the French and Germans are as gullible and rollable as Neville Chamberlain was in 1938. They have their own interests, which do not necessarily include a nuclear free Iran.

UPDATE: An Iranian opposition group alleges that Iran bought blueprints for a nuclear bomb on the black-market:

Iran bought blueprints of a nuclear bomb from the same black-market network that gave Libya such diagrams and continues to enrich uranium despite a commitment to suspend the technology that can be used for atomic weapons, an Iranian opposition group said Wednesday.

Farid Soleimani, a senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran, said the diagram was provided by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani head of the nuclear network linked to clandestine programs in both Iran and Libya.

``He gave them the same weapons design he gave the Libyans as well as more in terms of weapons design,'' Soleimani told reporters in Vienna. He said the diagram and related material on how to make nuclear weapons was handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996.

Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said, ``we follow up every solid lead,'' but added the U.N. nuclear watchdog would have no further comment.

A diplomat familiar with the agency and its investigations into Libya's and Iran's nuclear programs said the IAEA has long feared that Iran might have received bomb-making blueprints from Khan.

``The IAEA has found that Iran received pretty much the same things Libya did from his network,'' said the diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. ``The one thing that they have not been able to find was the blueprint.''

Libya bought engineers' drawings of a Chinese-made bomb through the Khan network as part of a covert nuclear program that it renounced last year.

Iran says it does not have such drawings, and no evidence has been found to dispute that claim. But experts say it is possible that Iran possesses a copy.

Now, Iran may very well have a blueprint for a nuclear bomb, and France and Germany are going to be trusted to deal with these people?

Posted at 11:40 AM Pacific