Stage-managed nuclear tour reveals why Iran won't be the first to blink
Ann Pinketh of The Independent and five other journalists from Britain, France, Germany and the US tour the nuclear facility in Isfahan but are denied permission at the last minute to visit the critical nuclear facility at Natanz, Arak:
A short propaganda film, accompanied by stirring music, shows the triumph of Iranian scientists as they celebrated the production of the first vial of uranium hexafluoride from yellowcake in 2004. Since that breakthrough - according to Hamid Mohajerani, the plant's 30-year old general manager - some 200 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas have been produced. The feed material, stored in white cylinders, is dispatched, in full view of the cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for enrichment to Natanz where the IAEA has confirmed Iran's claim to have mastered the technology to enrich the uranium hexafluoride to the 3.5 per cent level required for civil purposes.
If the uranium was enriched to 93 per cent or more, Iran would have weapons grade fuel. However Western experts say the country is still between five and 10 years away from producing a bomb.
The West's need for objective guarantees of Iran's peaceful intentions has been further reinforced with the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A fierce critic of the West, he has raised tensions with Israel through his repeated references to the disappearance of the Jewish state. He is also a firm believer in the prophesied return of the Shia "hidden imam". According to some scholars, a nuclear holocaust may be needed to hasten the promised reappearance of the 12th imam who disappeared into a cave in 878.
But the Esfahan conversion plant's public relations general manager, Hossein Simorg, stresses: "All our activities are completely peaceful, and all activities are applied for peaceful, industrial and agricultural work."
...President Bush does not want to hand over an unresolved nuclear crisis with Iran to his successor and continues to declare that all options, including military, remain on the table.
This is a game of chicken played for the highest stakes, involving national pride. It holds the risk of regional conflagration and a potential nuclear arms race in the Middle East if Iran continues on its present course. But seen from here, the Iranians will not be the ones to blink first.And here is the rest of it.
ABF, for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran
3 comments:
Hi Serendip,
However Western experts say the country is still between five and 10 years away from producing a bomb.
When was the last time the "experts" were right on an issue like this? They don't have a very god track record, in my opinion. The "experts" have been caught by surprise by India, Pakistan and North Korea.... recently.
But seen from here, the Iranians will not be the ones to blink first.
I agree with that. I also don't think the US and/or Israel will blink. I think the US and Iran will be at war during 2008. I think even the democrats will support (at least quietly if not publicly) US military action against Iran, during Bush's last year in office. They would rather Bush takes the heat for it than to have to deal with the problem when they are in the White House. And, really, I don't see much evidence of dissent in the US government, when it comes to Iran.
I was wanting a tour of the tunnel complex -- follow the tunnel equipment road -- guess that was expecting too much.
I also don't think the US and/or Israel will blink.
I really hope you're write. Blinking in our part means agreeing to giving the regime the only thing they want from us, which is the 'security guarantee'. That is the only thing that would make them stop going nuclear. If we give them what they want not only we have gambled away our own national security but the entire region, including the lives of the Iranian people.
I don't know if you read Bani Sadr's interview. He also makes a iron clad case against Iran blinking. I wish all the pundits and experts read his statements.
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