Asking For It Again

Deadline Arrives And Iran Isn't Playing Ball

The story so far:
Nobody really cares that much for the average Iranian citizen. The USA certainly doesn't. The old allies of Europe and the anglophone nations certainly don't. The Spanish speaking world really doesn't, and neither does Asia or Africa. So it then falls to the leadership of Iran to look after its people.

The current leadership has argued it must develop nuclear power, but in that process they've deliberately gone towards an opaque path where it could be interepretted that they are developing nuclear weapons - and that's putting it very politely. The world would really like to make sure that they don't. The Iranian leadership, for all its moxy, want to leave that option open. So, in what is turning into a really bad replay of Iraq and the WMD situation, this time, the first world is trying to figure out which shell the nuke is under.

Iran is hoping to rope-a-dope its way to the point of acquiring nuclear weapons after which they can stare down the world with the spectre of a nuclear armageddon. Have I got your attention? Good. Because this is an ugly situation we have here.

Iran's hard-line President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today claimed that the Islamic country was "united" behind its nuclear programme, on the day of the United Nations' deadline arrived for it to be halted or for Iran to face the prospect of sanctions.

Speaking this morning to a reported audience of thousands in Orumiyeh in north western Iran, Mr Ahmadinejad accused the United States of trying to stir up divisions in Iran opposing the regime - but vowed it would press ahead with its programme.

"I tell them: you are wrong. The Iranian nation is united," he said.

In his speech, Mr Ahmadinejad also criticised the US' rejection of his idea of a televised debate between him and President Bush.

"They say they support dialogue and the free flow of information. But when debate was proposed, they avoided and opposed it," the Iranian President said.

He spoke as the UN-imposed deadline for Iran to halt its programme arrived. The International Atomic Energy Agency was expected to publish a report in Vienna, Austria, detailing the progress of the Iranian programme. If it indicates a nuclear programme is still ongoing and progressing, as expected, the IAEA's report could trigger UN sanctions on Iran by confirming that Tehran has defied a Security Council demand that it freeze uranium enrichment.

Iran could theoretically still announce a full stop to enrichment before today's ultimatum set by the Security Council. But Mr Ahmadinejad's comments this morning made that appear extremely unlikely.

The Security Council had set today as a deadline for Iran to freeze such activities and asked for the IAEA to report on compliance. Members will reconvene next week to decide on whether to impose sanctions.

Now, the analysis on this to date is still the case that American can't afford to go to war with Iran because it has its hands full in Afghanistan and Iraq; Iraq of course is on the verge of civil war. Iran for its money is playing this game of brinksmanship because it has seen how weak in the knees America gets when it comes to North Korea. So the upside of having nuclear bombs is just too good to pass up.
It's a stinking mess.