Sunday, November 20, 2005

The latest on Iran's nukes....


Today, Iran's majlis(parliament) approved a bill that requires the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the UN nuclear agency refers the Iranian program to the UN Security Council. I'm sure the debate on that was forceful and spirited...and maybe lasted all of three minutes.Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

In other news, apparently in a move to counter the new Bush /Putin proposal to enrich nuclear fuel in Russia, Iran agreed Sunday, Nov. 20, to suspend work on the conversion of raw uranium to UF6 gas at its high-speed centrifuge plant in Isfahan...on a strictly arbitrary basis.

Putin's proposal will probably be unacceptable to Iran, and the mullahs may simply be stalling for time to talk Putin out of it. Aside from the affront to that all-important Iranian national honor and the loss of control over the nuclear program, The Russians would not only charge Iran for the privilege, but might even try to get the Mullahs to pay for the processing plant.

If I were the Iranians, I'd at least pay lip service to this deal, as there is always the possiblity of siphoning off supplies little by little, or bribing the Russians to look the other way.

Or it may be that this proposal of Putin's is a sign that at long last, he realizes that Iran has played Russia for a sucker and has no intention of curtailing the jihad in Russia's Caucasus region. The attack on Nalchik last month might just have been a wakeup call.

With the new legislation,Iran is laying the groundwork for tossing the IAEA inspectors out if Iranis referred to the UN security council.

We'll see what happens..

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