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Iran talks get results

Peephole

Master Poster
Peephole
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
2,584
Eight years of threats = nothing

Eight hours of diplomacy =
GENEVA — Iran agreed in principle Thursday to ship most of its current stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be refined for exclusively peaceful uses, in what Western diplomats called a significant, but interim, measure to ease concerns over its nuclear program.

The agreement was announced after seven and a half hours of talks in Geneva that included the highest-level official U.S.-Iranian encounter in three decades.

Iran also pledged that within weeks it would allow the inspection of a previously covert uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, announced that he'd head to Tehran to work out the details.

...

Envoys from Iran and the other nations that met here — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — agreed to reconvene before the end of October, raising prospects for sustained negotiations after 15 months of no talks and rising tensions.

Despite the hopeful signs, however, Iranian nuclear envoy Saeed Jalili gave no ground on demands that Tehran halt the enrichment of uranium, which can be used for both civilian nuclear power and nuclear weapons, according to U.S. and European officials who were present.

...

Under the tentative uranium deal, Iran would ship what a U.S. official said was "most" of its approximately 3,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be further refined, to 19.75 percent purity. That is much less than the purity needed to fuel a nuclear bomb.

French technicians then would fabricate it into fuel rods and return it to Tehran to power a nuclear research reactor that's used to make isotopes for nuclear medicine. Iran says the old reactor, which dates from the Shah's era, is running out of nuclear fuel.

A second senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, said that Iran doesn't have the technology to convert the fuel rods back into bomb-making material.

...

Iran agreed to the deal "in principle," U.S. officials said, and there's to be a meeting in Vienna on Oct. 18 to work out details.

During Thursday's talks, the U.S. and five other countries reiterated a June 2008 offer to halt the imposition of economic sanctions if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment program.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/76369.html
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B-b-b-b-but Obama lost the Olympic bid which means any of his diplomatic efforts are in shambles forever!
 
Well, "in principle." We'll see if it happens.


That said...I'm all for engaging with Iran's nuclear program, rather than trying to prevent it. That way, we make sure it's a peaceful program, and we get more working, safe, nuclear power plants out there. Win-win, for all concerned.
 
Ah, let us hope it happens.

But in Iranian diplomatic speech, "agreeing in principle" usually means "no", and "within weeks" usually means "never". At least that's what previous experience showed.

When dealing with Iran, "gets results" is when they occur, not when they're promised.
 
But... but... but... they said they would! Isn't that just as good as doing it?
 
Hey, if you can't trust the vague promises of loony religious fanatics who are seeking a nuclear bomb, who can you trust, eh?!
 
Actually, Obama has been threatening Iran, giving deadlines and getting allies on board for sanctions. He also has made clear that military options are on the table.

If Iran actually keeps its promises this time it probably has much more to do with Russia finally hinting it will go along with tougher sanctions than anything else.

But as has been pointed out, they haven't actually done anything yet.

And it's not like talks haven't been taking place over the last 8 years, in fact the last ones were only a year ago.
 
Skeptic said:
Hey, if you can't trust the vague promises of loony religious fanatics who are seeking a nuclear bomb, who can you trust, eh?!
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Obama = the Chamberlain of the new century?

All that is old is new again.
 
Yah, Iran has suddenly turned over a new leaf and wishes to be part of the community of nations.

US State Dep't Report On State Sponsors Of Terrorism...

Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy.


The Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad. The Qods Force provided aid in the form of weapons, training, and funding to HAMAS and other Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hizballah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Iran remained a principal supporter of groups that are implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process. Iran provided weapons, training, and funding to HAMAS and other Palestinian terrorist groups, including Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Iran’s provision of training, weapons, and money to HAMAS since the 2006 Palestinian elections has bolstered the group’s ability to strike Israel. In 2008, Iran provided more than $200 million in funding to Lebanese Hizballah and trained over 3,000 Hizballah fighters at camps in Iran. Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah conflict, Iran has assisted Hizballah in rearming, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.


Iran’s IRGC Qods Force provided assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Qods Force provided training to the Taliban on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons. Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives to select Taliban members.


Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continued to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to Iraqi militant groups that targeted Coalition and Iraqi forces and killed innocent Iraqi civilians. Iran’s Qods Force continued to provide Iraqi militants with Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, and mortars that have killed Iraqi and Coalition Forces as well as civilians. Tehran was responsible for some of the lethality of anti-Coalition attacks by providing militants with the capability to assemble improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that were specially designed to defeat armored vehicles. The Qods Force, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah, provided training both inside and outside of Iraq for Iraqi militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology and other advanced weaponry.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its al-Qa’ida detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some al-Qa’ida members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Senior IRGC and Qods Force officials were indicted by the Government of Argentina for their alleged roles in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Argentine Israel Mutual Association which, according to the Argentine State Prosecutor’s report, was initially proposed by the Qods Force.
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Marc39 said:
Yah, Iran has suddenly turned over a new leaf and wishes to be part of the community of nations.

US State Dep't Report On State Sponsors Of Terrorism...
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Replacing a vacuum left by the fall of the Soviet Union. Good thing we never negotiated with the Soviets.
 
Have I read the OP wrong?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/76369.html
....Iranian nuclear envoy Saeed Jalili gave no ground on demands that Tehran halt the enrichment of uranium,
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Iran has not agreed to give up enrichment, which is what every body was calling for. To me, this sounds like Iran is gaining.

Iran will pass along some of the Uranium they have enriched so far, and go on enriching more. In return, they will get back Uranium which is more highly enriched than they gave up in the first place. Iran has never said no to this. They have, on the other hand, said that if they can't buy Uranium enriched to around 20% from elsewhere then they would enrich it themselves. Because they need it for a particular reactor.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jIb4xkfE53XNXh72IJgcG3neBqVQ

"As I said in New York, we need 19.75 percent-enriched uranium. We said that, and we propose to buy it from anybody who is ready to sell it to us. We are ready to give 3.5 percent-enriched uranium and then they can enrich it more and deliver to us 19.75 percent-enriched uranium."

In New York last week, Ahmadinejad said Iran would seek to enrich uranium to 20 percent itself if it could not find the product in the market for its research reactor in Tehran.
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The plant at Natanz will go on working.

From 2008:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHAF83520020080618

"Iran will never give in to the illegitimate and illegal pressure of the West (to freeze its uranium enrichment)," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh in a speech in London about the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, presented Tehran on Saturday with a new package of economic incentives designed to persuade it to curb its nuclear work, which the West fears is aimed a building a nuclear weapon.

Solana said Iran should stop enrichment during negotiations to implement the offer.
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So who has moved?
 
Talking is far better then bombing, so this is a plus. If Diplomacy is exhausted, then other options can be looked at, but I don't honestly see how trying diplomacy can be considered a bad thing.
 
I don't think anybody says trying diplomacy in principle is bad, just that it is premature to celebrate how democracy "works" when it's the same-old, same-old time-buying evasions from the Iranians.
 
Skeptic said:
I don't think anybody says trying diplomacy in principle is bad, just that it is premature to celebrate how democracy "works" when it's the same-old, same-old time-buying evasions from the Iranians.
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But is it the same old evasions?

It seems to me it's like the same old: "We won't stop enrichment. In fact, if you go on refusing to sell us 20% enriched Uranium then we will enrich to that level ourselves."
 
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UnrepentantSinner said:
Replacing a vacuum left by the fall of the Soviet Union. Good thing we never negotiated with the Soviets.
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The Soviets were not religious whackjobs seeking to die. Thus, the concept of mutually assured self-destruction is inoperative.
 
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Peephole said:
Eight years of threats = nothing

Eight hours of diplomacy =
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My Lord, what a foolish statement.

Diplomacy does not happen in a vacuum. The various forms of suasion that a plethora of nations, US, European, Russia, others, have been applying to Iran for the past few years are all prequel to the latest round of negotiations.

Your dishonest characterization via headline ought to embarass you.

But wait, you are from Belgium, where the natives all talk talk, but other people pay in BLOOD for your freedom.

You ought to get down on you knees every day and thank the British for coming, not once, but twice, to bleed for your freedom to be the most despicable collection of bureaucrats and Eurocrats assembled in so small a space on the planet earth. All flash, no boom, that is Belgium in a nutshell. Please feel free to notice that the second time, the Brits could not have done it without our help.

Here's a new adage: "The whinging never stops among the unworthy."

It's model is Belgium.

DR
 
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rjh01 said:
The equation in the OP is not quite right. It is
Eight years of threats + Eight hours of diplomacy = <the quote>
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So were all those 6-party talks during the Bush admin. something made up by the news media?
 
No threats by Obama?
President Obama on Friday warned Iran that it is "on notice" and faces international condemnation — and perhaps confrontation — if it continues to work on a previously secret nuclear facility.

...And though Obama said he preferred a diplomatic solution to Iran's apparent violation of international nonproliferation rules, he did not rule out military action.

"I've always saidsaid that we do not rule out any options when it comes to [United States] security," Obama said. "But the preferred action is to resolve this in diplomatic action."
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113212186
 
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