West plays down Iran gesture, sticks to sanctions drive

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Western powers said on Tuesday Iran's continued stockpiling of enriched uranium devalued its deal to give up some of its potential nuclear bomb material, signaling Tehran would not evade more sanctions this way.

Under the deal agreed with Turkey and Brazil last week, Iran would send 1.2 tons of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey for safekeeping until Tehran received specially processed fuel for its medical isotope reactor around a year later.

But Western critics said the accord, echoing one brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog in October involving the same amount of LEU, would still leave Iran with enough material for one bomb, if enriched to high purity, since it is estimated to have almost doubled its LEU reserve with daily enrichment since then.

The United States, France and Russia -- parties to the original deal in principle -- saw it as a way to divest Iran of enough LEU to prevent covert "weaponisation," while giving Iran the means to maintain care for some 850,000 cancer patients.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Iran's gesture, six months after it backed away from the accord, as a "transparent ploy to avoid (U.N.) Security Council action" to pass a fourth Iran sanctions resolution now on the table.

Clinton, speaking after talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing, and French officials said Iran's launch of higher-level enrichment in February seemed to eclipse any fuel swap deal.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O4BZ20100525

[Mr. Sparkle]

1. It just goes to show how this fake attack on Iran is bullshit, just like Iraq.

I have yet to see proof that Iran is actually trying to build nuclear weapons.

[Delphinus]

6. Drawing the line

in the sand all over again, just like Dubya and Saddam.

Enough with the sanctions!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Iran essentially agreed to the terms we set down, and then we moved the goal post.

The Obama administration is letting a golden opportunity to settle this issue slip through its fingers.

[EFerrari]

3. The State Department made fun of Lula in the press the whole time

he was negotiating.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. We are pushing Iran into a corner

where there can be no internal pressure within Iran to compromise. The CIA's top game theory analyst gave a brilliant TED talk about how to get Iran to play nice: keep the sanctions presently in place where they are but stop pushing them into a confrontation. What will happen then is that the moderate factions will slowly come to dominate, Iran will back off from actually developing a weapon, while retaining a face saving nuclear research and nuclear power capability within the terms of the NNPT. That almost just happened. What a shame.

[EFerrari]

5. It is a shame. I wrote a letter to President DinnerJacket today

for those three hikers; that probably put me on another list. When you think about it, Iran is holding those kids too long but they are in good shape and their mothers were welcomed to visit them. They are in good quarters, have good food and medical care. I wonder how many of our "detainees" have similar accomodations.

/oops

[Delphinus]

7. Iraq, part two.

At least.