Iran dug tunnel for military nuclear work

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Agathon
[The Americans of all people were smart enough to realize this, which is why they created the UN. We are still waiting for people to wake up to the fact that it is the only reasonable solution. Of course it is not a perfect solution, but it is the best that we can do.

Uh, HELLO? We're TRYING to work through the UN. What we want is for the EU3 to live up to their STATED policies, and to recommend to the IAEA to refer the Iranian matter to the UNSC for further consideration. However the fact that it is NOT being so referred, dueto the CHARADE going on between the EU3 and Iran, does NOT increase respect for the UN in the US.

[GePap]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Im not sure who the figure in Iran would be. Not the President, unless they change the system from what it was under Khatami. Maybe the head of the expediency council? Maybe the majority of the expediency council? The point is its more of a collective regime, than Iraq.

It would be Khameini.

There MAY not be a single regime leaders whose likely (future) arrest would deter in the present. If youre a ruling mullah, now, you have to think if youre more likely to end up like Saddam or like Al Duri. Its not 100% youll end up like Al Duri, but its not 100% you'll end up like Saddam either (oh, and we havent gotten Mullah Omar either, last I heard.) So it depends on how much you like risk.

Even if it does not end in personal death, it would end in regime death-what is the reason that a soverign state would have to surrender such a critical national asset like a nuke to anyone not fully under their control? And the point of letting it be used to attack anyone? The Iranians have had 25 years to help set up terrorist attacks in the US and fund such attack-they have not. Then they will spend billions on making a nuke and they will hand it to some terrorist to attack the US, and then what!? The Mullahs are conservatives, but they aren't salafist extremists.

And how much you, as the West are willing to risk that an Iranian decision maker is particularly unriskaverse. If you think that Irans nukes would help the regional power balance,as some seem to think, that may be a risk worth taking.

In the 25 years since the revolution the Iranians could have done so much more mischief than they have if they wanted-yes, they support Hizbullah and may have been behind a few terrorists attacks directly against the US in the gulf region-but these are small acts compared to what they could have done (heck, why not invade Iraq in 1992 to conquer it?). So where on earth does the notion come that all of a sudden they will invest billions in a nuke then then, BAM, do something stupid like giving it to a terrorist to attack the US!? In the last 25 they could have passed Chemical weapons know how to Hizbullah, since the Iranians used them during the Iran-Iraq war. Have they? Have the Syrians? The pakistanis ot nukes in 1998- did rogue Islamist in the regime pass it on to AQ? NO- to other states, yes, but a terrorist org?

No one has ever shown proof of any state, even state agencies acting on their own, passing knowledge of WMD's to non-state actors- and they have not even formulated a realistic reason why they would either.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Breakthrough: Iran to Aim Smaller Warheads at Euro Cities
(2004-11-26) -- After a week of tough negotiating by France, Germany and Britain, the Islamic Republic of Iran has conceded to reduce the size of nuclear warheads it will use in the eventual bombing of Paris, Berlin and London.

"Iran blinked," said French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who is a man. "We have achieved everything we wanted in these negotiations. Our capital cities will be spared to a certain degree and Iran has pledged to stop enriching uranium, while retaining 20 operating centrifuges, and continuing to process plutonium. This is a great victory of diplomacy."

A spokesman for Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said, "The Europeans are vigorous negotiators, and we have made deep concessions. The eventual survivors in Paris, Berlin and London will express gratitude to Allah when they compare their lot with the fate of Jerusalem and New York."

by Scott Ott http://www.scrappleface.com/

[Drake Tungsten]