Sunday, March 05, 2006
The Easy Con
PowerLine Blog notes that It wasn't hard for Iran to con the West : "In today's Telegraph, Iran's nuclear negotiator is revealed bragging to Iranian clerics how he duped the West: ' How we duped the West, by Iran's nuclear negotiator.' Philip Sherwell reports from Washington:
The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic programme.
In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002. .... From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them',' he said.
Well, the Europeans proved an easy mark for the Iranian con artists and they have completed their nuclear processing facilities at Ishfahan. But there is still the issue of what happens after the case goes to the UN Security council , as seems likely now.
There is an interesting item on that in the Baroness Alexandra von Maltzen blog post that PowerLine credits with beating the Telegraph to this story at All Things Beautiful: MSM Ignores Iran's Admission Of Guilt: "According to Mr. Rowhani, the “danger” of the Security Council is that “once reaching that level, other questions like our missile program, which they are very sensitive about, would also come up. And at the Security Council, one can be sure that Russia or China would not sacrifice their interests with the West to theirs with Iran”, he stressed.
Informed military sources believe Iran has developed new versions of its Shahab 3 ballistic missiles capable of reaching as far as Israel and shores of southern Europe, carrying a nuclear device."
Maybe this UN action won't be just another futile delay on the path to more direct action. One can always hope.
The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic programme.
In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002. .... From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them',' he said.
Well, the Europeans proved an easy mark for the Iranian con artists and they have completed their nuclear processing facilities at Ishfahan. But there is still the issue of what happens after the case goes to the UN Security council , as seems likely now.
There is an interesting item on that in the Baroness Alexandra von Maltzen blog post that PowerLine credits with beating the Telegraph to this story at All Things Beautiful: MSM Ignores Iran's Admission Of Guilt: "According to Mr. Rowhani, the “danger” of the Security Council is that “once reaching that level, other questions like our missile program, which they are very sensitive about, would also come up. And at the Security Council, one can be sure that Russia or China would not sacrifice their interests with the West to theirs with Iran”, he stressed.
Informed military sources believe Iran has developed new versions of its Shahab 3 ballistic missiles capable of reaching as far as Israel and shores of southern Europe, carrying a nuclear device."
Maybe this UN action won't be just another futile delay on the path to more direct action. One can always hope.
