Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Ready to Impose United Nations Sanctions on Iran Over Uranium Enrichment
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seen August 3, 2006. Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran could not abandon its nuclear programme when the United States developed new atomic bombs every year, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Fox News: Bush Administration Plans to Impose U.N. Sanctions on Iran
The United States intends to move very quickly in early September to impose U.N. sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment of uranium, a senior State Department official said Thursday.
“They will be well-deserved,” Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters. “It’s not a mystery to the Iranians what is going to happen.”
But, Iran doesn’t care.
Iran and the Arab world sees the United Nations as a JOKE and a toothless paper tiger. Witness UNSCR 1701 enforcement with Israel and Hezbollah. Israel is in the process of withdrawl from southern Lebanon and the UNSC will NEVER enforce the resolution with the UNIFIL forces. Therefore, Hezbvollah wins and Iran goes about its business in rebuilding and refortifying Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Moreover, Iran has two permanent members of the Security Council in their BACK/HIP pocket – Russia and China. President Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs realize that NO SERIOUS sanctions will EVER be voted out of the UNSC. Russia and China will simply veto the measure – if it ever even comes to a vote.
Nicholas Burns and Condoleeza Rice are deluding themselves to think that the United Nations is the vehicle for stopping the Iranian nuclear program. The P-5-Plus-1 proposal has given the Bush Administration diplomatic cover to impose AMERICAN sanctions on Iran. And it is about damn time.
In the meantime, Iran President Ahmadinejad continues to bloviate.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to stand by the country’s nuclear work, insisting the UN Security Council cannot deprive Iran of its “rights”, state news agency IRNA reported.”The Iranian people stand by their rights with solidarity. They cannot deprive Iran of its undeniable rights with these sessions and paper-shuffling,” he said in remarks aimed at UN Security Council members on Thursday.
The West, led by the United States, suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies those charges, saying its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.
“Those who attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs are posing as peaceful now and trying to prevent Iran from exercising its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” he said of Iran’s arch-enemy the United States.
And Nicholas Burns and Foggey Bottom think they can negotiate with these folks?
NO WAY
Stay tuned…….
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Ready to Discuss Suspension of Uranium Enrichment?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Cleric Ahmad Khatami Warns Israel of Missile Attack
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
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john Carey
Flap: You know what is going on; that’s for sure!
Israel Retires From the Stage; Maybe for a Greater Strategic Reason
By John E. Carey
August 17, 2006
Just suppose the United States and Israel agreed to a graceful withdrawal from Lebanon, to limit the destruction and bloodshed, and to put this chapter behind them.
Now, conceivably, the big task can be tackled.
On September 1, unless Iran desists in its pursuit of nuclear weapons, it will be time for a confrontation between the US and Iran.
We can expect some sanctions against Iran then in two weeks or so. These are warranted by the UN.
“They will be well-deserved,” Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters Thursday. “It’s not a mystery to the Iranians what is going to happen.”
For his part, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed not to give an inch.
“The Iranian people stand by their rights with solidarity. They cannot deprive Iran of its undeniable rights with these sessions and paper-shuffling,” Ahmadinejad said in remarks aimed at UN Security Council members on Thursday.
“Those who attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs are posing as peaceful now and trying to prevent Iran from exercising its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” he said of Iran’s arch-enemy the United States.
Iran has said that on August 22 it will respond to an offer of incentives, including cooperation and multilateral talks, in return for suspending enrichment.
So maybe, just maybe, it was a good idea to ask Israel to depart from Lebanon and the world stage last weekend in order to pave the way for the real show: a face off with Iran.
Such minuets have been played out before.
In 1991, as the US and its vast coalition moved against Saddam Hussein to eject his forces from Kuwait, Saddam elected to shoot SCUD missiles into Israel.
Israel reacted as any nation would. They mobilized and prepared for war.
But Israel was asked to stay out of that war, so that George H. W. Bush’s carefully crafted coalition (including Arab states) could remain in tact and engaged.
We will have to wait a few days to see if our theory looks good. But for now, neither side seems ready to relent to the other.
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Accountability Time In Israel
By John E. Carey
August 17, 2006
There are some simple rules of accountability in the U.S. military and in other places in the world. These can be rather ruthless as they enforce strict guidelines of ethics, personal performance and professional achievement.
The people of Israel must make their own assessment of their leaders in this war. But if the tenants of personal accountability followed by the U.S. military are enforced, there will be some changes at the top of Israel’s leadership team in the weeks ahead.
We therefore briefly review some of the players during the last two months or so in Israel.
Foreign Minister
“There can no longer be militias and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.â€
These words were spoken by Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to der SPIEGEL on July 25, 2006.
This promise (or assertion?) was not fulfilled.
Moreover, Ms. Livni was absent from the United Nations in New York while that august body crafted the terms of the cease fire agreement. When she prepared to leave Israel, less than 24 hours before the cease fire was finalized in New York, the Prime Minister sent Mr. Shimon Peres instead of his Foreign Minister.
Ms. Livni will most probably be asked to leave the government.
Defense Minister
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz should retire.
Israel lost 118 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians in the conflict that began July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Reservists also complained of lack of essential equipment.
There were three key objectives of the war:
–Elimination of Hezbollah’s rockets.
–Disruption or annihilation of Hezbollah.
–Return of captured Israeli soldiers.
None of these objectives were met.
The people of Israel now have a diminished confidence in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Israel’s enemies are surely emboldened that the IDF is now no longer seen as invincible.
Mr. Peretz is already trying to implicate defense chiefs in his downfall. As public criticism of the war’s handling mounted in Israel, the Haaretz daily quoted Defense Minister Amir Peretz Wednesday as saying top military officers did not relay all relevant information about Hezbollah’s arsenal after he took office in May.
There are other controversies involving Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz but they are of no consequence. The fact that Israel waged a war so unsuccessfully, and flattened much of southern Lebanon in the process, is a responsibility that clearly rests upon his doorstep.
Prime Minister
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, already under fire for his handling of the Lebanon war, is facing a possible probe over a Jerusalem property deal.
Olmert and his wife are to be summoned for questioning over the deal by the government’s top watchdog, the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday.
But this could all be window dressing.
Mister Olmert led his nation into war and then lost the war.
Mr. Olmert’s “on again, off again†handling of the IDF manacled generals in the field. His famous 48 hour air assault cease fire was a terrific failure. By withholding the main thrust of the ground offensive to the Litani River while diplomats dithered in New York, Mr. Olmert handcuffed his generals and needlessly put lives at risk.
As Shmuel Rosner reminded Israeli readers in the Haaretz newspaper on Thursday, “This is not a Presidency – it’s the constant coalition of the willing, and the weaker the Prime Minister gets, the faster he will be abandoned by his partners.â€
Or, as observer Noah Pollak wrote, “To most Israelis, supporters of Israel, and especially to the IDF soldiers I spoke to on the border over the past few days, the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that recently went into effect is viewed as a cruel indignity, a dangerous projection of Israeli weakness and equivocation, and a plucking of defeat from the jaws of victory.â€
The people of Israel, we expect, will come to their own conclusions on Mr. Olmert.
On The Rise?
So who may be on the rise in Israel? Perhaps Bibi Netanyahu.
Former Prime Minister and hard liner Mr. Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, currently the Opposition Leader, said this week the government needed unity but also needed a careful self-examination concerning the war against Hizbullah terrorists. He criticized the Olmert administration for not declaring an emergency situation at the outset of the war. The former prime minister also attacked Prime Minister Olmert for not accomplishing the return of two kidnapped IDF soldiers and the dis-arming of Hizbullah.
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