So what is it that makes the world change its mind in 18 months?

Question

18 months ago France, Germany, Russia and the US were all in agreement that Iran had to dismantle its nuclear program.


TEHRAN, March 5: Iran's top nuclear official on Saturday warned the United States and Europe of the danger of an oil crisis if Tehran is sent before the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme, but said that a deal with Europe could be near.

"The first to suffer will be Europe and the United States themselves, this would cause problems for the regional energy market, for the European economy and even more so for the United States," Hassan Rowhani, whose country is the second largest oil producer in OPEC, told reporters.

Mr Rowhani, who was speaking at a conference in Tehran on nuclear technology and sustainable development, however expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached with Europe over the development of Iran's nuclear programme.

EU members Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to dismantle nuclear fuel work - which the United States says is part of a covert atomic weapons development - in return for economic and political rewards.

"If US pressure doesn't prevent it, I think we will manage to reach an agreement with the Europeans because they don't want to deprive the Iranian people of their right and will try to act fairly," Mr Rowhani said.

Britain, France and Germany are seeking "objective guarantees" from Iran.

Rowhani warned the US that it could destabilize the region if it blocks an accord with Europe. If Washington brings the issue before the Security Council, "Iran will retract all the decisions it has made and the confidence-building measures it has taken."

He said Iran's leaders "could be called upon to make new decisions", but did not provide any details on what that would involve. "The stability in the region would become fragile and the United States would be the first to suffer," he said.

In return for a permanent halt to uranium enrichment, the EU is offering Iran a package of incentives covering trade, security and technology.

Mr Rowhani has however refused to put an end to uranium enrichment. "We cannot have and we will not have negotiations with the Europeans if what they want is an end" to uranium enrichment. "We will not continue the talks for one single minute, we have made it very clear to Paris and Berlin," he said.-AFP



Now the US is the sole member of this power block. What could be the reason? Certainly not promises of contracts to build new nuclear plants at the cost of billions of euros each. I can't believe they could back peddle that quickly just for a few billion euros.

Answer 1

Lucrative nuclear processing facility contracts. I'm guessing that this is the modern equivalent to a few pieces of Judas' silver...

Answer 2

Financially it makes sense for France, Germany, and Russia to look the other way and assist Iran in developing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. On the other hand I'm sure they won't be getting any guarantee from Iran that the development of nuclear weapons won't be pursued as an outcome of their technical generosity. It's gotten a lot easier to join the nuclear club, look at North Korea, Pakistan and India.

Who's ultimate responsibility should it be to control the spread of nuclear technology, and how do you control it? This hasn't suddenly become an issue in the past 18 months.

Answer 3

The EU has always been weak on defense or putting countries in their place. The UN is a paper tiger, When NATO asked for 2000 more troops for Afgan, they chock. May be time we just leave them to their own furture.
My own postion is have a meeting with Iran and tell them if one nuke is set off in the US we will turn there place to glass. With 32000 nukes they should know we can do it.
Maybe they will get some sence

Answer 4

There is one thing you must understand here. The chess game being played out in the Middle East is being controlled and manipulated by the secretive, elite Illuminati. They run the affairs of this world. All major world events are part of their diabolical agenda of starting world war 3, and establishing a New World Order fascist police state dictatorship.

Answer 5

Any one country's relationship with another can be expressed on a continuum - running from THREAT to COOPERATION.

There are two broad categories of that relationship - Economic (doing business with one another) and Defense (the ability to threaten or defend militarily).

We define a true ally as a country that is on the COOPERATION end of the continuum in both categories. We define an enemy as one that is on the THREAT end of the continuum in both categories.

Europe (and to some extent America) is perplexed by Iran. They're not a military threat, but they may soon be. They're currently an economic partner, leveraging that status to allow them to move to a higher level of military (nuclear) capability.

We're not immediately threatened by Iran's emerging nuclear threat. But our ally, Israel is very much threatened by Iran. Europe doesn't care about Israel, and will act for short-term economic expediency. There's nothing new there.

But America does care about Israel. So we can say what we want publicly, but the back-door message to Ahmadinejad needs to be that we will support and defend Israel and we will do whatever is necessary to keep WMD's out of the hands of terrorist states and individuals.

The emphasis should be on the words "WHATEVER is necessary".

This is not a world popularity contest. It's about defending American citizens as well as the sovereign state of Israel. The economics will take care of themselves. You don’t gain anything by exposing your soft underbelly to a terrorist. They’ll embrace you with one arm and disembowel you with the other.

Answer 6

It does not matter. Israel will bomb the **** out of Iran while the United Nations try their usual failing act of diplomacy. No country that supports the actions of terrorist groups should be allowed to harbor nuclear bombs. America knows that and Israel knows that. So in other words as long as Iran is in defiance of U.N. regulations you bet their uranium enrichment program will not last long!

Answer 7

It's sickening!!! All the European powers did the same thing during Hitlers drive to rearm and look what happened to them then.They aren't learning from their own history.They are in just as much danger from a nuclear armed Iran as we are!!! Everyone will be in danger!!!

Answer 8

Perhaps because France, Germany and Russia lack the huevos to stand up to oppressive dictators and/or feel threatened by our power and find it more useful to align themselves against us.

Answer 9

It's all screwed up. You ever wonder why we can't buy a Cuban Cigar, but we get our Ipods from China?

They're BOTH communist countries. And China is certainly more of a threat to us than Cuba is. Yet we "punish" Cuba, and let China make our Ipods.

Answer 10

Perhaps, as happened before, the three countries are waiting for Israel to do our dirty work for us. It happened before and all the countries, and the UN, shook their fingers at Israel. At the same time breathing a sigh of relief.