EU on Verge of Collapse

Remember the Wicked Witch of the West? "I'm melllllllllllllting"

EU to Ask Iran to Clarify
Response on Nuclear Issue
Associated Press
August 25, 2006 3:09 p.m.
BRUSSELS -- The European Union said Friday it will prod Iran to clarify questions about its lukewarm response to a package of economic incentives designed to get the country to suspend uranium enrichment.

ooooooh, I can see the moolahs and A.Madinnerjacket trembling now.

Tehran's response, contained in a 20-page document presented Tuesday, was judged insufficient by the U.S. and some of the five other major nations that drew up the package.

French President Jacques Chirac on Friday termed Iran's answer a "little ambiguous, notably on whether it would eventually suspend sensitive activities."

Hysterical laughter now, Iran loves  clowns. Prefers mimes, but clowns are good too,

Iran didn't even mention the demand of the U.N. Security Council that it stop uranium enrichment by Aug. 31, moving it closer to possible economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Although there was no comment from Iran's government Friday, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami said Iran was open to negotiations but would not bow to threats. "The spirit of Iran's response is "yes" to logical dialogue without precondition. No one can talk to Iran with the language of threats," Mr. Khatami said during his Friday sermon broadcast on Iran's state radio.

He urged Russia and China, which also joined in the incentives offer, not to "fall in the trap of the U.S."
Russian Vice Premier Sergei Ivanov said Friday that his government continued to pursue a political resolution of the dispute, saying that "talk about sanctions is premature."

Iran insists its nuclear program has the peaceful goal of generating electricity. But the U.S. and many of its European allies suspect Iran wants enriched uranium for use in nuclear bombs.

Ya think?

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign affairs chief, told reporters he would seek talks with the Iranian leaders to discuss their response. "We have to work to understand it properly," he said. Mr. Solana said he had held two telephone conversations since Tuesday with Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, but needed more talks "before we can come out with a complete response" to Iran's views.

More talks. Great.

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Iran wants guarantees that it won't face U.N. sanctions before it agrees to restart negotiations over its nuclear program and the offer of economic incentives. He called that condition unacceptable.

"I have always said that we must begin negotiations without preconditions. .. That is why Iran must understand we cannot come to the negotiating table when every day new centrifuges are being constructed," Mr. Steinmeier told reporters.

After talks in Paris with Mr. Chirac, German Chancellor Angela Merkel complained that Iran's message had no reference to the demand for a suspension of uranium enrichment. "But the door is open," she said. "We want Iran to clearly recognize the offer it was presented."

Ishcabible, ishcabobble.

Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the U.S., China, Britain, France and Russia -- drafted the incentives package in hopes of persuading Iran to return to negotiations on increasing international oversight of its nuclear program.

Mr. Steinmeier welcomed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to visit Iran in the coming days and said he hoped Mr. Annan would make it clear the international community expected Iran to come back to negotiations without conditions. "I hope that the U.N. secretary-general can make that once again clear in Tehran," Mr. Steinmeier said.

Kofi will make something clear apart from his blatant anti-semitism? Stop the presses!

In Tehran, Iranian lawmaker Hamid Reza Hajbabaei urged the West not miss an opportunity for talks, saying the imposition of sanctions would bolster Islamic hardliners and cause greater tension in the Middle East.

"America's adventurist policy in seeking sanctions against Iran simply is harmful to all. In Iran, it will even strengthen the voice of extremists who want Iran's withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and weaken the voice of moderates," he said.

Moderates in Iran? File under, tooth fairies, and Santa Claus.

Copyright © 2006 Associated Press

Strategy on Iran: Appear reasonable 
The New York Times
Published: August 25, 2006
After demanding for three months that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment or face penalties, the formal reaction from the United States and its European allies to Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment has been decidedly low-key.

Why the reticence?
It is all about a public relations strategy intended to make the West appear patient and measured in dealing with the issue, U.S. and European diplomats say.

Measured response in detailing with nuclear proliferation? Great.

After receiving Iran's response on Tuesday to a proposal to curb the country's nuclear program, Bush administration officials had a series of telephone calls with European counterparts to discuss where to go from there.

A series of phone calls? I feel safer already.

Everyone agreed that Iran had not met the most crucial requirement: that it suspend enrichment. Everyone agreed that sanctions were the next step. But disagreement on just how to get to that step reflected a familiar division: between the U.S. State Department and America's European allies on one side, and hard- liners in the Bush administration on the other side, according to officials involved in the discussions.

Twilight zone.

Officials representing the vice president, including John Hannah, a national security aide, argued that by not slamming the Iranian document from the start, the United States was allowing Iran's response to appear reasonable.

Not to mention how insane how cowardly we appear.

State Department officials, on the other hand, pressed to "keep the temperature down," as one American put it. They pushed for a concerted media strategy that would help keep Russia and China on board the already fragile coalition trying to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, American and European diplomats recounted. The officials, representing some of the countries most actively engaged in the issue, would only discuss their private strategy if they were not further identified.

Count on the State department always for "the other hand."

"The thinking was, even though we all know the Iranian response doesn't amount to much, before rejecting it out of hand we should remember that at least two members of the group have a Security Council veto," one European diplomat said, referring to Russia and China and their historic aversion to penalties.

Bwaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahhhahhahahh.

The result: On Wednesday, a day after receiving the Iranian response, America, the most hawkish in the coalition of six countries that made the offer, issued a tepid statement - and not through its blunt UN ambassador, John Bolton, but from a low-profile acting State Department spokesman, Gonzalo Gallegos. While the American statement mentioned the obvious, that Iran's response "falls short" of the uranium suspension condition, it was careful to add: "We acknowledge that Iran considers its response as a serious offer, and we will review it."

Review wehat? How many different ways  can NO, fuck you!  be reviewed.

Across the Atlantic, the reaction was also muted. In Paris, Philippe Douste- Blazy, the foreign minister, said simply that Iran must stop uranium enrichment before negotiation on its nuclear program could resume. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed, "What we expected is not stated there, namely: 'We will suspend our uranium enrichment and come to the negotiating table.'"

Pathos.

There were no official mentions of penalties, despite the looming Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to suspend enrichment. U.S. and European diplomats say the response so far is part of a calculated public campaign to give the appearance that they are carefully considering Iran's response, despite the fact that Britain, Germany, France and the United States all agree that it was unsatisfactory.

The four countries still plan to pursue penalties if Iran does not suspend uranium enrichment by the Aug. 31 deadline set by the UN Security Council. But, officials from all four countries said, they do not want to appear trigger-happy.

The maneuvering highlights the fragile nature of the coalition on Iran. While the United States and its European allies appear to be united in the notion that the next step should be to impose penalties on Iran through the Security Council, Russia and China remain question marks. Neither country likes sanctions in general, and both have been loath to hit Iran in particular, since both have deep economic interests there.

Next stop Centerville!

Both Russia and China crossed a diplomatic threshold in July and joined the United States and Europe in seeking a Security Council resolution ordering Iran to freeze some nuclear activities, or face penalties. Those penalties would probably include a ban on travel by Iranian officials and curbs on imports of nuclear-related technology.

OOOOOh noooooooooooooo not the travel ban! Anything but the travel ban!

But the diplomatic choreography under way demonstrates that Russian and Chinese cooperation is by no means assured, analysts say.

Whew! Maybe not the dreaded travel ban after all.

Iran's nuclear program and its response to the offer from world powers are on the agenda for meetings on Friday of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels. But that meeting is expected to be dominated by the peacekeeping effort in Lebanon. The foreign ministers were not expected seriously to take up the Iran issue until Sept. 1.

Meetings! More meetings! That's the ticket!

A senior Bush administration official said the group wanted to avoid the criticism leveled at Iran last year for being too quick to turn down a European offer on its nuclear program. "The game is about appearing to be reasonable," the Bush official said.

Checkmate.

 

Comments

[jwbrown1969]

It is shocking to think that we cannot even get a "strongly worded letter" a la "Team America: World Police" from these people. You know we are in trouble when over top satire is not as absurd as real life.

[clyde]

Maybe it's time to get French president Chirac to threaten Iran with sending in another 200 troops to kick his ass. The same 200 he was originally planning to send to Lebanon. Considering it took the United States to beat Hitler AND stop Stalin, it's no wonder the Europeans don't do anything. They haven't done anything but whine in decades. Always waiting for the US to bail their asses out of trouble, then bitching about the US doing it. I say let the europeans deal with Iran. Piss on them. Iran doesn't have an airplane that could deliver a nuke here anyway. Maybe to France, but that's the French's problem. 200 frog-eating soldiers will but Iran in it's place overnight. Oh, yeah.