LAZY PROTEST (September 23, 2009 - Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)
In response to the United Nations and the IAE’s demand for cessation of uranium development and full disclosure of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and actions, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his rogue nation have decided to take affirmative steps in defiance rather than even sniff at the possibility of compliance pledging Sunday to build 10 new nuclear facilities rather than abiding by any UN resolution. Construction is reportedly set to begin on five of the plans within the next two months. Iran is clearly calling the UN’s bluff on this one as Russia and China (who have a unilateral veto on the Security Council) are only loosely on board for bringing legitimate sanctions against the nation of Iran.
To be clear here, no one really believes that Iran can actually do this. For a county only a few steps from Great Depression America combined with 1820′s infrastructure and 1930′s technology, they are hardly prepared technologically or financially to make such a big push, but the threat is still equally concerning. It illustrates two extremely important points regarding Iran and its wack-job leader Ahmadinejad. The first being that he is absolutely delusional and leads an administration that is equally lacking in an appreciation for reality, and the second is that Iran has no intentions of abiding by the “rules” regardless of whether they are set by the UN or any other entity, nation, or group of nations. It has no intention of even paying lip service to reasonable measures any longer, and has moved into the next phase of its defiance and is fast approaching the final stage which could end in something tragic.
That being said, I have no doubt that Iran is simply playing its usual games here and it will continue to do so because, put simply, the plan works. The US or the UN threaten sanctions and demand cooperation from Iran- who then instead of cooperating only does ten-fold that which they were told not to do at all. In this case, instead of stopping nuclear development, they announce intentions to create ten new facilities. Its purely a negotiating trick mixed with a bit of slight of hand. We say stop making nukes and they say – we’re going to make ten new plants. Then when we finally get them to “negotiate” and surprise surprise… the terms are different. Now instead of retreating from all nuclear ambitions, they simply agree not to build the ten new plants. Its actually quite brilliant if you know that you are dealing with a gackle of appeasers rather than anyone with the intestinal fortitude or cojones to do anything about it. Stay tuned folks. If this President’s first year track record is even remotely representative of what we have to look forward to, expect us to be facilitating and subsidizing Iran’s nuclear efforts by the end of his first term.
More than powering Iran, or even potentially creating nuclear weapons – as many in the international community fear Iran is trying to do – the program seems to be more bluster in the face of increasing diplomatic pressure than a realistic plan to develop the country’s nuclear program. According to nuclear experts, the scope of Iran’s proposal vastly exceeds the country’s demonstrated capabilities.
Some experts have asserted that Iran simply does not have the industrial capabilities to produce the centrifuges required by the program, reports the Los Angeles Times. Currently Iran has installed only 8,000 centrifuges, far from the 500,000 required by the Cabinet’s new program. Of those 8,000, only half are currently producing reactor-grade uranium, reports the Times. Iran expert Gary Sick told the paper that the proposed program would likely not be in place before 2030.
“If they actually mean it, given the pace of their production and installation of working centrifuges, we are looking at an extremely costly 20- or 30-year program, at best,” said [Dr.]
Sick, a professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University who served on the National Security Council during Iran’s 1979 revolution. “Words are easy. Implementation is hard.”
Some of the claims made by Iran on Sunday – such as Mr. Ahmadinejad’s threat to enrich uranium for a medical reactor at a higher level than that needed for nuclear fuel – simply don’t make sense from a technical perspective, reported the BBC.
However, Iran cannot produce the fuel rods from such materials. Only France and Argentina can, according to experts. So again the motivation is not clear, beyond defiance.
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