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US sweetens the pot for Iran
By Charlie
In a move that will surely be mocked and laughed at by the mullahs, diplomats have offered Iran trade deals to give up their nukes. Think it will work?
VIENNA (AFP) - The United States has offered to lift some of its trade sanctions against Iran as part of a package of benefits the EU will deliver to get Tehran to guarantee it will not make nuclear weapons, diplomats told AFP.The United States is proposing "lifting sanctions partially, not only waiving sanctions but actually lifting them," in an agreement to be worked out in multilateral talks that would start once Iran suspended uranium enrichment, said a senior Western diplomat, who requested anonymity.
Washington, which considers Iran a sponsor of terrorism and now fears it is covertly developing nuclear weapons, has since the mid-1990's banned most US trade and investment with the Islamic Republic.
Lifting sanctions would allow sales to Iran of things like agricultural technology and commercial planes to replace the country's dilapidated fleet.
US officials have said they want to keep the details of the proposal secret in order to avoid the appearance of threatening Iran.
Well, what a relief that this is still a "secret" proposal. Meanwhile, the Iranians seem to be hinting that they will brandish the economic weapon in a slightly different manner:
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, said on Sunday that if the United States makes a "wrong move" toward Iran, energy flows in the region would be endangered.
The futility of negotiations is getting clearer each day...
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Comments
I think someone here pointed out they do not want peace at _any_ price.
The whack-job Ahmadinejad (or whatever) wants the war because his 12th Imam will appear to rule the world.
He will settle for nothing but war and in the meantime get his rocks off dragging the world around by the nose while we treat him like a rational human being. He is not.
He should be obliged the way you oblige a bug that will not leave you alone. Turn him and them into jam (or glass, it is all the same to me).
"The futility of negotiations is getting clearer each day..."
Everywhere but the halls of government inside the beltway...
Every day our congress and the administration demonstrate (in Ahmadouchebag's eyes) America is weak, irresolute, and unwilling to grasp the nettle and settle Iran's hash once and for all. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is extremely dangerous and ill advised behavior. It is a shame the appeasers will not be the first to die for this stupidity.
Perhaps you should read the actual speech by Khamenei, there's much more there than just the 'threat' that got attention from the press. Especially the point that even for oil-rich nations now, in the coming decades (as peak oil passes) they are going to need alternate energy sources, and don't wish to go groveling to the nuclear club for permission to have nuclear power.
The sheer and utter hypocrisy that a dangerous rogue state Israel can stockpile scores of nuclear weapons, while Iran is threatened for conducting peaceful nuclear power research, is staggering.
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They wouldn't be so stupid as to start a regional war, and create a casus belli for engaging them in all-out war, would they?
Would they?