Next Stop Iran?

[IQ]

Why George Bush should resist a Wagnerian exit from the White Housearticle). The second is the advent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a populist president who denies the Holocaust and calls openly for Israel's destruction: his apocalyptic speeches have convinced many people in Israel and America that the world is facing a new Hitler with genocidal intent. The third is a recent tendency inside the Bush administration to blame Iran for many of America's troubles not just in Iraq but throughout the Middle East.
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Any one of these would be destabilising enough on its own. Added together, they make the possibility of miscalculation and a slide into war a great deal more likely. That is all the more so when they are combined with a fourth new source of friction between America and Iran. This is the predicament of Mr Bush. A president who is now detached from electoral considerations knows that his place in history is going to be defined by the tests he himself chose to put at the centre of his foreign policy: bringing democracy to the Middle East and preventing rogue regimes from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Given his excessive willingness to blame Iran for blocking America's noble aims in the Middle East, he may come to see a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear programme as a fitting way to redeem his presidency. That would be a mistake.
Never attack a revolutionBut don't think Iran isn't dangerous

[mike435]

you beat me to it
love the economist

[IQ]

I read Economist all the time. I actually read it so I can be ready for the MCAT.

[donsaeid]

let them come and we give them same kind of threatment 100 times better! or worse!

[IQ]

I said in 2003 Iran's regime will change in end of 2006 and everybody disagreed and said it will never change. But now 2 months later you are seeing what is going on. There should be important news about Iran within the next 2-3 weeks. WATCH the news, you'll hear about it.

[zubin]

what does regime change even mean? lol...

[donsaeid]

who is going to take over? that stupid guy who comments everything? that guy who always dreams of being like its father? or someone from that organization which made every member divorce?

[IQ]

That's a good Question. My answer would be THE PEOPLE.

[donsaeid]

Tonight is Last night of deadline for Iran to accept UNSC resolution!

[donsaeid]

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 (KUNA) -- The Security Council is in a "waiting mood" for a report by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is scheduled to be released later this week on whether Iran complied with UN demands to halt its uranium enrichment activities.

The council imposed limited sanctions on Iran last December 23rd for ignoring previous demand to halt enrichment activities and gave the Agency 60 days to report back on the issue. To add further sanctions or suspend the existing ones depend on whether the IAEA reports that Teheran is or is not abiding by the resolution.

Although the report is expected to say that Iran has not halted its enrichment activities, as stressed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier today, council members have not scheduled any meeting yet and are reluctant to say what they have planned for the way ahead.

"Not before the report is out," US deputy envoy Alejandro Wolff told reporters on Tuesday.

Asked whether the council will impose further sanctions, Wolff said "we'll wait and see the degree to which the resolution has been violated and there will be an appropriate response from the council." While press reports said the report will be out on Wednesday, the UN, however, has announced that the council is "scheduled to hold an open debate on Friday on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, on the same day that the IAEA is due to turn in a report on Iran." Asked when the report is due, Wolff said "the deadline for the report was to be submitted to the council by February 23rd. So we expect it in the next days." Russian deputy envoy Konstantin Dolgov, however, told reporters that the 60-day period ends tomorrow and that the report "should be out tomorrow" Wednesday, describing it as a "very serious document." He said discussions among the council's five permanent members - US, UK, France, Russia and China - plus Germany are going on, but they are not going on in New York. "New York is not engaged at this point," he said.

He added "I understand all discussions are aimed at the diplomatic solution. But resolutions have to be implemented. We'll see what the report will say." Asked whether "diplomatic solution" means Russia is against imposing further sanctions on Iran, Dolgov said "We're not speaking about sanctions right now. We're waiting for the report and we will see how to advance from that point. But obviously, we always said that the only solution can be through negotiations and through engagement. So we will see how it goes." He said it would be "logical" that once the report is out, the P5 plus Germany will get together in the capitals before the whole council deliberates on it.

"I don't exclude a six-party meeting in the capitals before," he said, adding "the report has to be studied. It is not that we get the report tomorrow and by the end of tomorrow we will be ready with some course of action." The report will be issued simultaneously in Vienna and New York, UN officials said, adding that the council will take up the issue in early March. Diplomats predicted that Elbaradei will discuss the content of his report with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when they meet in Vienna later this week.

Ban will also be in Berlin on Wednesday to attend the high-level meeting of the Quartet - UN, US, EU and Russia - on the Middle East.

The participants, diplomats also predicted, will discuss the Iranian issue on the margins of the Middle East meeting.