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To no one's great surprise, except for the EU, Iran now brags about the wool they pulled over European eyes during the nuclear talks that the EU-3 held with the mullahcracy. The Iranians apparently feel secure enough in their weapons project to tell Muslim clerics just how clever they were:
In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot.
"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said. ...
In his address to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, Mr Rowhani appears to have been seeking to rebut criticism from hardliners that he gave too much ground in talks with the European troika. The contents of the speech were published in a regime journal that circulates among the ruling elite.
He told his audience: "When we were negotiating with the Europeans in Teheran we were still installing some of the equipment at the Isfahan site. There was plenty of work to be done to complete the site and finish the work there. In reality, by creating a tame situation, we could finish Isfahan."
Well, we hate to say I told you so -- mainly because it's too depressing to think that anyone would be stupid enough to believe that the Iranians were sincere in their negotiations, let alone professional diplomats. However, thanks to the EU and to the American Left that insisted that the Bush Administration not tackle threats "unilaterally", now we have the Iranians not laughing up their sleeves at us, but openly deriding us for fools. And they're right.
The time for negotiations has come to an end. The Iranians have no intention of giving up their nuclear-weapons program. The UNSC either has to impose a sanctions regime, including massive funding for democratic Iranian reformers to dismantle the mullahcracy in Teheran, or Turtle Bay should be shuttered for good. The UN utterly failed for twelve years to contain and disarm Saddam Hussein. Another failure in Iran will make the UN superfluous, an anachronism in the post-Cold War era, a status which we suspect has always been true.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every day for two years ... well ...
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