Iran Presser Live Blog

Since I am homebound for the moment waiting on home health care to arrive to teach me to perform home IVs on the First Mate, I will watch the press conference called by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that will apparently announce direct talks with Iran on the nuclear-proliferation crisis.
10:04 – Iran represents a direct threat to the security of the US and world, and has accelerated its efforts to enrich uranium. So far, this sounds more like an indictment, not a conciliation.
10:05 – Offering a choice for Iran between a “negative choice” – pursuing nuclear weapons at “great costs”. The positive and constructive choice would be to immediately suspend enrichment activities and returning to IAEA-based negotiations.
10:07 – This is just a proposal along the same lines as we have seen before, except with the carrot of direct talks. It’s significant, but not earth-shaking. Iran won’t agree to suspend enrichment, and certainly won’t agree to the kind of verification necessary to pursue this offer.
10:10 – “If the Iranian nation believes it will benefit from the possession of nuclear weapons, it is mistaken.” The example of North Korea to the contrary, of course.
10:11 – Questions … Any linkage to concessions from Russia and China on sanctions? It appears not. One suspects that the UN Security Council has been rendered moot by this process anyway.
10:18 – Had to change channels; Fox’s anchors think they’re more interesting than the news conference.
10:19 – The US decided to join the EU-3 talks directly because we feel that the negotiations require our “weight” to check their the further expansion of their program. Translation: The EU has failed to do it themselves.
10:20 – Rice calls out the Iranians for their public vacillations. Good.
10:20 – Not ready for full diplomatic relations yet, but Iran can work towards a better relationship now.
This really doesn’t change much except for an American offer to join direct, multilateral talks based on a condition that the Iranians have already said they won’t meet. It does provide an effective response to Ahmadinejad’s latest PR campaign and puts the onus back on Teheran for progress. I suspect that was the entire purpose of this statement.

4 thoughts on “Iran Presser Live Blog”

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