Posted on 06/21/2006 4:33:42 AM PDT by Flavius
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has dismissed a warning by US President George W. Bush of stronger sanctions if Tehran does not bow to international demands over its nuclear program. ADVERTISEMENT
"Bush's language is not acceptable and does not fit in with our cooperation with Europe," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying Wednesday by the official IRNA news agency.
On Monday, Bush turned up the pressure on Tehran, warning of "progressively stronger political and economic sanctions" if it refuses to freeze sensitive nuclear activities in return for talks.
Bush signaled that suspending uranium enrichment and reprocessing was not negotiable.
"If Iran's leaders want peace and prosperity and a more hopeful future for their people, they should accept our offer, abandon any ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons, and come into compliance with their international obligations," Bush said.
A suspension of enrichment is a non-negotiable precondition in a proposal from the five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.
The offer, presented to Iran on June 6, involves incentives and multilateral talks if Iran agrees to temporarily halt the sensitive nuclear activity and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Asefi denied Tehran had been set a deadline to respond to the offer.
"Europe, in a correct move and with understanding of Iran's mentality, has not set any deadline in its proposal," Asefi said. "Even if there was a deadline in the proposal, the Islamic republic would have not accepted it."
In Vienna however, diplomats have said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Iran that world powers expected an answer to their offer by June 29, although others said the timing remained flexible.
"Expert work is being carried out in specialised committees and good progress has been made. But there cannot be any time predicted for the submission of our response," Asefi said.
Nobody is doing the people of Iran any favors by trying to make deals with that feral regime.
He is correct that Bush's language does not fit in with their cooperation with Europe. To match that lofty standard, Bush would have had to say, "Based upon Iran's level of non-compliance with world demands and its continuation of a policy that ignores the nuclear non-proliferation agreements it has signed, we have decided to launch an all-out nuclear attack against your country."
What is it about petty third world tyrants that they have to prove they have the biggest schwartz?
(Chirac and Putin are included in the petty dictators class until they prove otherwise, and zip up their pants and stop acting as if they should get more respect because their countries already have nuclear weapons. Heck, Iran and North Korea are probably only imitating the ritual schwartz beating that we saw France go through in the 1990s, and what Russia is currently engaged in.)
If sanctions warnings are unacceptable, would they prefer a military warning?
"Bush's language is not acceptable and does not fit in with our cooperation with Europe," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying Wednesday by the official IRNA news agency.....
"Our allies will not allow Bush to do anything against us!", he also declared. "Senator Kerry, Kennedy, Reid, and Congressmembers Pelosi, Murtha and in fact, the majority of the Democratic Party will stand with us against Bush!!!!" he yelled as the foam began trickling down his chin.
"We shall prevail because we have the Democrat Party on our side! As long as Bush is president, we have an ally in the US Congress..."
The 'Trio' will collapse and agree to any demands of the Iranian's. Of course, they've(the EU) no choice but begin a new campaign against the US.
It's 'go it alone' time again with our EU...uh.....words fail me.
"not acceptable" - with that delusional response, I'd wager that the Israeli leaders are continuing to keep their fingers on their -neutron bomb buttons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.