Posted on 12/05/2005 10:23:22 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Iran's insistence on enriching uranium on its own soil amounts to a "unilateral" rejection of a Russian proposal to resolve a nuclear standoff with the West, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Monday.
Douste-Blazy is the first senior European minister to publicly express dismay at the negotiating stance of the Iranians, ahead of fresh talks expected later this month.
Iran has said its nuclear program will enrich uranium only to a level suitable for civilian atomic-power reactors, but the United States and European Union fear Tehran will use the same technology to make bomb-grade material.
To minimize that possibility, Moscow proposes taking in Iranian uranium for enrichment and then returning it to Iran. But Tehran has said it will only accept proposals that allow it to conduct a full nuclear fuel cycle at home.
"The Russians have made a proposal to Iran for the possibility of a joint venture for enriching nuclear material for Iran. But the Iranians, in a way, have unilaterally refused this," Douste-Blazy told reporters during an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Slovenia.
"The Europeans wish to give time to negotiations so as to show the Iranians that what we precisely want is to achieve something through negotiations," he said. "We are not trying to humiliate them. But so far Iran has said 'no' to everything."
The Islamic Republic rejects suspicions that it is bent on making atomic bombs. It says its nuclear project aims solely to generate electricity. But Iran hid its nuclear work from U.N. inspectors for 18 years until 2003, raising alarm in the West.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Israel is going to make Iran wish for the Shah back.
bttt
The scenario is so similar to pre-Iraq that it fascinates me. You have a tyrannical regime covering up what is an obviously exposed nuclear weapons program...hello Sadam!
The thing I like about Iran is that it is not entirely full of Muslim extremists. No, not at all. The majority of the population in Iran is Persian and their culture is much more closely related to European culture than it is tied to Arabic. These people despise the Islamic regime in charge.
Does anyone else agree with me when I opine that these educated Tehranian scholars will seize the initiative if Israel, the United States, or both counties land their troops within Iranian boundaries?
They're acting so crazy they must be counting on the Democrats to help them the way they are helping the terrorists in Iraq.
That must be it. There really is no other excuse for this insanity...
Well, they are Muslim extremists.
And, it took this long for France to figure it out? Well, they are French, I guess.
Nuke the nukes and the nuke producers!!
Budget Deficit Balloons
Iran’s budget deficit grew by 70%, according to recent estimates. According to Iran Focus.com: “There has been a whopping 69 percent increase in Iran’s state budget deficit during the current year, according to an official government report. The report was based on estimates for the current Iranian calendar year, ending March 20, and the figure was expected to rise even further by the end of the year, the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami wrote on Saturday. The sharp surge in the country’s annual deficit means that in the currently year the government will be lagging more than 71 trillion Rials – approximately 7.1 billion dollars. Last year, the state deficit figures were considerably lower, standing at 42 trillion Rials.”
What makes this an interesting figure is that “The widening deficit comes despite a large increase in revenue as a result of high oil prices on the international markets. “
Stock Market Tumbles
There are significant signs of a complete lack of confidence in the government from economic and financial circles. Iran Focus reported: “Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took office in August, had promised that he would reduce state deficit and work to increase the national turnover as president. But the rising tensions in Iran’s external relations since the hard-liners’ power sweep in June have had a markedly negative impact on the economy. The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has been badly affected, dropping 20 percent since Ahmadinejad’s election in June. Some experts have put the value of capital flight since June at a staggering 200 billion dollars.”
Capital Flight Reported
$700 billion have left Iran since 1980, and it’s getting worse, as government officials and even clergymen are reportedly preparing for the day when they have to flee the country.
Starting in June, 2005, reports surfaced that the wealthy in Iran were having major concerns about the new president. And by October, reports of significant amounts of capital flight were appearing in reliable sources.
According to Geostrategy Direct, in a report by Bill Gertz: “Iran might be talking tough, but the word on the streets of Teheran is that prominent Iranians are running scared. Iranian businessmen are smuggling their assets out of the country, fearful of a U.S. attack that would topple the Iranian regime.”
According to Gertz: “Iranian officials report a massive outflow of capital, much of it to Central Asia and the Gulf. Iranians are emptying their bank accounts and establishing companies for the day when they need to flee their homeland because of an economic collapse or U.S. invasion. The figures being reported by Iranian regime officials are astounding. In September, Hashemi Shahraudi, director of the Higher Judiciary Council in Teheran, said Iranians have sent $700 billion abroad since 1980. Shahraudi said the capital flight has turned from a trickle to a flood over the past year.”
The Iranian government is in full attack and damage control mode. “Already, Teheran has ordered government-owned banks to ban loans of more than 300 million riyals, or about $45,000. Teheran's fear is that private companies will borrow from banks to buy dollars and euros. Iranian businessmen are willing to invest in their native country only when Teheran pledges not to impose its laws. So, 3,500 Iranian companies operate in so-called free trade zones on the islands of Kish and Qeshm in the Gulf. In all of Iran, 18,000 private companies are registered with the Finance Ministry for tax purposes. Officials acknowledge that a key reason many others refuse to register their businesses is fear of government expropriation.”
Here is the kicker. “What officials don't say is that senior members of the Teheran regime own many of these offshore and foreign-based companies. Indeed, the trend seen by Iranian and foreign sources is that senior Iranian officials, regime figures and even clergy are preparing a nest egg abroad just in case. *************************************************
Show me the Money!!...LOL
I appreciate you showing this article, it was a good read and very interesting.
I find that the Iranian situation has become very predictable. The tyrants in charge have realized that the forces of good are breathing down their necks and are getting scared.
I'm suprised that they let Iran get into this situation, though, especially in the wake of Iraq. I guess Mahmoud forgot that the Iranian predicament was, is, and will remain much more fragile than Sadam's Iraq ever was.
It will be extremely interesting to see how much the upcoming election in Iraq will encourage or disappoint the mullahs with respect to the slice of government that their client Sadr can expropriate, and what they will do about it afterward. It will also be interesting to see how much control they can achieve in Lebanon now that the Syrian power appears to be waning there and their client Hezbollah's is on the rise.
As it happens, neither of those short-term strategic objectives is advanced much by the possession of nuclear weapons. What is advanced is, at least in theory, defense against an overt conventional U.S. invasion. However, they would also be quite useful should the Iranians decide to expand their territorial limits at the expense of a weakened Iraq. That perception of a weak new government was, actually, what tempted Saddam to invade Iran a quarter of a century ago.
An expansionist Iran would need a couple of things to carry it off - a leadership more radical than the Ayatollah Khomeini, which they quite literally already have, and secondly an army which they presently cannot achieve given the level of open loathing toward the theocrats on the part of cannon-fodder-age Iranians. Nuclear weapons might act as enough of a force multiplier to offset the latter, as I am sure has occurred to their current leadership.
At the one extreme of this scenario we have an Iran whose borders run from the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean, with the Arabian peninsula and its oil wealth strategically surrounded, except in the south where there are no ports. Add a navy to that equation and it will be game over for the Saudis and a serious threat (but not necessarily a fatal one) to Western economies in general.
At the other extreme you have yet another blowhard dictator likely to be strung up by his own people, or so we may hope. But the real events are likely to fall somewhere in between, and that is not good news for the region. A Europe that will not risk warfare now will certainly not risk nuclear warfare later. All IMHO and subject to debate, of course.
That makes it look as though Iran is about ready to implode and that the Mullahs and higher ups have won't think twice about fleeing and leaving the country in shambles, whilst they live it up someplace else.
The U.S. brokered for Russia to get on its feet after the Soviet collapse.
Later....no thanks/appreciation....just like the French after WW-2.
No deep analysis required here.
Its just stubborn stupidity.
The Russians are stupid ...,
and their friends are the Iranians and the French.
So, when one party in a negotiation decides that it does not like the terms offered, this is a "unilateral" decision!! i guess, strictly, this is correct - but the usage in this instance is absurd - typical French "diplomacy" - I honestly do not understand how the French ever obtained a reputation for democracy / diplomacy - I have seen no evidence that would support such a reputation.
Meanwhile the Russians see nothing wrong with selling missiles to Iran. Stupid lefties - there's trouble on the horizon and they're too self righteous to see it.
They may be more European like than Arabic but they are still Muslims.
Uh oh! Watch out *now*, brother!
France has used the *U* word against Iran!
>Bo)
"Counting on the Dims"? Heck the ABCNews
Division of the DemoEnemies of America,
just made a major strike against
the US ith their attack on our covert
intelligence gatheribg network. No doubt
they are greatly proud of, and are
patting each other on their pervert butts
over "exposing" US "secret prisons".
Soul Damned Traitors! Every one of them
deserves "30 whacks" with the traditional
"whacking" tool...in their mealymouthed
traitor faces.
>B-(
3o
Well, that explains a lot. If the majority of the Iranian population is more like European culture, no wonder they have allowed the Mullahs to sieze control! Peace in our time and all of that....
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.