A deadline ignored

The Times of Malta ^ | 28APR06 | The Times of Malta

[familyop]

The formal call made by the Security Council on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities and to reconsider its decision to reconstruct a heavy water reactor, which would give Iran access to plutonium, has fallen on deaf Iranian ears. The Council had also declared that "non-compliance" could lead to consequences that were not spelt out at the time.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will today formally report to the Security Council on whether Teheran has complied with its demands.

Iran has not only cocked a snook at the Security Council. Its maverick President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since declared his country had enriched uranium and joined the "nuclear club". He insisted yesterday his country would pursue uranium enrichment in defence of outside pressure.

The Americans are taking this claim seriously; so should Britain, France, Russia and China if they are to continue to forge a united front in the face of a development that could, if consummated to the point where Iran owned nuclear bombs, blow up the Middle East - and much else besides.

Mr Ahmadinejad sees the hand of his God in all this and sees it literally. When he addressed the United Nations earlier this year he spoke of a glow beckoning him on. Last week military officers at a parade to commemorate Army Day were told that the Iranian army was "among the world's most powerful armies because you rely on God".

Far from complying with demands made by the Security Council, Iran has openly defied the world watchdog. Given that the Council as a whole seems to have little idea as how to proceed next, given that China is heavily dependent on Iranian energy resources to keep its economic miracle on course, given that Russia is dubious that sanctions will work, there seems to be an impasse in the making from which only Iran will benefit. China and Russia, for two, do not experience a Saddam Hussein déjà vu even when it faces them so squarely in the face.

These are dangerous times. One must hope that China and Russia can understand just how perilous for world peace a weak stand by the Security Council against Iran would be. Pathetically, the European Union's foreign policy man, Javier Solana, spoke of drawing up a list of measures that could be taken against Iran. These included travel restrictions on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear work and restrictions on dual-use technology with potential military applications. The blood of Mr Ahmadinejad must be curdling. Mr Solana seems to be blissfully unaware that the horse is about to bolt.

Meanwhile, the price of oil has risen to well above $70 and shows little sign that it will descend to manageable levels for some time yet. The Iran crisis will see to that. For over and above Iran's defiant gestures, it cannot be forgotten that Israel has declared it will not stand idly by while Iran continues with its preparation to build its bomb. Nor will the United States. A nuclear-armed Iran led by a man who sees the elimination of Israel as a God-required pursuit is not an Iran it will easily contemplate. Earlier this month the US President was quoted as saying: "We do not want the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon, the capacity to have a nuclear weapon or the knowledge about how to make a nuclear weapon". That knowledge they are learning and that capacity is no longer beyond Iran's wits.

The Middle East has never been more of a tinder box.

[Cementjungle]

The formal call made by the Security Council on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities and to reconsider its decision to reconstruct a heavy water reactor, which would give Iran access to plutonium, has fallen on deaf Iranian ears

I'm shocked!

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Anyone with the IQ and sense of a acorn can see that we are going down the same road with Iran as we did with Saddam flaunting the US and the UN.
There is a time when diplomacy is none effective.

[rogue yam]

Iran has not only cocked a snook at the Security Council.

This is the second time I've heard it said that Iran has cocked a snook at the Security Council. I'm starting to believe it!

[MaDeuce]

"Its maverick President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since declared his country had enriched uranium and joined the "nuclear club"."

So now this guys has McCain status ... a "maverick".
I'm sure we can expect a strongly worded resolution condemning Iran in the next few months ... thats about all.

It will depend on the US and Israel to do something.

I hope after this period in history and the dust settles, the US will finally pull out of the UN and send them packing to Europe.

[familyop]

"This is the second time I've heard it said that Iran has cocked a snook at the Security Council. I'm starting to believe it!"

Hmmm--"cocked a snook." I'm trying to find the meaning of that. It doesn't appear to be a very healthy thing to have done.


From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Snook \Snook\, n. [D. snoek.] (Zool.)
     (a) A large perchlike marine food fish ({Centropomus
         undecimalis) found both on the Atlantic and Pacific
         coasts of tropical America; -- called also ravallia,
         and robalo.
     (b) The cobia.
     (c) The garfish.
         [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Robalo \Rob"a*lo\, n. [Sp. r['o]balo.]
     Any of several pikelike marine fishes of the West Indies and
     tropical America constituting the family Oxylabracidae,
     esp. the largest species ({Oxylabrax undecimalis, syn.
     Centropomus undecimalis), a valuable food fish called also
     snook, the smaller species being called

[Roccus]

I know snook, I know cobia and I know garfish. They are three distinctly different fish.

[THEUPMAN]

I have had enough ...
I say it's time we wave our arms around and bellow profusely.
A few grand gestures and an ultimatum to boot.

..... danger Will Robinson ... danger ....

[TXnMA]

cock a snook: Thumb one's nose, as in As soon as the teacher turned her back, the boys cocked a snook at her. This expression was first recorded in 1791 and the precise source of snook, here used in the sense of "a derisive gesture", has been lost. It is more widely used in Britain but is not unknown in America.

[Cementjungle]

Anyone with the IQ and sense of a acorn can see that we are going down the same road with Iran as we did with Saddam flaunting the US and the UN. There is a time when diplomacy is none effective.

Yep, and as it was with Iraq everyone will chime in and say "you have to do something about them". Then, after we do they'll say "Whay did you do that? Iran was never a threat!!!"

[Prophet in the wilderness]

At this point and juncture, Iran is a greater threat than Saddam was, because, once Iran has the capability of using it, they will try to hit Israel with it and we can not ever let that happen.
I am not saying that Saddam would have, or could have used it against Israel, but, the mad mullahs, are, well ? mad, of their rockers.