Posted on 07/20/2006 6:51:11 AM PDT by nuconvert
Iran says it will deliver response Aug. 22
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
Iran said Thursday it would formally respond on Aug. 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the standoff over its suspect nuclear program the first time the Islamic republic has set a specific date for its reply.
The Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body, also threatened that the country would reconsider its nuclear policies if sanctions were imposed by the United Nations.
The council did not elaborate, but Iranian officials repeatedly have suggested that Tehran may withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and stop cooperating with U.N. inspectors.
"The package of incentives requires a logical time to study it ... Aug. 22 has been set for declaring (our) views," the council said in a statement read on state-run television.
"In case the path of confrontation is chosen instead of the path of dialogue ... and Iran's definite rights are threatened, then there will be no option for Iran but to reconsider its nuclear policies."
The statement came a day after Russia said the U.N. Security Council is in no rush to pressure Iran over its nuclear program, striking a more conciliatory tone than the United States as diplomats began discussing a resolution to put legal muscle behind demands that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.
In Thursday's statement, Iran said it plans to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next 20 years.
The Western nations on June 6 offered Iran a package of incentives including advanced technology and possibly even nuclear research reactors if Tehran suspended enrichment.
But the frustrated powers agreed last week to send Iran back to the U.N. Security Council for possible punishment, saying Tehran had given no sign it would bargain in earnest over its nuclear ambitions.
Iran has said the incentives package was an "acceptable basis" for negotiations.
Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad initially said Iran would respond to the package in mid-August, but the republic then pushed back its response to late August. Thursday's statement was the first time a specific date was set.
The United States has accused Iran of stalling while it continues to pursue suspect technology, but Tehran accused Washington on Thursday of putting up "obstacles."
The Iranian council said special committees in key state agencies were still studying the offer by the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany, and it invited the United States and its allies to return to the negotiating table.
It said it was "surprising" that the United States was creating obstacles for a negotiated settlement while Iran was seriously studying the offer.
"Iran is not after tension, but if others push things toward tension and create problems, then all will face problems. Iran believes dialogue is the most logical solution. It is serious in this path. We want the other side to return to the negotiating table," the statement said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to a negotiated settlement through diplomacy. The United States, by changing the path of talks toward the Security Council, is trying to create obstacles."
A senior Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday the country's parliament was preparing to debate withdrawal from the nonproliferation treaty if the U.N. Security Council adopts a resolution that would force Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Withdrawal from the treaty could end all international oversight of Iran's nuclear program.
In February, Iran for the first time produced its first batch of low-enriched uranium, using a cascade of 164 centrifuges. The process of uranium enrichment can be used to generate electricity or in building a bomb, depending on the level of enrichment.
Iran has said it will never give up its right under the treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, but it has indicated it may temporarily suspend large-scale activities to ease tensions.
If so...there will be no Iran on August 23.
I think you're right.
And a great big thanks from the civilized world to that fricking idiot Jimma Carter.
The 22 Aug date was announced a couple weeks ago. Any idea if that date is otherwise significant to Iranians?
Here is some advanced intelligence regarding the response:
"Kill all infidels"
Militant Islam would be an annoyance if it were not for that a$$.
We need to land a (non-nuclear) ballistic missile launched from a submarine in their midst with the message that we can turn their country into glass in less than 30 minutes and our trigger finger is getting very itchy.
I knew that date had to mean something.
Won't work.
They already know this.
Amadinejad, and the other adherants to his weird sect, believe that the Mahdi ("the Twelfth Imam") will provide supernatural protection from their enemies in the apocalypse to come.
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So all the rantings from Iran are just like a criminal gang leader yelling out of his house at the police who have him surrounded and are moving in to arrest him. The fun-sized psycho in Iran is deluding himself that somehow he's going to win a military confrontation against all the major military powers in the world. It appears to be difficult for these Iranian leaders to face up to reality. They are so used to calling the shots, telling everyone else what to do, and doing whatever they want in Iran, and now the big world powers are telling them "no, you can't build nukes." So far, they're in denial of reality and refusing to face up to the inevitable conclusion of this confrontation.
I doubt that Iran will test a nuke if it gets one. They know that a test would alert Israel that they have the bomb, and that the next thing on the program would be a mushroom cloud rising over the heap of rubble that was formerly Tehran. I think the first we will know of Iran having the bomb will be when it either explodes or fails to explode in Israel.
Either way that will spell the end of Iran as a functioning nation, because Israel's response will be devastating. Several nukes exploding simultaneously in carefully selected areas of tiny Israel would probably take out most of it's population and infrastructure, but I believe the IDF has the ability to massively retaliate with multiple nukes of it's own even if the homeland is virtually destroyed.
See Post #29 above.
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Ahmadinawhackjob to the civilized world:
"Bite me."
This is the same kind of Muslim religious fanaticism that led the Islamic Sudanese tribesmen to revolt against the British and their Egyptian vassal government in the late 19th century. They believed the Mahdi had returned in the person of their tribal chief, and in the end 20,000 of them were slaughtered at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 by Lord Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army.
Winston Churchill played an active part in that battle as a young British cavalry trooper and wrote about it in his book "The River War". It's a very interesting read for anyone with an interest in the history of that time and place.
Don't know where,
Don't know when,
But I know We'll meet again Some sunny day.
Well, already we have Russia and Finland saying Israel goes too far. A Spanish PM supporting the Palestinians and a French PM saying Israel goes too far. Dont be surprised if China starts weighing this opinions against Israel as well.
The C-802 is not a silkworm, it is a much more advanced missile.
So the Iranians are willing to give their most advanced weaponry to terrorist groups.
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