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Iran seems to be spurning a good nuclear deal

Dickering Over Uranium Tehran should love the U.S. offer on enrichment. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OCTOBER 24, 2009

One sign that an adversary isn’t serious about negotiating is when it rejects even your concessions. That seemed to be the case yesterday when Iran gave signs it may turn down an offer from Russia, Europe and the U.S. to let Tehran enrich its uranium under foreign supervision outside the country. The mullahs so far won’t take yes for an answer.

Tehran had previously looked set to accept the deal, which is hardly an obstacle to its nuclear program………………..the West’s enrichment offer is already a good one for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran would give up one bomb’s worth—about 2,600 pounds—of uranium enriched at its facility in Natanz to the low level of 3.5%. Russia would then enrich the uranium further to 19.75% and someone, most likely France, would put the uranium into fuel rods for transfer back to Iran for ostensible use in a civilian nuclear reactor. Western officials say this would delay Iran’s efforts to get a bomb………………

Iran insists it won’t stop enriching uranium on its own, in violation of Security Council resolutions. Aside from rewarding Iran for past misbehavior by letting it use illegally enriched uranium, this deal fails to solve the problem it is intended to solve. That’s because as long as the Natanz facility continues to enrich uranium at its current rate of about 132 pounds a month, Iran will produce enough low-enriched uranium within the year for a bomb………….

The mullahs know that President Obama is eager to show diplomatic gains from his engagement strategy, and they are going to exploit that eagerness to get every possible concession. The one thing Iran has shown no desire to bargain over is its intention to become a nuclear power.

Iran To Turn Down Uranium Deal – WSJ.com

October 24, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, Iran, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons