World leaders to meet on Iran's failure to halt nuclear program:

Iran lashes out as Obama says punitive steps against Tehran will come soon

By William Branigin and Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 19, 2009; 11:39 AM

Iran lashed out Thursday against a new warning from President Obama of tougher sanctions over its nuclear program, dismissing such measures as out of date and threatening a resolute response to U.S. "deception and mischief."

The verbal clash came as the United States and five other world powers prepared to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss what steps could be taken against Tehran for its refusal so far to accept a deal aimed a resolving a long-running dispute over its uranium enrichment program. Attending the meeting are representatives from the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany, news agencies reported.

In a meeting with the negotiating group, known as the P5-plus-one, in Geneva on Oct. 1, Iran tentatively agreed to a deal under which it would send the bulk of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing into medium-enriched uranium, which would be returned to Iran in a form that could be used to power a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. The aim was to allay Western concerns by effectively stalling Iran's ability to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, while meeting Iran's need to make isotopes for the treatment of cancer and other medical purposes.

Since then, however, hard-liners in Tehran have apparently stymied the deal, and Iran has raised various alternatives that the West considers unacceptable. Earlier this month, Iran demanded full delivery of reactor fuel before it would give up its low-enriched uranium and balked at further efforts to hold international talks on its nuclear program.

On Wednesday, Tehran announced that it would not send its uranium abroad for processing but wanted any swap to take place within Iran.

Iran came under international pressure after the disclosure in September that it was building a secret uranium-enrichment facility at an underground site near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, in addition to a known enrichment plant at Natanz. A team of U.N. nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency
nspected the new site last month and came away with questions about whether other secret installations exist in the country, according to a confidential report made public Monday.

In a news conference in Seoul on Thursday as he was wrapping up an eight-day visit to Asia, Obama expressed frustration with Iran's response to the uranium-swap proposal, to which the other parties to the deal -- the United States, Russia and France -- have already agreed.

"Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say 'yes' to this proposal," Obama said in a joint appearance with the South Korean president. "We have seen on occasions that whether it's for internal political reasons or they are stuck in some of their own rhetoric, they are unable to get to 'yes.' "

As a result, Obama said, "we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences." When Iran "fails to take advantage of these opportunities," he cautioned, "it is not making itself more secure; it is making itself less secure."

Obama added: "Our expectation is that over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take that will indicate our seriousness to Iran. . . . I continue to hold out the prospect that they may decide to walk through this door. I hope they do. But what I am pleased about is the extraordinary international unity that we have seen."

In an apparent response to Obama in a speech in Tabriz, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran "is not pursuing aggression, does not have ill intentions and only wants to obtain . . . its bright future and its legal right" to a peaceful nuclear power program.

"Those who claim that they want to have constructive interaction must know that if a clear, fundamental and correct change is observed, and the Iranian nation sees that they have truly changed their attitude, have given up their aggressive and arrogant behavior, are respecting the right and dignity of the Iranian nation, and by returning the right and wealth of the nation they have honestly stretched a hand of friendship toward Iran, we will accept it," Ahmadinejad said.

Why is Iran always singled out for its nuclear program by the major powers and their Middle East control colony of Israel? Control of oil in the Middle East where Iraq and Iran sit on billions of barrels of oil necessary to run American and European nations. China too since it is economically tied to the prosperity of Western nations. Iran is strategically placed in the middle of a double region of huge oil deposits stretching from Uzbekistan to Saudi Arabia and the Western powers are deathly afraid of losing control over the region's oil deposits and refineries. Without oil, America and Europe would quickly fall apart because we are still so oil dependent, never having listened to Jimmy Carter's warnings as President about such dependency.

Israel capitalizes on this fear and adds its own fear of Muslims taking control of the region plus fear of Iranian/Syrian joing organization uniting Middle East Arab Muslim nations to counter to Israel's Army, the fifth largest army in the world as well as American and European invading armies.

These major powers are afraid of Muslim Iran and will create all sorts of reasons why Iran can't have nuclear power (or weapons) while these super powers can, while Israel can, a rogue state if ever there was one with a proven record of invading its' neighbors time and again, gets supported when push comes to shove in U.N. Resolution voting.

Instead of telling the world the truth, the super powers and Israel prefer to misdirect the world's attention away from their real reasons for fearing Iran--control of oil. It just doesn't sound ethically right, does it. Well, it isn't and it is leading us ever closer to a world war with Muslims. Instead of honest concern about Middle Eastern poverty and social justice, we get demonization of Muslims and especially Iranian Muslims, who, reacting to decades, centuries of European invaders and controllers, want what every nation wants, independence from foreign control in order to serve their own society's needs. It's what the American Revolution was about and yet America, since Truman and Zionists pushed for the establishment of the Jewish colony in Palestine, continually sides with King George.

Until we face the real reasons why we are in the Middle East fighting these wars with Middle Eastern nations, the control of their oil supplies, the same real reason we are in Afghanistan as well, we are going to be losing our wars with these people and of course all respect for American idealism. Please remember this about control of oil whenever you read about America or European or of other nations connected economically to these major power nations like China, which has it's own problems with Muslims, because there is a concerted propaganda effort to cover their real motives by demonizing Iran.

This is not meant to give Iran carte blanche approval because Iran and the Middle East must also recognize the failure of Islamic nations to keep up with the West, a fault they try to cover up by going backwards in time to the days when totalitarian religious beliefs were practiced and accepted, something impossible with the arrival of the worldwide Democracy movement. But until we are willing to deal with Muslim states as equals in world affairs instead of making war with them, we have only ourselves to blame when Muslims react and put forward their most militant advocates. War provokes war.