Patterico's Pontifications

12/22/2009

Iran Reacts to Year-End Ultimatum

Filed under: International,Obama — DRJ @ 9:12 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany (the P5+1) gave Iran until the end of the year “to accept a UN nuclear watchdog-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel” or face sanctions. Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the P5+1 ultimatum.

The Obama Administration responded with threats of tougher sanctions provided the P5+1 countries sign on, a difficult task in the case of China and Russia:

“A senior [American] diplomatic official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said: “These things do take time… we have come into office with a sense of urgency and we have been working steadily on this issue.”

The official said the administration would carefully seek consensus before acting.

“When we pull the trigger, we want to be sure that there’s a broad understanding among those who play a role in the Security Council as to what we should be doing.”

The United States has raised the specter of a fourth round of UN sanctions, but will need to persuade Russia and China to drop their traditional reluctance to consider tougher measures.”

Once again, Iran continues to defy the United States and the world by refusing to stop production of nuclear fuel, as well as an announcement that it plans to run advanced centrifuges that can double or triple its stock of enriched uranium.

Meanwhile, the opposition voices inside Iran may be in disarray. Iran’s top opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was fired from his government post just days after the death of Iran’s foremost dissident cleric, 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran who became one of its most vocal critics.

Last, but not least, the AP reports that on Dec 12, Thailand intercepted “35 tons of weapons, reportedly including explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles” that originated in North Korea and were destined for Iran. The shipment was labeled as oil drilling supplies.

The Iranian situation is heating up and it isn’t because of global warming.

— DRJ

28 Responses to “Iran Reacts to Year-End Ultimatum”

  1. Those Mullahs are just laughing at us under their diapers and fanbelts. Hood job Barcky. Solid B+.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  2. Good job.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  3. The official said the administration would carefully seek consensus before acting.

    Oh good. They’re gonna talk more.

    I feel safer already.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  4. There are very few problems in life that can’t be solved by the proper application of high-explosives.
    This is one of those problems that can.

    Bibi….Bibi….

    AD - RtR/OS! (ad16d5)

  5. Iran continues to defy ? I’m not so sure.
    It’s more like they are farting in the general direction of the US President, who seems to think that the odor is pleasant.

    Neo (7830e6)

  6. Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the P5+1 ultimatum.

    But of course. He has nothing to lose, and nothing to fear, from rejecting an ultimatum.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (76097c)

  7. What the United States should do now is schedule very public, high-level meetings with officials in Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to discuss how we can equip those countries with their own nuclear arsenals, on condition that the nuclearization of those countries will be reversible if Iran denuclearizes within two years.

    Andrew (59b742)

  8. OOOOOOOOOhhhh, SANCTIONS!!!

    After all, they were SOoooooo effective against Saddam, right?

    Next thing you know, they’ll pull out the BIG guns, and threaten to make faces at the Iranian leaders while they go: OOOGAH BOOGAH!! OOOGA!! OOOOOOOOOOGAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! at them….

    I bet THAT‘ll REALLY make them kowtow, won’t it….?

    Yeesh.

    I wrote this a year ago. Welcome to Stage Seven:
    =================================================

    In a newly released policy brief, President-elect Obama details the following steps for dealing with rogue nations:

    Under Obama, a first instance means they’ll be give a Stern Talking To.

    And if they’re found to do it again, it will come with a Firm Reprimand.

    A third offense will produce a Disappointed Sigh and a Heartfelt Expression of Disappointment.

    A fourth occurrence will mean a Long Sit Down Over Tea.

    Fifth and Sixth events will result in a Consideration of Sanctions and a Deeper Consideration of Sanctions, respectively.

    The seventh time will result in a Public Call For A Committee On Sanctions.

    The eighth offense will result in an Open Request For Sanctions and Determined Foot Tapping of Impatience.

    Note: Obama has not yet announced how his foreign policy will deal with the Ninth and Tenth events in this sequence, but I think it’s clear that, whatever form it takes, he will make a similarly Discerning Show of Determination to express his Supreme Dissatisfaction with the nation in question.

    O Bloody Hell (8ca3a3)

  9. You guys don’t seem to understand that this Iran
    situation is UNPRECEDENTED DAMNIT!

    Krusher (f21160)

  10. I tend to think the opposite conclusion is possible here – precisely because of the recent deaths of leading opposition figures (including the young doctor’s murder a few months ago, when he defied the Mullahs orders to cover up abuses and murder at a local detention center), the opposition is going to use these recent events to further galvanize their voices. Too bad we have a feckless POTUS who’ll just sit there and twiddle his thumbs while the oppostion inevitably gets mowed down in the streets of Tehran.

    Dmac (a964d5)

  11. I believe Israel will not sit idly by.

    Corwin (ea9428)

  12. This reminds me of something that happened to my brother once. A while back he married a woman with a son around 6 years old at the time. So he had to make that tough transition from being “mommy’s big friend” to “I am your father and you have to listen to me.” And mostly he has. But at first, he had a problem. Every time he told his son to do anything, he would punch my brother in, ahem, the worst place he could punch him. So it would be like this:

    My brother: Go to bed.

    My nephew: No! [Smash!]

    So one night he calls up my mom and says, “I don’t know what to do with him. I tried talking to him. I tried putting him time out. Nothing is working.”

    And my mom replied, “did you try whipping his little ass?”

    He did and that was the end of that. But what I find fascinating is that he was so liberal that it never occurred to him that there was a point where you just had to whip his little ass.

    Why do I get the feeling that this administration is equally clueless?

    A.W. (e7d72e)

  13. Obama’s blood is boiling at Iran’s intransigence and now he is ready to write a really forceful letter and let Mahmoud know just how mad he is.

    That’ll scare them.

    MU789 (af0809)

  14. few things i want to point out here. this is reaction of Ahmadinejad when he was offered to take a look at the documents that proves Iran nuclear programm :AHMADINEJAD: No, I don’t want to see this kind of document. These
    are some fabricated papers issued by the American government.
    at the moment it seems USA is not going to press Israel anymore but it sounds like: we are not able to prevent attac of Israel.

    ilona@israel (23f81c)

  15. One of the concerns that I have about Obama is that a weak sister can be extremely dangerous. Push one into a corner and he may do something irrational just to prove he isn’t a sissy.

    BarSinister (9a86c3)

  16. Iran will respond to nothing less than force combined with the credible use of much further force. It need not be an invasion; and yes, to some extent it will rally some of the Iranian people who otherwise would be potential supporters of a new regime there back into the thrall of the mullahs. But preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is more important than that, and the odds are very, very good that they’ll get their bomb before an internal revolution will replace the current regime.

    The odds that Russia or China will ever actively support the use of military force against Iran are vanishingly small. The so-called “P-5-plus-one” (comprising the U.S., the U.K., France, China, and Russia as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany) is unlikely to be persuadable to employ any economic sanctions with real bite.

    So that which must be done, must be done without the cooperation or endorsement — and indeed, probably over the loud but impotent protests of — the U.N., Russia, and China. Who’s left to do it?

    We can assemble a “coalition of the willing,” as we did at the beginning of the Iraq War. But such a coalition can only be led by America, and only by an American president with more guts and wisdom than Barack Obama.

    I do not believe the man has it in him. And I believe the world will pay a price for this that ultimately will be measured in hundreds of thousands of lives.

    Beldar (ed59c2)

  17. Blearg: That first sentence should have read:

    “Iran will respond to nothing less than force combined with the credible threat of the use of much further force.”

    I’m thinking in terms of something like a blockade of its ports and the destruction (via cruise missiles or stealth bombing strikes) of its single gasoline refinery, just as starters. Next the destruction of its air defense network. And then beyond that, whatever else is necessary.

    Beldar (ed59c2)

  18. The incompetency of this president is fast approaching a level of irreparable proportions.

    chaos (9c54c6)

  19. Checking my almanac I see that France, Germany, China & Russia are all major trading partners with Iran. So, if it was at all possible to get China & Russia on-board, economic sanctions could put a hurtin’ on them.

    Since, however, those two nations follow a “do whatever the fuck you want, just don’t mess with us” trade practice, and Bee Ho only wants to be the ‘great diplomat’, I guess we’ll have to sit back and watch Israel do the heavy lifting — just as they have in Lebanon . . . and Syria . . . and Egypt — again.

    Icy Texan (74307f)

  20. BarSinister.
    Yeah, I know. Your grandfather wandered into this sinister bar.
    We don’t even need to postulate O showing some proxy balls at the last.
    We only have to worry about getting ourselves into a corner where the only choices are complete surrender or kicking over the board (that’s a metaphor for full-out war). Which, if O is a one-termer, could actually fall into the next admin.

    Richard Aubrey (a9ba34)

  21. And speaking of foreign policy idiots:

    ATLANTA – Former President Jimmy Carter is offering the Jewish community an apology for any of his “words and deeds” that may have upset them.

    Carter writes in an open letter to the Jewish community this week that he hopes the new year will bring peace between Israel and its neighbors. He says “we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel.”

    He adds: “I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

    Al Het is a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness.

    — Don’t you just love it?
    “Ah, ah hope that by me saying that y’all suck, nobody else has decided that y’all suck . . . cause well — that would suck.”

    Icy Texan (74307f)

  22. Checking a Jewish calenday, I see that there is a 30-day window between holidays beginning 29 Dec 09.

    AD - RtR/OS! (a9bf4b)

  23. …calendar…

    AD - RtR/OS! (a9bf4b)

  24. IT, Jimmah is a God Damn foreign policy genius compared to Obama…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  25. Perhaps he figures the end is near, and it might be a good time to get back in the good graces of The Boss?

    AD - RtR/OS! (a9bf4b)

  26. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if the French actually tire of the Holocaust-denier first?

    Icy Texan (74307f)

  27. Jimmah must be afraid of the MOSSAD taking him out shortly. Either that, or more killer rabbits are after him.

    Dmac (a964d5)


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