Iran rejects sending uranium abroad, but considers swaps

C: "The only way to stop Iran`s nuclear ambitions is to invade and occuppied the country." After you, Chuck.... Mind you, the queue lining up for that little adventure is going to be mighty short indeed.

It suspects that if it sends low-level enriched fuel to "the west" then that will be the last time it will ever see the stuff. Because that original deal did seem to me to require an Iranian leap of faith i.e. "Trust me! If you send us your fuel we'll send it back all bigger 'n' better! Honest!" Maybe the Iranians don't think much of "Western honesty", and that's why they prefer a swap-arrangement, because that way they are never left sitting around empty-handed, waiting for the postman to arrive. After all, under that original plan the Israelis will be sorely tempted to wait until that fuel foes west and then start a campaign to convince Western govts to renege on the quid-pro-quo.

There is a BIG lesson for Israelis in the struggle going on between the 21st century technocrats of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and the 7th century theocrats ruling Iran. The theocrats are simply incapable of dealing with reality because they consider theocracy reality. And it is the inexorable rise in theocratic control over Israel, it's armed forces and foreign policy which threatens it as do the theocrats of Iran today.

Tony, Iran signed the NPT but has broken its provisions by secrecy, run-arounds, non-notification, and these one-sided steps (inside the NPT you can't just say we backtrack on agreed upon provisions to permit monitoring)--but no, this isn't a legal question but a political one--let's say Iran had never signed the NPT--a theocracy with the nuclear bomb presents a lot of folks with more heartache than Israel with the bomb. And for Israel, don't forget, the political problem may turn into a military one.

This whole thing will be drawn out so long that none of it will matter anymore, like north korea. North Korea now does what it wants and everyone just deals with it. This is how Iran will be. All sides are swimming in blah blah's and they won't stop until Iran goes nuclear.

Iran's natural reserve(inside her borders) of uranium ore is estimated to be 70,000 tons. The only way to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions is to invade and occuppied the country. But then, the occuppier has to deal with the 70 million Iranian people.

The whole point of this from Iran's POV is to get the west the recognized it's right to enrich Uranium. The leverage Iran has is this: "Sell us what we need, or we will enrich it ourselves." It's that simple. All this talk about swaps is to try to obscure that simple equation. As for any military option, if anybody was going to attack Iran, they would have done it long ago. Besides, the Qom facility, along with the implication that they may have more such places, pretty much is Iran's way of saying they can and will nuke up if anyone attacks them.

The offer to let Iran move it's power reactor fuel out of the country and receive fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor was intended to remove the 'reason' to strike Natanz. Thus it's goal was diplomatic, and political, not real. It is a way of forcing Iran to cooperate and thus throw a sop to Israel and the USA. This offer by Iran is not going to fly. The Low Enriched Uranium is already under IAEA bond, so they are offering nothing. p.s. The offer also has no practical consequences. The fuel rods could be stripped and the 19.75% LEU could be made into 90% Highly Enriched Uuranium easier than the 4% LEU reactor fuel Iran now possesses. The whole 'deal' was never about reactor fuel, it was about stopping a war. Iran doesn't get it. There proposal isn't going to fly.

If the swap is simultaneous, Iran will have less LEU. That's exactly the same if they first send their LEU in a foreign country BUT they fear that they will never get the 20% back. France didn't respect her word in Eurodif, Russia didn't respect the Bushehr delay, the contract on the S-300. If the western countries do not accept the simultaneous swap that means that they didn't intend to provide Iran with 20% enriched uranium

Germans angered US in WW1 by attackin several frigates result= US join's war war ends Germans/japanese angers US in WW2! US enters war changes the war in the end wins Korea angers US= War =two koreas now Vietnam= exception or begining of the stabilization of increasing Us empire (US Loose) 1st gulf war: saddam angers US invades kuvvait WAr saddams goes back. afghanistan: 9/11 invasion of afghan taliban falls but rises again us in bad situation since Irak: for no real reason invasion 2. gulf war saddam dies... resistance and no real achievement of US! a false democracy leaded by an other dictator who has no belief in democracy like in afghanistan.. sign of the begining of the end for US who acts mad by trying to show us its still powerfull. elections = obama hope change= hopeless changes of not changing at all. an incompetent leader(who has no leadership capacity even 2nd Bush had more and he was stupid)collapse of the US empire Iran goes mad agan threats but no sincere steps

I find it the epitome of chutzpah for the Iranians to set conditions on the use of its spent nuclear fuel. Clearly they believe they can continue to dupe the UN and the rest of the world with the nonsensical position that their nuclear intentions are purely for power generation. It is time to ratchet up the sanctions and put the world on alert that Iran is a rogue nation that will not submit to calls to give up development of nuclear arms. The Iranians are liars and regionally dangerous ones at that.

This is actually a major step forward and a very positive development. Iran has actually agreed to cooperate with the West - albeit on terms more favourable to them (and who can blame them - any country would want to obtain the best deal possible for themselves). I just wish more people could see the significance of this and the major step forward this realistic and workable counter proposal is, but I expect it will be reported in only negative terms.......

Iran has not signed the Addional Protocol, so it is in its right not to abide with that. By a similar logic, Israel has not signed the NPT, so they are allowed to have nuclear weapons. You can't have it both ways. If Israel is not bound by treaties it did not sign, neither is Iran.