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Waiting for the Deadline on Iran - Again

[Jerusalem Post] Dore Gold - The Iranians have managed to push off the first inspection of their previously secret uranium enrichment plant at Fordu to Oct. 25, more than a month after it first came to light. Back in March 2004, the Iranians postponed for about 30 days an IAEA visit to the Lavizan technological research center near Tehran, the location of the Iranian weaponization group which designed and constructed nuclear warheads. In the meantime, the Iranians razed several buildings at the facility and dug out two meters of earth to make it more difficult for inspectors to take soil samples that contained radioactive materials. The Iranians also delayed IAEA inspection of the Parchin military complex in 2005, where conventional high explosives had been tested that could be used for detonating a nuclear device. Gaining time was clearly one of the purposes of Iran during its Oct. 1 meeting in Geneva with the P-5+1. Prior to that meeting the Iranians were facing rising international pressures, that could have resulted in immediate, severe sanctions. Iranian moves at the meeting were designed to burst the balloon of pressure it was facing and slip off the hook. The U.S. Congress is considering severe sanctions against Iran, including an embargo against gasoline imports to the Islamic republic. But there will be an effort to delay any Congressional action as long as the parties are talking. Meanwhile, the centrifuges in the main Iranian enrichment facility at Natanz will continue to spin, producing more enriched uranium and enlarging the potential arsenal of Iran's atomic weapons. As Iran succeeds in breaking every deadline that has been issued, its resolve only increases. The writer, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is the author of The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009).
2009-10-08 06:00:00
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