TruthNews

Iran Continues To Play Nuclear Games With The International Community

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 30 July 2010

Iran's Vice President and head of its Nuclear Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced on Thursday that his country is now eager to pursue a months old deal to receive high-grade uranium for a medical research reactor in exchange for suspending its enrichment of uranium to 20% purity. Salehi also claimed that the International Atomic Energy Agency has denied his request, while many analysts dismissed the move as the latest in a long line of cheap tricks and stalling tactics by the Islamic Republic as it tries to distract the international community from the true intentions of its renegade nuclear program.

"If you look at the totality of what the dispute has been around, this is not a major concession," said Iranian-born analyst Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute in Washington. "This is a concession in the context of the most-recent round of stalemate, and I think it is being pushed most likely by this momentum behind sanctions. But if they are genuine and they really have made what they need for the [Tehran research] reactor, then basically, this is something that they can give up without hurting themselves."

Vatanka added that Iran needs to give the appearance of being reasonable and making conciliatory gestures to appease Russia, China, Brazil and Turkey, which he says have become impatient with Tehran's stance on the nuclear issue.

The IAEA estimated in June that Tehran has 2.5 tons of 3.5-percent low-grade uranium - enough to produce two nuclear warheads, shortly after the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, demanding that it cease all enrichment activities.

In related news, US lawmakers have recently unveiled H.Res.1553, a resolution providing explicit support for an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

"We have got to act," said Republican Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas . "We've got to get this done. We need to show our support for Israel. We need to quit playing games with this critical ally in such a difficult area."

Meanwhile, US Air Force General Douglas Fraser of the Pentagon’s Southern Command which overseas US military operations in Latin America recently told reporters in Washington that Iran is increasing its activity in the region, opening its 12th embassy there last year and continuing support for expat Shi’ite Muslim communities, mostly from Lebanon, who live in nearly every country in Central and South America, as well as continuing cooperation with Venezuela’s fiercely anti-American President Hugo Chavez.