Thursday, April 27, 2006

Iranian Leader Warns U.S. Of Reprisal


Escalating the threats between Washington and Tehran, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that his country would strike U.S. targets around the world in the event it is attacked over its refusals to curb its nuclear program.

"If the U.S. ventured into any aggression on Iran, Iran will retaliate by damaging U.S. interests worldwide twice as much as the U.S. may inflict on Iran," Khamenei said in a speech to a workers' assembly, according to the official news agency IRNA.

This seems to me a further indication that Bush's policy of not entering into direct negotiations with Iran, but rather seeking to influence the Iranian regime through threats and intimidation has proven counter productive and hardened the Iranian stance rather than weakened it.

In a spate of statements this week, Iranian officials have also threatened to cut oil production, export nuclear technology, bar international nuclear monitors, make their nuclear program entirely secret and withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Clearly, the Bush plan of attack is not working, the Iranians are not backing down and few of us seriously believe that Bush has an option of military strikes whilst the US is bogged down in the occupation of a neighbouring country with a 60% Shia population.

It is time for a change of tack.

Acknowledge that the Iranians have the right to enrich uranium under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and work to ensure that they cannot move towards a weapons programme. None of this can be achieved with the current administrations stance.

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