Iran Dithering Over Proposals

While Iran is permitting inspections of the recently -revealed nuclear processing site, near Qom, to go forward, it is by no means certain that it will accept the proposed deal to allow France and Russia to finalize fuel processing. The proposal would ship, either in stages or in bulk, all of Iran's nuclear fuel to Russia and France for final reprocessing. The two countries would ensure that fuel was processed only to the extent required for nuclear medicine. Major concerns about the ability of Iran to either hide reprocessing or to simply continue processing unshipped material (in the case of piecemeal shipments) abound. France has warned that Iran does not seem to be bargaining in good faith, and that it will drag the negotiations out until the process is meaningless. This was born out last week by Iran's decision to postpone a decision. Also of concern is Russia's on-again, off-again bargaining with Iran to directly ship uranium to the country. Whether or not Russian can be relied upon as a partner in this process remains to be seen.

President Obama has stated that Iran is 'on notice to comply' with the plant inspections and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This kind of 'bold' rhetoric has yet to produce results in North Korea, Pakistan or really any country the President has put on notice. It's doubtful that Iran will take much notice of the warnings without some real consequences on the table. France openly scoffed at this language during the G-20 summit, and Russia declared it unhelpful. President Sarkozy seems to have backed off some vis/vis President Obama, holding a telephone conversation yesterday with Obama on Iran, but continues to predict that direct actions (either through strengthened sanctions or turning a blind eye to Israeli action) may be necessary.

UPDATED: A Perversion of Faith (and an interesting development in Iran)

Update 1: Atlas Shrugs has an interesting time line on confrontations with radicalized Muslims in the US. While she and I would disagree on the fundamental nature of Islam, she makes a good argument and certainly presents a disturbing trend.

CNN reports on 'Young Pioneers,' a Hamas-run kids program:

'It's meant to be a children's program, but "Young Pioneers" on Hamas-run television is well-known for pushing the boundaries of what most people would deem suitable content for children. [That's an understatement.] One episode raised eyebrows when it first aired two years ago on al Aqsa TV, featuring two young Palestinian children being shown a re-enactment of their mother's preparations for and execution of a suicide bombing. The show was recently aired for the children of the bomber and other youths in a studio audience. The young anchor sounds a defiant note: "And here we say to the occupier that we will follow her doctrine, the doctrine of the martyr mujahida Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your illegitimate hands." Riyashi killed four Israelis in a 2004 attack at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. In the video, an actress playing her prepares explosives for her mission, ignoring her children's questions about what she is doing. "Mummy, what are you holding in your arms -- a toy or a present for me?" her daughter asks. Her daughter then sees a news report about the suicide bombing and sings, "Only now I understand what was more important than us."The camera cuts back to the faces of her two children watching the re-enactment. ... Dr. Eyad Sarraj, a leading Palestinian psychiatrist in Gaza, worries about how glorifying suicide bombers affects children. "Three years ago, we did a study on children in Gaza between the ages of 12 and 14, and we asked them, what would you like to be when you are 18?" Sarraj said. "At that time, 36 percent of boys said, 'I would like to be a martyr,' and 17 percent of the girls said the same."'

Apart from the obvious pathology of training kids to glorify death and murder, the abuse and manipulation of the feelings of the children whose mother was herself subverted into murder, is a complete perversion of all teachings in Islam (much less other faiths). Islam in the hands of many of the leaders and governments in the mid East and central Asia has become only (and nothing more than) the Islam of terrorism.

On a separate note, the BBC is reporting that the head of Iran's nuclear program (and the country's VP), Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, abruptly submitted his resignation three weeks ago.

'The report said the nuclear chief had submitted a letter of resignation to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nearly three weeks ago. It was not immediately clear what triggered the resignation.'

Aghazadeh is a veteran bureaucrat, who has served in several different ministries (including oil). It would be interesting if this move is further indication of developing splits within the government.