Because they keep cooperating!
"Iran sends signal to visiting UN team; Set to cooperate with inquiry on nuclear weapons" by George Jahn | Associated Press, February 09, 2014
VIENNA — Iran is signaling that it will cooperate this weekend with UN experts visiting the country to investigate alleged nuclear weapons activity it has steadfastly denied, a potentially promising step in an inquiry that has been stalled for six years.
But with Iran still denying any attempt to make such arms, the investigators must tread carefully.
I am definitely getting an attitude from my war-promoting pre$$. You?
As the UN’s International Atomic Energy team arrived in Tehran on Friday, the state IRNA news agency cited Iranian atomic energy organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying his country is ready to answer all questions raised by the UN agency.
It's called a non-denial admission.
IRNA did not elaborate, and such pledges have been made before. However, a senior diplomat from an IAEA member nation cited a ranking Iranian official as telling him and other senior diplomats that Iran was specifically ready to engage on the weapons program suspicions with the UN experts.
Yeah, except they don't have any and I'm really getting tired of the constant war drumming.
The diplomat demanded anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to discuss his private meeting with the Iranian official.
Iran has denied any interest in nuclear weapons since the IAEA started to focus on its atomic activities. Specific attempts to investigate the alleged weapons program first launched in 2007 have made little progress.
Man, this narrative has to change.
Iran appears to be suggesting it will go into detail on the big topic, an issue it has previously said was not in the agency’s purview or was based on doctored intelligence. If successful, it will be the first of what the agency hopes will be a series of increasingly deeper investigations into the nuclear weapons allegations.
They don't have 'em, but... well, ya' know.
The United States and its allies are pushing the IAEA for progress. At the same time, too much pressure on Iran at the weekend talks between the agency and Iranian officials could push Tehran back into its shell of secrecy.
Look everybody, it's the Obummer White House.
That, in turn, may hurt parallel talks between Iran and six world powers seeking to eliminate fears Tehran may use its nuclear programs to make weapons. It has agreed to curb its atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Then again, they may not!
Like me. I may be back to blog here later; then again, I may not! I don't like rank rot war prop anymore, wah!
Those talks are off to a promising start with both sides planning to meet Feb. 18 to try to translate an interim deal into a permanent agreement. But Olli Heinonen, who formerly headed the IAEA’s Iran inquiry, says that a final deal can be sealed ‘‘only if uncertainties over Iran’s military nuclear capability are properly addressed.’’
Can you prove a negative?
Another diplomat said that the IAEA team was carrying a list of alleged weapons-related experiments that it would present to the Iranian negotiating team for discussion.
They checking it twice, gonna find out.... sigh.
Among them, were:
■ Indications that Iran has conducted high explosives testing and detonator development to set off a nuclear charge, as well as computer modeling of a core of a nuclear warhead.
■ Suspected preparatory work for a nuclear weapons test, and development of a nuclear payload for Iran’s Shahab 3 intermediate range missile — a weapon that can reach Israel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get the agenda-pushing propaganda point. Still not for the war, 'kay?
■ Information that Iran went further underground to continue work on nuclear weapons development past 2003, the year that US intelligence agencies believe such activity ceased.
Well, they have been way wrong before, right?
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Also see:
Iran says it’s set to begin nuclear shift
No, not towards making a bomb.
UN inspectors visit key Iran uranium mine
They are opening up?
US halts sanctions on Iran broadcaster
Iran to tell of detonator work
Iran talks reconvene amid little optimism
Says jwho?
Timetable, framework crafted for Iran nuclear talks
In what I'm told was a positive atmosphere.
"Iran's president regrets food ration problems" Associated Press / February 6, 2014
I don't like anyone starving, especially the recipients of U.S. sanctions.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — In a rare expression of regret by an Iranian official, President Hassan Rouhani has said that he is sorry for any troubles with the distribution of a food ration to the poor, following reports that three people have died waiting for the goods in subzero weather.
Local media have reported that the three died in recent days while standing in line in freezing temperatures. Authorities were quoted as saying that they had pre-existing heart problems. Most provinces in Iran have experienced unusually low temperatures in recent days.
Where are the fart-mi$ters when you need them!?
Rouhani told state TV late Wednesday that he ‘‘as the president expresses regret if people have faced trouble in receiving the commodity basket.’’
Wouldn't it be something if the president of the United States apologized for all the life taken by law enforcement across this country every day and night?
It’s unusual for an official in Iran to take responsibility for problems in a governmental plan.
I agree. They never do here.
The ration for the poor includes eggs, cooking oil, chicken, rice and cheese.
No food stamps so you can buy soda and chips?
The program was instituted under Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, originally just for government workers.
Oh, yeah, that guy, remember? The next Hitler we were told, now in the dustbin of history.
Rouhani’s administration decided to extend it from 3 million people to 17 million, out of a total population of 76 million. The plan is largely intended to counteract inflation, fed by the sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
Abolhasan Firoozabadi, the deputy labor minister who handles the plan, told the official IRNA news agency that more than 11 million baskets of goods have been distributed so far.
Rouhani’s opponents have leaped on the failures of the plan, with the hard-line Javan daily declaring it a ‘‘national humiliation.’’
END PRINT
But the lines to receive the goods are very long. ‘‘I returned home empty-handed after waiting three hours in the line. They said they did not have enough stuff for today,’’ said Zahr Sadri, a mother of three.
Sounds like an AmeriKan soup kitchen.
Ramin Pakzad, a part-time worker, said he tried and failed to find a line short enough that he wouldn’t risk losing his job by standing in it.
At least he's got one.
But even many of his supporters also acknowledge its shortcomings. ‘‘I think this is an uncalculated idea that government applied hastily and without any precautions,’’ said Sadegh Zibakalam, a Tehran University politics professor who supported Rouhani in June presidential elections.
They are acting like my government!
One Tehran-based analyst, Saeed Leilaz, said he believed that Rouhani’s plan failed to successfully sort out those poor enough to qualify. Officials routinely complain that Iran lacks much basic demographic data.
Welfare always does -- unle$$ its for the elite via tax $ub$idies.
However, Leilaz said, Rouhani did manage to lower inflation considerably since he took office in August, ‘‘the sharpest drop in Iran’s inflation history.’’
Give him a seat on the Fed!
Rouhani’s remarks came during a longer interview, the run-up to which revealed apparent tensions between his aides and the country’s top broadcast company, which is mainly under the influence of hard-liners.
With the interview running late from its scheduled time, a Tweet from an account associated with Rouhani—the content of which the president has said is mostly written by ‘‘friends’’—said the head of the national broadcasting company Ezzatollah Zarghami ‘‘prevented live discussion (with the) people.’’
Then I lost the signal.
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The sanctions must be why the Iranians are talking bad about us and making stink face:
"Iran berates US on anniversary of Islamic revolution; Hard-liners criticize talks on nuclear program" by Thomas Erdbrink | New York Times, February 12, 2014
TEHRAN — Mixing exhortations of death to America with admonishments to children about healthy teeth and gums, Iran celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Islamic revolution Tuesday, and the state media said millions exuberantly participated....
It's Iran's.... Fourth of July?!
Wendy R. Sherman, the lead US negotiator in the nuclear talks, whom few Americans could identify, was singled out for particular denunciation, with many rally participants shouting, “Death to Sherman!” the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.
I can identify her, and why waste your time or breath?
Testifying before the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee a week ago, Sherman said that the Iranian government had started distributing free food, after the United States released $500 million to Iran as part of a temporary agreement over the country’s nuclear program that took effect Jan. 20.
Iranian hard-liners accused the Americans of distortion. The money — which came from Iranian accounts frozen under sanctions — had paid for the food long ago, they said, before the United States seized the cash.
In that case, "we" were literally starving Iranians all these years.
Some protesters also shouted, “Death to Obama!” and “Death to Kerry!”
How about a permanent stay of Gitmo?
The rallies celebrated Feb. 11, 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries declared victory over the US-backed government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and brought to power a government overseen by Shiite Muslim clerics.
No mention of the 1953 coup that installed the Shah? Must not have affected anyone.
President Hassan Rouhani, a cleric who was elected in June, criticized what he called US threats against Iran but said that if world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program respected Tehran’s “rights,” they would receive “a positive and appropriate answer” from Iran.
Oh, we can't have that!
The next round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in Vienna on Feb. 18.
“Iran is determined to hold fair and constructive talks based on international law,” Rouhani said in a speech broadcast on state radio. “We hope that we will see the same kind of will from the opposite side during the talks that will begin within days.”
I wouldn't get your hopes up.
But like his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani warned that threats would cost Iran’s counterparts in the nuclear talks.
The rally was a blend of nationalist zeal and family fun.
From a newspaper of Zionist zeal!
Clowns explained to children the importance of brushing their teeth. Actors re-enacted scenes from the devastating war between Iran and Iraq. Parachutists dropped candy into the crowds.
That Iranian death toll and suffering given a whole sentence.
At one stage, hundreds of people watched Pangool, a famous Iranian children’s television puppet, explain that the children’s presence was neutralizing US threats. Some children looked puzzled, but the sight of Pangool was an attraction by itself, one parent said....
Jewspaper implying Human shields! What chutzpah!
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Makes me ready to bomb the s*** out of 'em. How 'bout you, 'murkn?
