President Bush in the family compound at Kenebunkport, Maine, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy came away convinced his U.S. counterpart is serious about
bombing Iran's secret nuclear facilities.
That's the reading as it filtered back to Europe's foreign ministries:
Addressing the annual meeting of France's ambassadors to 188 countries, Mr. Sarkozy said either Iran lives up to its international obligations and relinquishes its nuclear ambitions — or it will be bombed into compliance. Mr. Sarkozy also made it clear he did not agree with the Iranian-bomb-or-bombing-of-Iran position, which reflects the pledge of Mr. Bush to his loyalists, endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent. But Mr. Sarkozy recognized unless Iran's theocrat's stop enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), we will all be "faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic."
It's pretty telling when the President of France is saying that you're acting up. However, With "plans" of a three day blitz against the Iranian military rumored to be in production, Iranian President Ahmadinejad saying that he has "double proof" that the US won't attack, and that his reasoning is that he's an engineer and believes in God, you can imagine why the US is quite nervous about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Ahmadinejad told academics in a speech that elements inside Iran were pressing for compromise in the nuclear standoff with the West over fears the United States could launch a military strike.
So there are people within the Iranian government who are worried about US attacks. Good, they should be. And the only real way for them to not have to worry is for their nuclear ambitions to be shut down. Or at the very least, take us up on the offer of making nuclear material available to them that cannot be made into weapons grade fuel.
But they didn't do that and now they're painted into a corner. With looming UN sanctions coming up again, Iran is quickly running out of options to also save face on. However, my guess is that Russia and China will either abstain from a UN Security Council vote or be prodded into voting against Iran. Sanctions will continue because the Iranians are still a bit off from making enough fuel for a weapon, and the sanctions will get worse over time and either the Iranians will cave, or we'll all wake up to the news that the Israelis have attacked Iran's nuclear facilities.
But it's all guesses so far. Sooner or later, someone has to blink and Iran has much more to lose then the US does.
Travis
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