Heading In The Right Direction
"The Israeli regime, with its Zionist mentality and dark record of genocide and attacks on military installations, disregarded once again all international norms and attacked a site in Syria; the U.S. endorsed the aggression and continued to protect Israel."There was an immediate response to the unsolicited, tangential and absurd statement that drew Israel as a purported menace into the critical discussion of the Islamic Republic of Iran's censure for withholding information on the country's nuclear ambitions, and its secret installations being geared for enriched uranium production, along with military installations involved in the nuclear file being placed off-limits for IAEA inspectors.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency
Canada has taken its turn in chairing the 35-nation IAEA board at its Vienna headquarters. And with that malevolent pronouncement by Iran's representative, skirting the issue and indulging in the country's usual obfuscation, biding time to allow it to proceed with its intentions while leaving the impression with gullibly trusting world leaders that it is attempting to be accommodating, the signal given to Canada's ambassador was to immediately exit rather than give credence to the accusation.
Remaining in the presence of the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA was not an option, since to do so would have been to accept any notion of validity inherent in the statement. Walking out delivered a potent statement of implicit rejection of both the purpose of the utterance and its validity. And it was clear that envoys from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand preferred to exit along with John Barrett recognizing the same imperative.
"That's just a red line for us. We stood up and walked out", confirmed a Canadian official, in confidence, and not for the record. Iran's IAEA representative Soltanieh blamed IAEA head Yukiya Amano for escalating the tensions against Iran. "The source of the problem is not Iran," he said. To use Iranian logic, then, it is obviously Israel responsible for the situation, as it is responsible for all vexing situations anywhere, at any time.
While diplomacy worked its way through the system in Vienna, Canada's foreign affairs minister was busy in Ottawa convening a meeting of ambassadors from the P5+1; the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany.
The diplomats were pressed by John Baird on behalf of Canada and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to emphasize strenuously upon Iran the need for it to permit international inspectors to access all of its nuclear and military-nuclear facilities. Iran is skilled in biding for time, playing on the willingness of those charged with leading it toward co-operation at the highest level, to soften demands with their promise of co-operation.
Somehow, co-operation never quite eventuates; there is always some reason why Iran will deny entry to inspectors, calling off scheduled appointments as being inconvenient or irrelevant in their opinion, or too intrusive and insultingly uncalled for. Enabling the country to continue with its relentless program while promising that its nuclear ambitions are entirely above board with no maliciously destructive intent.
Canada has a fairly instinctual and accurate appraisal of the intentions that support Iran's nuclear program. So too evidently the U.S. "We are deeply concerned with what appears to be Iran's unwavering commitment to deception, defiance and delay", stated Joseph Macmanus, the U.S. envoy to the IAEA. Yet there continues to exist that resistance from China and Russia to press Iran too hard.
And certainly as long as Iran is aware that those two powerful countries within the Security Council remain unconvinced that the Islamist country plans its own nuclear arsenal for its own singular purposes to intimidate its neighbours, and to threaten another neighbour with the annihilation it overtly states is long overdue, Iran has reason to feel confident.
The upcoming Kazakhstan talks, as far as Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's foreign minister is concerned, is "heading in the right direction."
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Canada, Conflict, Iran, Nuclear Technology, United Nations
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 08, 2013
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