{"id":8232,"date":"2010-09-29T11:32:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T19:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=8232"},"modified":"2010-09-29T11:32:36","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T19:32:36","slug":"wednesday-iran-talking-points-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/29\/wednesday-iran-talking-points-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Iran Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog<\/a>: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 29th, 2010:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>: Benoit Faucon and Spencer Swartz report on Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement on Tuesday that it would begin exporting domestically refined gasoline. Iran has depended heavily on imported gasoline in the past. Yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement sends a message of defiance about international sanctions as well as an indicating that Iran has significantly boosted its domestic refinery capacity. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Iran has achieved self-sufficiency in production of gasoline,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ali Ashgar Arshi, the international affairs director at the National Iranian Oil Co. It also appears timed to echo statements from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the new sanctions have only made Iran stronger.<\/p>\n

The Weekly Standard Blog<\/a><\/em>: Bill Kristol<\/a> posts an excerpt from the prepared text of Joe Lieberman<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech today at the Council on Foreign Relations. Lieberman will say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It would also be a failure of U.S. leadership if this situation reaches the point where the Israelis decide to attempt a unilateral strike. If military action must come, the United States is in the strongest position to confront Iran and manage the regional consequences. This is not a responsibility we should outsource.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is time to retire our ambiguous mantra about all options remaining on the table. Our message to our friends and enemies in the region needs to become clearer: namely, that we will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability \u00e2\u20ac\u201d by peaceful means if we possibly can, but with military force if we absolutely must,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d concludes Lieberman.<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/a><\/em>: Daniel Gordis, senior vice president of Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shalem Center, writes in the October issue of Commentary <\/em>on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Other Existential Threat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not only the possibility of an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that poses a threat, he writes, but on a more existential level the potential of Iran possessing <\/em>of such a bomb will hang over Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head. In turn, this will revert Jews back \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to the status of European victims-in-waiting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dependent on the choices their enemies make.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In outlining what is at stake for Israel, Gordis concludes with why he does not believe Israeli leaders will allow Iran to go nuclear and what his country needs from the United States: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If Barack Obama could come to understand in precisely what way this is a matter that goes to the heart of Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very existence […] his administration might recognize the profound nature of the present moment and history\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call to this president to do what must be done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Spiegel Online<\/a><\/em>: In a contentious interview, Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi says that Iran \u00e2\u20ac\u0153will not give up [its] guaranteed right to enrich uranium to a low level for civilian purposes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and accuses the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, of being biased against Iran. Salehi says he is not threatening to end cooperation with the IAEA, but is issuing a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friendly, but serious, warning that one should not allow oneself to be politically instrumentalized.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He considers the MEK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allegations<\/a> about a covert nuclear facility an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unjustified allegation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and maintains Iran is still open to a deal to acquire fuel rods for its Tehran Research Reactor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 29th, 2010: The Wall Street Journal: Benoit Faucon and Spencer Swartz report on Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement on Tuesday that it would begin exporting domestically refined gasoline. Iran has depended heavily on imported gasoline in the past. Yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement sends a message of defiance about international […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8233,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions\/8233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}