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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama urges Iran to accept EU nuke proposal |
| 2008-07-25 |
| He should challenge Mahmoud to a duel. Of auras... PARIS - Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some nations see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons, and not wait for the next U.S. president. Instead of stringing us along like they've been doing for the last five years while they advance the program? How stupid are you? Stupid enough not to include 'or else ...' at the end of his statement. Speaking later at a news conference, Obama said Iran should accept the proposals made by Sarkozy and other Western leaders. He urged Iran's leaders not to wait for the next U.S. president to push them "because the pressure, I think, is only going to build." So sez The Sage of the South Side... The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Obama said that he and Sarkozy agreed that Iran poses "an extraordinarily grave situation." He said the world must send "a clear message to Iran to end its illicit nuclear program." Obama said: "My expectation is that we're going to present a clear choice to Iran: change your behavior and you will be fully integrated into the international community with all the benefits that go with that. Continue your illicit nuclear program and the international community as a whole will ratchet up pressure with stronger and increased sanctions. And we should have no illusion that progress will come easily." Kinda like they've been doing for the last five years? Obama is in the midst of a weeklong tour of the Middle East and Europe as the first-term U.S. senator seeks to burnish his international credentials for the general election campaign against Republican rival Sen. John McCain. The trip began with a campaign-season tour of the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and ends with meetings with old allies France and Britain. Obama told reporters that "Afghanistan is a war we have to win." The Taliban and terrorist groups it supports, he said, pose an unacceptable threat to the U.S., France and other nations."We've got to finish the job," said Obama, who often has said the Iraq war was an unwise move that distracted the United States from efforts to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and to root out the Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The joint news conference had many light moments. Sarkozy called his guest "my dear Barack Obama," and said the French have been following the U.S. presidential race "with passion. It's fascinating to watch what's happening there," he said. It's almost like Josephine Baker came back from the dead... Obama urged U.S. political reporters to seek Sarkozy's insight because "he seems to have a good nose for how things play out." Sarkozy wished Obama luck, but did not endorse him. He said it was up to Americans to choose their president. Asked by a French reporter how he would differ from President Bush on foreign policy, Obama noted that he is a senator, not president."I am a candidate for president," he said. "But there's a wonderful tradition in the United States, that's not always observed, but I think is a good one. Which is that you don't spend time criticizing a sitting president when you're overseas. What I can say affirmatively is that an effective U.S. foreign policy will be based on our ability not only to project power but also to listen and to build consensus," Obama said. Well...isn't that comforting. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #2 Do you suppose Commmander nutjob wet his pants laughing at this latest beatitude from the chosen one? I wonder what Obamaramalamadingdong is going to say when a city somewhere disappears courtesy of the Iranian Mullahs? Is he going to want to negotiate? Threaten them with another letter? Maybe we'll really get tough and ask for a non binding resolution from Congress or the UN? |
| Posted by: James Carville 2008-07-25 18:32 |
| #1 Barry should learn to use Google... Western diplomats and nuclear inspectors who frequently travel to Tehran as part of the international effort to persuade the Iranians to halt their uranium enrichment activities report that a sense of paranoia appears to have gripped the regime in recent months. “There has certainly been a change of mood since the start of the year,” a Vienna-based official told me this week. “In the past they always appeared very self-confident and sure-footed in their dealings with foreign officials. Now they come across as very suspicious, and watch our every move.” Tehran’s changed political atmosphere might be explained by the fact that President Ahmadinejad and his senior officials realise they are running out of time in their negotiations with the West. After more than four years of painstaking talks with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran is continuing to enrich uranium at its underground facility at Natanz, a clear breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Even senior officials at the agency, who have gone out of their way to accommodate the Iranians’ concerns, have little confidence that the Iranians have any intention of reaching a compromise. “All they seem interested in is extending the talks as long as possible while all the time they continue with their uranium enrichment programme,” said an official close to the talks. “Their entire strategy appears to be based on playing for time.” |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-07-25 15:06 |