Iran's Latest Demonstration of Integrity

My Way News has the story here:

Iran threatened on Friday to block inspections of its nuclear sites if U.N. Security Council confronts it over its nuclear activities.

Germany, Britain and France said Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran had reached a dead end after more than two years of acrimonious negotiations and the issue should be referred to the Security Council.

However, the Europeans held back from calling on the 15-nation council to impose sanctions and said they remained open to more talks.

France said Friday that it favors a step-by-step approach with Iran over its nuclear program and that any sanctions request at this stage would be premature.

"We, like our partners, like the British and the Germans, consider that this co-request for sanctions is premature for the moment," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.

Iran said that if it were confronted by the council, it would be obliged to stop cooperating with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That would be, among other things, the end of random inspections, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"In case Iran is referred to the U.N. Security Council ..., the government will be obliged to end all of its voluntary cooperation," the television quoted Mottaki as saying.

Iran has been voluntarily allowing short-notice IAEA inspections since 2003. But last year it adopted a law requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the IAEA refers the Iranian program to the council.

The law also requires the Iranian government to resume all nuclear activities that it had stopped voluntarily, foremost among them enriching uranium.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said a "strong message" had to be sent to Tehran but said she was not ready to talk about what action should be taken to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had "strong suspicion" that Iran wanted to build a nuclear bomb but stressed that there was no categorical evidence to prove that.

"To quote the White House 'Iran is not Iraq'," Straw said in an interview Friday with the British Broadcasting Corp.

Iran is indeed not Iraq. After the considerable evidence from intelligence agencies in the US (under Presidents Clinton and Bush)and Britain that asserted Hussein's possession of WMDs, and the subsequent lack of discovery of these weapons, the public in both nations won't support a military solution. Unfortunately, this gives Tehran time to obstruct the Western World's efforts to peacefully thwart the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.

This outrageous posturing is simply the latest ruse. Iran's assertion of its rights under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty fly in the face of its nihilistic nuclear agenda. Exactly what does Iran need to enrich uranium for, if not to construct nuclear weapons? Or provide fuel for those that have?

Yet when the world warns them to stop, and considers formal measures through the UNSC to do so, Iran threatens to withold its limited cooperation. The ensuing back-pedaling and deal-making simply buys them more time.

The more the West treats Iran with kid gloves regarding its provocative nuclear posture, the more it encourages the "republic" to proceed. Iran should face sanctions for its intransigence. Should it then refuse to allow random UN inspections, it should face the appropriate discipline administered under UN authorization. If that happens to be a military strike at suspected nuclear facilities, then so be it. Iran must not be allowed to become a production center of nuclear weapons, not when it still leads the US State Department list of State Sponsers of Terrorism. Not ever.

Unless the West is prepared to accept Al Qaeda's iminent aquisition of nuclear weapons, then it must act decisively, as soon as possible.