What Is This World Coming To?

Kaveh L Afrasiabi , in an Asia Times Online ARTICLE, argues that, contrary to a recent Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) REPORT that stated Iran would soon achieve Nuclear Weapons Breakout Capability – in fact, the opposite is true. Whatever the truth, Afraisabi infers that President elect Obama will need to sift through the conflicting information:

The incoming Barack Obama administration has already been inundated with reports, policy recommendations and position papers vying for the president-elect’s attention on the Iran nuclear issue.

A little further into his essay, Afrasiabi claims:

By ignoring these issues completely, the respected nuclear experts seem unconvincing in their quasi-alarmist projections of Iran’s near-term nuclear weapon capability - the same projections which are indirectly fueling the argument of the more hawkish experts for the military option.

Their report serves as a half-cooked meal for new US policy-makers gearing up for action come next January. But it will surely give them indigestion, as it replicates the coercive approach that is centered on the theology of Iran’s “nuclear intentions” and “capability”.

But while Professor Afrasiabi comes up with a number of eloquent arguments rebutting the ISIS report and labeling it as alarmist, Iran makes no qualms about its nuclear intentions HERE.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Sunday he was prepared to offer Iran economic incentives to stop its nuclear program, which Washington says is aimed at making bombs. But he warned that sanctions could be toughened if it refused.

“When they stick to their past view regarding suspending uranium enrichment, our answer will be: Iran will never suspend uranium enrichment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran is not interested in any CARROT and STICK incentives:

Iran has rejected a suggestion by US President-elect Barack Obama that a carrot and stick policy of economic incentives and additional sanctions might persuade the Iranian government to change its behavior.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, said Monday that Obama’s proposed policy was unacceptable and had failed in the past.

Qashqavi reiterated Iran’s refusal to suspend enrichment Monday and said the US must recognize Iran’s “nuclear right” before the country would dispel concerns about its program.

Intriguingly enough, Debka File recently issued the following news REPORT:

In the face of Damascus’ refusal to allow UN inspectors access to three suspect “research laboratories, Western agents recently carried out a daring covert operation to collect water samples from the Orontes river in Syria where it drains into the Mediterranean…

Situated on the river bank near Homs is one of the three research institutes where Syrian, Iranian and North Korean technicians and scientists are suspected of reprocessing plutonium for Syria’s clandestine military nuclear program. The Orentes samples confirmed the suspicion that Syria has gone back to the plutonium project which was cut short when Israeli destroyed its reactor at Al Kibar in September 2007.

But while Professor Afrasiabi can sit in a comfortable study and wax philosophical about Iran’s motives and current nuclear development, Israel CANNOT afford to make ONE single mistake. Iran pulls the strings in Syria and, by default, controls Hezbollah in Lebanon, and given President Ahmadinejad’s PAST (consistent) threats, President elect Obama needs to take careful notice.