Sudanese president unclear on the concept

The concept of the carrot and the stick, that is.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday condemned the United States for pursuing sanctions against his country over Darfur, the BBC quoted Sudan TV as reporting.

"We are amazed why USA is continuing with sanctions after a time when we agreed with the U.N. on the heavy support package," he said.

Why? Because agreeing is not the same as following through.

Sudan agreed on June 12 to a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police, but many diplomats doubt Khartoum will keep its word.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week accused the Khartoum government of repeatedly breaking its promises to end the violence in the remote western region of Darfur.

Rice also said Sudan must face "consequences" -- code for new U.N. sanctions -- if it failed to allow the force in.

"Will these sanctions return the displaced and refugees to their villages? Will these sanctions help in providing services to the people?" Bashir asked during a live media conference.

How about, you let the displaced and refugees return to their villages and stop slaughtering them, Mr. President, and then you won't have to worry about the sanctions?

Another backwards news story

Non-news from Iran about their latest stalling tactic:

Iran is ready to provide answers on past suspicious nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency within the next few months, the agency's head said Friday after meeting with the country's top nuclear negotiator.

But the Iranian official suggested the offer was conditional to an end of U.N. Security Council involvement in Iran's nuclear program. The council has already imposed two sets of sanctions on the Islamic republic over the past half year for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and is poised to impose new penalties.

Why can't we see a news story like this?

Coalition forces are ready to cease bombing sorties against Iranian military and nuclear development facilities within the next few months, the U.N. Secretary-General said Friday after meeting with the country's top nuclear negotiator.

But the U.N. official suggested the offer of a cease-fire was conditional to the end of the Iranian nuclear program. The Islamic Republic has already escalated its nuclear program many times in response to the U.N. Security Council's sanctions for that program and says it is ready to rebuild its program when the bombing stops.

It would be refreshing, to say the least.

Time to shatter the centrifuges

Iran says it has enough uranium in a form enriched enough to be within months of building a "Little Boy" bomb.

Iran claimed today to have stockpiled 100kg of enriched uranium, enough in theory to create two nuclear bombs of the kind that destroyed Hiroshima.



A war exhibition held in Iran in 2005

The news will once again stoke fears that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

Iran would need 50kg of weapons-grade uranium in order to make one nuclear weapon equal in power to the one dropped by the Americans in 1945.

So far, the regime’s uranium has only been enriched to the level needed for generating electricity in civilian nuclear power stations.

But if Iran chooses to enrich it to 84 per cent purity, it would reach weapons-grade level and become the essential material for building a bomb.

The United States possesses conventional bombs, MOABs, that can cause massive concussion. By creating a large artificial earthquake in Natanz, it should be possible to vibrate the centrifuges there enough to send them off-balance and cause them to shatter from their own momentum. Israel might be able to do the job with more conventional bombs, but I would rather see 18,700 pounds of high explosive in one fell swoop rather than nine 2,000-pound explosions in series.

UPDATE:

Hey! No take-backs!

Iran's Interior Ministry denied a report Friday quoting the minister as saying Iran has produced 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of enriched uranium. The ministry said he was misquoted.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported that the minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, also said Iran now has 3,000 hooked-up centrifuges actively enriching uranium.

The Interior Ministry later issued a statement denying Pourmohammadi made the comments reported by ISNA. The minister "only spoke about Iran's nuclear achievements and he did not mention amount of enriched uranium and the number of installed centrifuges," said the statement, carried on the Web site of the state broadcasting company. "The recently published report is denied."

Is this the old bluff-and-deny strategy? Probably not -- sounds more like the old I-showed-my-hand-too-soon blunder.