US Offers to "Negotiate" if Iran Surrenders; Thoughts on Negotiation Tactics; Obama Threatens War

President Obama has stepped up the rhetoric against Iran with an offer to "negotiate". His offer is no offer at all, it is a demand to surrender. There will be nothing left to "negotiate" if Iran accepts the offer. This is what Obama demands before "negotiation" begins.

• Immediately close and dismantle a recently completed nuclear facility deep under a mountain
• Give up and ship out of the country its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity
• Halt all enrichment even though enrichment to 5 percent does not pose a risk
• Allow inspectors full access to all Iranian sites
• Allow inspectors access to key nuclear scientists even though many Iranian scientists have been killed

The New York Times reports U.S. Defines Its Demands for New Round of Talks With Iran

The Obama administration and its European allies plan to open new negotiations with Iran by demanding the immediate closing and ultimate dismantling of a recently completed nuclear facility deep under a mountain, according to American and European diplomats.

They are also calling for a halt in the production of uranium fuel that is considered just a few steps from bomb grade, and the shipment of existing stockpiles of that fuel out of the country, the diplomats said.

That negotiating position will be the opening move in what President Obama has called Iran’s “last chance” to resolve its nuclear confrontation with the United Nations and the West diplomatically. The hard-line approach would require the country’s military leadership to give up the Fordo enrichment plant outside the holy city of Qum, and with it a huge investment in the one facility that is most hardened against airstrikes.

There is disagreement among the Western allies about whether Iran’s leaders have made a political decision to pursue a nuclear weapon. American intelligence agencies have stuck to a 2007 intelligence assessment, which found that Iran suspended research on nuclear weapons technology in 2003 and has not decided to take the final steps needed to build a bomb. But Britain and Israel in particular, looking at essentially the same evidence, say that they believe a decision has been made to move to a nuclear-weapons capability, if not to a weapon itself.

Some American officials say they have considerable confidence that if Iran moves to build a weapon, they will detect the signs in time to take military action, though others — notably former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates — have been more skeptical. American and Israeli officials say they have been more successful in the past few years in intelligence gathering in Iran, both from human sources and drone aircraft, like the stealth RQ-170 Sentinel that was lost over Iran late last year.

Iran's Right to Produce Non-Weapons Grade Nuclear Fuel

Iran has as much right as anyone else to produce non-weapons grade nuclear fuel.

Moreover, having watched the US destroy Iraq for absolutely no reason, one should put itself in Iranian shoes and understand the need for Iran to want to defend itself.

Thoughts on "Negotiation" Tactics

It is common practice in negotiation proceedings to reach for the sky with extreme positions on both sides. It is not common practice to tell the other side we will not even sit down to negotiate if you do not surrender in advance.

Cooler heads might prevail if there was actually something to "negotiate" over.

Obama Threatens War

President Obama made no offer to "negotiate" anything. Rather Obama “Last Chance” message can only be construed as a thinly veiled threat to wage war.

No doubt, the warmongers in Congress and the defense department are angling for just that. However, the US cannot afford and the world does not need another nonsensical war, one that could easily cause the price of gasoline to double or more.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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