Iran agrees to discuss alleged nuclear weapons program
Before posting, let me take the time to thank Jules for giving me the opportunity to share my writings, and therefore my thoughts, with his readership. I’m a European conservative, which makes me (slightly) right-of-center in the United States, which in turn means that I’m not as conservative as Jules. I blog at PoliGazette.
The Los Angeles Times reports that ‘[i]nternational arms inspectors have brokered an agreement with Tehran to discuss alleged evidence of nuclear weapons experiments discovered on a laptop computer purportedly smuggled out of Iran and given to U.S. officials.’
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official Olli Heinonen received the commitment after two days of talks with officials in Tehran, Iranian news agencies reported.
The agreement signals a mild breakthrough. Iran previously refused to discuss the matter, insisting that a Feb. 22 IAEA report cleared up lingering questions about its nuclear program and should allow it to continue producing enriched uranium.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is meant only to produce electrical power for its growing population of 70 million. U.S., Israeli and European officials suspect Iran is trying to master the tricky process of enriching uranium in order to at least have the option to begin building nuclear weapons.
The so-called “alleged studies” came to light in 2005 after U.S. officials obtained a laptop computer which purportedly contained files with schematics for warhead designs, uranium enrichment experiments and explosives testing consistent with a nuclear weapons program.
O, fun. How predictable. “We know you’ve been working on the weapons, here’s the proof,” and suddenly Iran is willing to talk about it.
Well, there’s not much to talk about really. You are trying to develop nuclear weapons, we won’t let you. End of conversation.
Topics: everything
Posted by Michael van der Galien at 3:18 pm on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
One Response to “Iran agrees to discuss alleged nuclear weapons program”
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April 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I’d like to know how we got that laptop computer.
On the other hand, I hope that only a tiny number of people know.