Iran Gives UN the Finger

The IAEA just gave Iran the diplomatic equivalent of, "If you don't stop I promise I'm going to count!"

The UN nuclear watchdog agency's 35-nation board adopted a resolution Thursday expressing "serious concern" over Iran's resumption of uranium conversion - a process that some fear could be used to help build a bomb - and asked it to stop.

The resolution said "outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear program have yet to be resolved, and that the agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."

It expressed "serious concern" over the regime's resumption of uranium conversion at its nuclear facility at Isfahan, saying the move "underlines the importance of rectifying the situation ... and of allowing for the possibility of further discussions in relation to that situation."

Oh no! Now that their concern meter has gone from "kinda" to "serious," they are ready to "underline." I'll bet it doesn't come in the form of insensitive "red" ink either. In any case, it looks like they are trying to bore the Iranians into submission by attempting to bring them back into more "discussions."

Even the Iranian's see this as assinine:

"This resolution is political," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in response, according to the state-run news agency. "It comes from American pressure ... It lacks any legal or logical basis and is unacceptable."

I'm sure most would agree with the Foreign Minister that it is a rare occassion when something logical is produced by the U.N. Now that the Iranians are defiant, and the IAEA has "serious concerns" that they want to "underline," what will be their course of action?

"I can only see one best way to move forward, and that is through negotiations," he (IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei) said. "At the end of the day, I need to see defusion of the situation ... that we are moving on a path of accommodation and not confrontation."

The situation will certainly be "defused" when Iran produces their first nuke. At that point, we'll be doing a whole lot of accommodating, and ElBaradei will be happy with that, as his goal "at the end of the day" isn't to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, it is to see "defusion of the situation."

I propose a solution: we should require that ElBaradei move his headquarters to Tel Aviv. Maybe then he'll see some value in getting a bit more confrontational?