USA Watchdog | May 21 2012
The meeting, this week, in Iraq to negotiate Iran’s nuclear program will decide whether or not the world will go to war. The meeting is between the East (Iran, China and Russia) and the West (U.S., UK, France and Germany). If the meeting goes well, war will be avoided. If the meeting goes badly, the world will be heading for war. If yesterday’s CNN interview with Iran’s Finance Minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, is any indication, the upcoming meeting will be a disaster. When asked if Iran would allow inspectors to scrutinize all its nuclear facilities, Hosseini said, “There are conversations and dialogues taking place currently, but there cannot be a hegemony and a double-standard in the treatment of member countries such as Iran. If these principles can be understood and applied with mutual respect, I think we will be in a much better place. If we don’t, we will witness an increase in international oil markets.” In other words, he sidestepped the question and gave no indication total access by inspectors would be a possibility.
The Iranian’s have long maintained their nuclear program is for the peaceful production of energy, but the West thinks otherwise. After the G-8 meeting this weekend at Camp David, it was reported by Haaretz.com, “The G8 expressed “grave concern” about Iran’s nuclear program, which is suspected of being used to develop nuclear weapons, and called on Iran to “seize the opportunity” of the next round of meetings.” The elephant not in the room remains Israel who is most fearful of the Iranian nuclear program. After the last meeting in April when only another meeting was agreed upon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly annoyed. On Friday, his comments on the upcoming meeting in Iraq were less than optimistic when he said, “No evidence that Iran is serious about stopping its nuclear weapons program. They may try to go from meeting to meeting with empty promises. They may agree to something in principle but not implement it. They might even agree to implement something that does not materially derail their nuclear weapons program.”