Mid-East Nuclearization Watch
Finally! Olmert is putting his foot down and insisting that Egypt - the world's most dangerous country, minus one disgruntled general - can't be allowed to develop a robust nuclear program/virtual arsenal... oh wait, it's exactly the opposite. Not like it's going to matter. We've now reached the surreal point where Ahmadinejad is using his UN speeches to allude to and/or welcome the Apocalypse - and we're not even exaggerating! The NY Sun noted this, but neglected to mention that an Iranian nuclear reactor is going online in about six months. The Russians, who are building it for them, say that it'll take a couple months more - but just a couple. At the beginning of the month, in response to news reports floating around about how Russia was going to cut off nuclear aid, we wrote:
Shut up, Russia is not going to stop building a nuclear reactor for Iran. It's for peaceful purposes, remember?
From yesterday morning:
At the beginning of the month, a senior Russian diplomat warned that his country would stop cooperating in the construction of the Bushehr reactor if Iran expelled inspectors of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. The senior Russian diplomat said that, "I believe that the reason Iran didn't expel the inspectors yet, is because they cannot risk losing the cooperation with us." A short time later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Levrov denied the report and said it was a "provocation."
See? Never contradict us in front of the kids again.
UPDATE: Virtual arsenal:
For the long term, workshop participants explored the notion of “virtual nuclear arsenals” as a means of moving away from actual weapons. A virtual arsenal would consist of retaining the knowledge and experience to produce nuclear weapons among those countries with nuclear programs, while disarming actual weapons.
One disgruntled general away. Seriously. A war with Egypt would make Lebanon II look like the Six Day War.
UPDATE: It's not just that Olmert doesn't see any way that an Egyptian nuclear program could go badly. Now he's delegating stopping Iranian nuclearization to the United States. Any day now, the State Department is going to issue a strong condemnation - and then, Iran better watch out!
Shut up, Russia is not going to stop building a nuclear reactor for Iran. It's for peaceful purposes, remember?
From yesterday morning:
At the beginning of the month, a senior Russian diplomat warned that his country would stop cooperating in the construction of the Bushehr reactor if Iran expelled inspectors of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. The senior Russian diplomat said that, "I believe that the reason Iran didn't expel the inspectors yet, is because they cannot risk losing the cooperation with us." A short time later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Levrov denied the report and said it was a "provocation."
See? Never contradict us in front of the kids again.
UPDATE: Virtual arsenal:
For the long term, workshop participants explored the notion of “virtual nuclear arsenals” as a means of moving away from actual weapons. A virtual arsenal would consist of retaining the knowledge and experience to produce nuclear weapons among those countries with nuclear programs, while disarming actual weapons.
One disgruntled general away. Seriously. A war with Egypt would make Lebanon II look like the Six Day War.
UPDATE: It's not just that Olmert doesn't see any way that an Egyptian nuclear program could go badly. Now he's delegating stopping Iranian nuclearization to the United States. Any day now, the State Department is going to issue a strong condemnation - and then, Iran better watch out!
