"The European Union will support an Iranian nuclear program that cannot be put to military use and will boost political and economic cooperation if Tehran accepts international oversight, a top official said Monday.
EU foreign ministers meeting Monday considered a package of enhanced incentives to induce Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, which many experts see as a first step toward producing nuclear weapons.
"We are prepared to work on a cooperation package and support Iran's development of a proliferation-proof civilian nuclear program," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after the meeting." Full Text here
Meanwhile Hugo Chavez in London spelled it out a little more clearly:
"If the United States attacks Iran... oil could reach $100 (£52) a barrel or more . . . Moreover, Iran has said it would attack Israel, and I know they have the wherewithal to do so . . . This would be a terrible escalation and I do not know where it would end and I do not know who would get out the first nuclear bomb or how many people would die. No-one would be safe from this madness." Full Text here
And even this compromise has caught the attention of the US, which is considering delaying a meeting on Iran. The cracks are starting to show.
A good overview of the entire issue of Iran's nuclear position with respect to the US and the EU may be found here.
It seems that Chavez is agreeing with weazl: the end of US hegemony and empire is near.
11 comments:
If I could pick a world leader to emulate, it would not be Chavez, Cindy Sheehans personal favorite. Nor would it be Castro or Ahmadinejad.
The US has never stated that it would attack Iran over a peaceful nuclear energy program.
What they have stated is that they will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. This is the same policy the EU also has. Russia was willing to provide enriched uranium to Iran months ago, but Iran wants full control and out of the eyes of the IAEA.
How is their current position different then it was six months ago?
As far as the US pushing back talks on Iran's nuclear crisis, what choice do they have? Russia and China have veto power and what point is there to continue negotiations that aren't going to go anywhere. Of course, in reality there is another choice.. unilaterally attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, but Bush has stated he wants this solved diplomatically. Isn't this what the Dummycrats have called for?
Bush gets criticized for not getting enough multinational support in attacking Iraq but now he is criticized for doing just the opposite and Iran.
You mentioned that Europe was considering a package of enhanced incentives for Tehran but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the plan saying "Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?"
Do you really think that uruknet.info gives a balanced overview of the entire issue of Iran's nuclear position with respect to the US and the EU? I think you have a better chance of finding support for free-market capitalism in Das Kapital.
I think you give too much credit to Washington warmongers. If you can't read through their lies now perhaps you never will. The US wants Iran to PROVE that it's uses are not military, which is nearly impossible to do, especially as they have allowed IAEA inspections. The Bushies NEED an Iran war to avert attention to how dismal they are.
And by the way, I don't think Uruk .net gives a balanced view of anything. And nobody does. I don't. You don't. FPM doesn't. NYT doesn. MSNBC doesn't. Best we can do it try to be truthful. And I believe their truths (and my truths) more than the aforementioned sites.
It is funny how the Left is so accurate in predicting events, and the Right is always giving excuses for why they (you) are wrong. Try not being wrong in the first place. And being wrong is attacking Iran. Simple as that.
But thanks for stopping by. Even though we disagree on just about everything, I still respect you. And I'm sorry you shut down your blog, but am glad you made your way here.
And, by the way, I think there is NO leader doing more for the benefit of his citizens than Chavez, so I don't know what kind of leader you would want to emulate, but the vast majority seem quite full of shit or nothing special to me.
But I guess Ducky beat me to the punch. :-)
Warts, maybe, but I wasn't talking about his skin. ;-)
ducky says...I'm still curious what Bush daddy was doing "sport fishing" down there so often just before the attempted coup.
Catching Marlin I hope.
Let's not forget Chavez tried to wrest control of Venezuela in 1992 in a failed military coup d'etat.
The Human Rights Watch has also accused him of being complicite of torture and other abuses. The HRW is no friend of President Bush.
Mother Teresa he isn't.
Although he is immensely popular among the poor, he is just as immensely disliked among the middle class and the rich. In the end, foreign investment will dry up and he will just another Noriega
ducky...I'm just using numbers off the top of my head that might not be 100% accurate, but the last I've heard was that we were spending 200 million per day for Venezuelan oil. Our deficit is over 8 trillion..but the United States with 5% of the world's population controls 32% of the world's GDP.
Our GDP is at$ 11,750,000,000,000, if you remember your basic economics that figure is calculated after subtracting our national debt...that's all long way from being broke.
,The Human Rights Watch has also accused him of being complicite of torture and other abuses.
AC, please show me where HRW says this. I don't believe they did.
And since when did torture bother you Bushies anyway. I'd love the key to be thrown away for all heads of state that sanction torture. We'd get rid of our bastards faster than hell. Thanks for the support.
By the way, AC, fuck foreign investment. They've got oil. It's a sellers market. Get real.
Your Excellency
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
Presidente de la República
RepúblicaLetter from Human Rights Watch to Hugo Chavez
Bolivariana de Venezuela
Palacio de Miraflores
Caracas - VENEZUELA
De mi mayor consideración,
I have the honor of addressing your Excellency to express my profound concern by the reply of your Government to a report by Human Rights match about the threats against the independence of the judicial power in Venezuela that we presented a few days ago in Caracas. Instead of responding to the contents of that report, high Government officials resorted to a series of charges without foundation and absurd accusations against my person and the organization that I represent.
Our report entitled “Manipulating the rule of law: The independence of the judicial power threatened in Venezuela”, examines the serious risks that affect the independence of the judicial power in Venezuela and its consequences on the rule of law. Specifically, it describes our concerns over the new law of the Supreme Court which was enacted last month. This law allows for a simple majority of the National Assembly to pack it with its supporters as well as purging the Court, undermining in this way the independence of the judicial system by jeans that violate fundamental principles of the Venezuelan Constitution and international human rights law. The report emphasizes that the political occupation of the Supreme Court will aggravate even more the lack of independence of judges, most of which do not enjoy any stability in their positions.
On the other hand, the report expresses that Venezuela is still on time to save the independence of the judicial system and with that end it recommends urgent measures that your Excellency and your supporters in the National Assembly should adopt to avoid a grave and irreparable harm to one of the powers of the state. Concretely, we believe that it is fundamental that the implementation of the new bill be postponed and that those articles that allow for the political control of the highest court of justice in Venezuela be voided.
We offered the opportunity to discuss our conclusions and recommendations directly to your Excellency and your main Ministers and listen to your points of view about this important matter. Because of this, before traveling to Venezuela we requested meetings with the Vice-President of Venezuela Jose Vicente Rangel, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, Lucas Rincon Romero, the Foreign Minister, Jesús Arnaldo Perez and your Excellency. Unfortunately, only the Foreign Minister accepted to meet with us, but cancelled the meeting hours before the time set for it.
The Foreign Minister, on top of that, pointed out that we had not traveled to Venezuela to “have a dialogue, but to make groundless accusations”. Nevertheless, it was him that cancelled the meeting that we had established to discuss our report. In the mean time, Vice President Rangel, who also abstained himself from establishing a dialog with Human Rights Watch, and even without knowing the contents of our report, responded with insults and qualifications such as “mercenaries at the service of imperial powers” and “spokesmen for the Government of George Bush” even reaching the point of inventing connections with the intelligence services of Pinochet.
The groundless charges by the Vice President against human Rights Watch and I, in the sense that we represent the interest of the Government of the United States have to amaze anyone with elementary information about developments at the international level. For more than 20 years Human Rights Watch has been one of the most rigorous critics of US policies that affect the protection of human rights. Since George Bush became President we have produced 27 reports which document human rights violations, compared with two reports on Venezuela that have been published in the same period of time. These reports about the US, among other matters, criticize the current Government for the treatment to the prisoners of war and presumed terrorists detained in Guantanamo and other part of the world. At the time, also we criticized the statements by the Bush administration when he made your Excellency responsible for the coup in April 2002.
The most recent accusations of your Vice President against me, about the supposed links with the police of general Pinochet, are equally infamous. For more than 20 years I have actively participated in initiatives to take to Justice Mr. Pinochet and members of his security services for the atrocities committed during the military dictatorship. Mi compromise in the defense e of human rights in Chile and the hemisphere is a matter in the public domain.
The offenses of the Vice-President not only reflect, in the best of cases, a profound ignorant on his part, but gravely affect the credibility of your own Government in front of the international community. I hope your Excellency Hill publicly repudiate these statements and recommend to him that he abstain from making similar accusations in the future.
We trust that your Excellency and the more reasonable members of your Government opt for taking care in a responsible and effective manner our grave charges that we have made in our report and that you adopt measures in the short term to avoid the political control over the judicial power. In that respect, I would like to reiterate our disposition to establish a respectful and constructive dialogue with the authorities of your Excellency’s Government.
Respectfully,
José Miguel Vivanco
HRW
Da Weaz said...
By the way, AC, fuck foreign investment. They've got oil. It's a sellers market. Get real.
If you think that President Bush or any American president would allow Chavez to seriously threaten American interests then you need a refresher course in history. Get real
Thanks for the letter, AC. Nice job. I will follow up. I respect someone who backs up what he says with a reference. Thanks.
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