The regime that dares call itself both Islamic and a Republic has gone further in their defiance of the international community. Yesterday the regime was threatening to boycott the IAEA and even threatened to pull out of the NPT in light of the IAEA and the international community's condemnation of the regime's behavior. Today, they are going a step further in flipping the bird to the world.
According to their state-controlled media, 10 new nuclear facilities have been authorized.
The Iranian Cabinet approved existing plans for five more facilities similar to its current plant at Natanz and ordered planning for five more to begin, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The dispatch quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that the new plants will be used to produce fuel for civilian nuclear power stations.
This is probably more rhetoric than substance- more propaganda and threat than reality. The behavior of the UnIslamic NonRepublic of Iran is both predictable and tragic. And before anyone else accuses me of being inflammatory, anti-Shia Islam, or whatever by saying what I just said, know that I'm actually quoting the most senior cleric in Iran when I say that.
Ayatollah Montazeri has emerged as the spiritual leader of the opposition, an adversary the state has been unable to silence or jail because of his religious credentials and seminal role in the founding of the republic.
He is widely regarded as the most knowledgeable religious scholar in Iran and once expected to become the country’s supreme leader until a falling-out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 revolution and Iran’s supreme leader until his death in 1989.
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In recent times, Ayatollah Montazeri has kept up the pressure, taking the unprecedented step of apologizing for his support for the 1979 takeover of the United States Embassy. He also has said that the Islamic Republic is neither Islamic, nor a republic, and that the supreme leader has lost his legitimacy.
The New York Times article about Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is worth a read. It demonstrates how things in Iran went wrong over the last three decades and undercuts the neo-con notion about Shia Islam.
Now to digress, back to Iran's regime and its nuclear program; this is horrible news. I somehow doubt China or Russia are going to take kindly to the regime's actions and threats over the past two days. Now I'd like to quote Meteor Blades who sums it up pretty objectively;
Whatever one's views of ... (13+ / 0-)
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...Iran's nuclear program, this isn't good news. At best, it means a further isolation of the regime in Iran without helping the Iranian opposition. At worst, it leads to an attack on some of Iran's nuclear facilities. That means dead civilians and potential escalation that could lead to big problems in the Straits of Hormuz and terrorist or other asymmetric attacks by Iran around the globe.
Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what you do and I will tell you what you believe.
by Meteor Blades on Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 04:58:25 PM PST
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Correction:
The poll should include "Saudi Arabia", not "Saudia Arabia".