Iran's Nuclear Two-Step

Iran wants nuclear weapons. There's no doubt about that. They believe it is their divine right. And they want to use it. They've said as much. And they even have admitted to deceiving the Europeans who so badly want to believe the Iranians when they said that they wanted nuclear power for peaceful purposes:

In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.

He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot.

"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said.

Revelation of Mr Rowhani's remarks comes at an awkward moment for the Iranian government, ahead of a meeting tomorrow of the United Nations' atomic watchdog, which must make a fresh assessment of Iran's banned nuclear operations.

The entire negotiating stance was a sham, just as many bloggers (including Charles at LGF, Pam at Atlas Shrugs, and yours truly) had stated. This was all part of the cheat and retreat.

Yet the Europeans wanted to believe the Iranians even though both the Europeans and Americans think that Iran's seeking nuclear weapons:

America and its European allies believe that Iran is clandestinely developing an atomic bomb but Teheran insists it is merely seeking nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Iran's negotiating team engaged in a last-ditch attempt last week to head off Security Council involvement.

If we can't trust Iran on the little things, we shouldn't trust them on the big things either.

Iran's looking to Russia to try and counter the US efforts at the UN.

And it appears that the US coopting of Libya appears to have slowed Iran's nuclear weapons program as well:

The Iranians' biggest setback came when Libya secretly negotiated with America and Britain to close down its nuclear operations. Mr Rowhani said that Iran had bought much of its nuclear-related equipment from "the same dealer" - a reference to the network of A Q Khan, the rogue Pakistani atomic scientist. From information supplied by Libya, it became clear that Iran had bought P2 advanced centrifuges.

The IAEA had nothing to do with stopping the nuclear proliferation ring; that was the work of the US led Proliferation Security Initiative.

Also blogging this story: Sweetness and Light, California Conservative.