Iran's Nuclear Drive: A Runaway Train

"Nuclear train of the Iranian nation doesn't have a reverse gear," said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president last week during a press conference. This statement seemed to have irritated a number of the western governments, and the US government in particular.

But the issue got even worse when he said "Our train doesn't have brakes either, as we dismantled them and threw them away sometime ago," in response to Condoleezza Rice, the US foreign ministry who had suggested him to push the stop button only instead of worrying about going backwards!

Mr. Ahmadinejad keeps making such comments before the international tribunes as the UN Security Council’s 60 day deadline to stop the uranium enrichment was over last week and the 5+1 governments are getting closer and closer to making an agreement about the awfully diverse sanctions they are planning to impose on the Iranian nation, as a result of the hard-liner regime insisting on its nuclear ambitions.

The US vice president, Dick Cheney, warned that it was a "serious mistake" if Iran became a nuclear power, during his visit to Australia last week. But Ahmadinejad keeps calling for further negotiations, saying “the time for bullying has expired."

That is while the US government has specified for many times that it will not go through any negotiations with the Iranians unless they have stopped all of their uranium enrichment activities.

Condoleezza Rice told Fox News Sunday that “Iran needs to stop enriching and reprocessing, and then we can sit down and talk about whatever is on Iran's mind."

"I've said that I am prepared to meet my counterpart or an Iranian representative at any time if Iran will suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities. That should be a clear signal," she added.

But also on Sunday, Ahmadinejad said Iran would not surrender to what he called "another conspiracy" by the West in the dispute over the controversial atomic programme, the Iranian state television IRIB reported.

"They think they can hurt us economically. Since they have threatened us and issued a resolution against us we have had record contracts. They cannot do anything," Ahmadinejad said.

"Our revolution is going fast towards the summit like a bulldozer. The enemies think they can stop this bulldozer by throwing a few pebbles at it. They then magnify their small pebbles 500 times in psychological warfare,” he continued.

The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mohammadi, told the ISNA news agency: "We have prepared ourselves for any situation, even if war happens," He added that Iran was prepared for talks with the United States but without preconditions.

Basically, what is going on between the US and Iran at the moment, more seems to be like a kind of mutual diplomatic bullying from both sides, who tend to more think about defeating the old enemy rather than their nations' long-term interests.

Among all the countries involved, Great Britain's position seems to be one of the most realistic. The British authorities' statements on this issue have always represented their moderate policies at the interest of both nations. However, being the America's oldest and most powerful ally in the world, they cannot be the most objective referree you can find for this issue. But no matter what, one thing is clear about Great Britain: They are by any means against starting a war on Iran. That is definite.

British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, said that "Iran had been offered almost everything any country that wanted modern civil nuclear power could ask for."

"No one wants to implement sanctions against Iran. No one wishes to have conflict or is preparing for conflict with Iran. While the door remains open to negotiations for Iran, someone has to walk through that door," Beckett said on Tuesday to a diplomat training college in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"We are perfectly happy to talk to them. The question is what the conversation is about?" said Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, in a reaction to Ahmadinejad’s recent controversial comments on his country’s nuclear program.

He added that "The latest comments from Iran are very worrying because they indicate again they want to defy the international community". Blair insisted that "the tougher we in the international community are, the more likely we are to get the result we want. Any sign of weakness is lethal."

"I think Iran is making a big miscalculation in refusing to suspend enrichment, Tony Blair said today. think the comments from Iran are very worrying because yet again they're indicating they want to defy the international community," he said at his monthly news conference. "I think we've got therefore to consider what more measures we take which we are now doing with our partners," Blair continued.

The researches show that most of the Islamic countries are worries about the recent US-Iran conflict and about the way the US is going to handle this problem in particular. They simply do not want to witness another war in the region, against another powerful Muslim regime.

A recent statement made by Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey suggests that "It is vital that all issues must be resolved through diplomacy and there must be no resort to use of force."