I cannot imagine why anyone would think that the U.S. will refuse to take “yes” for an answer from Iran RE: its nuclear program.
From the ” _WP_:”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001275_2.html
bq. Later this month, the U.N. Security Council will convene to judge Iranian compliance with a unanimous December resolution giving the nation until Feb. 21 to suspend all enrichment and reprocessing activities. Anticipating a negative finding, the administration is readying a new resolution to increase Iran’s isolation. Among other measures, officials are considering charging Iran with violating U.N. resolutions that prohibit member countries from harboring or assisting known terrorists. Tehran has refused to hand over a number of senior al-Qaeda operatives it has claimed to be holding under “house arrest” for years.
The article also points out that
bq. Some senior administration officials still relish the notion of a direct confrontation. One ambassador in Washington said he was taken aback when John Hannah, Vice President Cheney’s national security adviser, said during a recent meeting that the administration considers 2007 “the year of Iran” and indicated that a U.S. attack was a real possibility. Hannah declined to be interviewed for this article.
Which makes this paragraph even funnier:
bq. “I don’t know how many times the president, Secretary Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iran,” an exasperated Gates told reporters at a NATO meeting in Spain.
Keep at it, Bob. We’ll tell you when to stop.
Note some contraditions: On Feb 11th, the WP writes that Iran “refuses to hand over” some of these al-Qaeda suspects.
On Feb 9th, the WP wrote:
“ Since al-Qaeda fighters began streaming into Iran from Afghanistan in the winter of 2001, Tehran had turned over hundreds of people to U.S. allies and provided U.S. intelligence with the names, photographs and fingerprints of those it held in custody, according to senior U.S. intelligence and administration officials.”
So it appears that Iran has been turning them over – just not to the US. Not even sure if turning them over to the US would be legal?
And note that the Feb 9th article states that these people include “high-value” targets such as al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith of Kuwait – yet it fails to mention that Iran tried to turn him over to Kuwait, but Kuwait refused to take him. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3074785.stm )