Well the Iranians tire of receiving Euro envoys who insult Tehran with feeble efforts to surrender and bribe Iran. How much contempt must the Iranian mullahs have for the Europeans that the Iranians have decided to stop even pretending to negotiate? The new president is all hardliners all the time. He wouldn't appoint anybody that the Euros could even pretend is a "moderate":
Not one of the 21 ministers that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated is known to be pro-democratic reform in Iran. The nominees, who have to be approved by parliament, are widely seen as followers of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a noted conservative who has the final say on all state matters.
The proposed foreign minister is Manouchehr Mottaki, a conservative lawmaker who has criticized Iran's nuclear negotiations with the Europeans, saying the country should adopt a tougher position and make no concessions.
Several other proposed ministers are either members of the Revolutionary Guards, or have a history of cooperating with the Guards and security agencies, which take hard-line positions on Iran's nuclear program.
Me? I appreciate their candor. It makes it easier for us to finally consider what must be done. The President is a bit more direct these days, it seems:
In the interview, Bush said the United States and Israel are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon."
But, he said, if diplomacy fails "all options are on the table."
"The use of force is the last option for any president. You know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country," he said.
And this may be a coincidence but the Iranians think we and the British are up to something:
We have information that the United States is interfering in the northwest of Iran. That is unacceptable and we are going to protest," said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi."According to our reports the English have interfered in the troubles in Khuzestan and some (agitators) have been trained in bases under British control in Iraq," he added.
The province of Khuzestan, where there is a large ethnic Arab community, and the Kurdish areas of northwestern Iran near the Iraqi and Turkish borders have been rocked by violence in recent months that has left a number of people dead.
And as I've mentioned before, in another coincidence I'm sure, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be full this month.
We must not allow the mullahs to get nuclear missiles. Period.
