Another Day, Another Threat

Still giddy over Iran's successful enrichment of uranium, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent the world another "rational" message today.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday that Iran won't back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power. The comments were made as Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at defusing tensions over Iran's nuclear program.

"Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"We won't hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium)."

Didn't Kofi Annan make a call to tone down the heated rhetoric?

Yes, he did. Annan said yesterday, "I appeal to everyone to work more actively in search of a diplomatic solution and to cool down on the rhetoric and not to escalate."

"We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger," isn't exactly taking it down a notch.

It's not like this is surprising. Ahmadinejad has shown that he doesn't pay much attention to the UN.

Mohamed ElBaradei is utterly clueless if he still believes that "the time [is] 'ripe' for a political solution."

Ripe?

It looks rotted to me.

The only hope for the Iran crisis to be solved without military action rests on complete and unequivocal statements of condemnation by a unified international community.

Russia and China cannot cut Ahmadinejad any slack whatsoever anymore.

If they do, they doom the possibility of a political solution.

Russia and China will be complicit in Iran's defiance unless they stand with the U.S. and our allies against Iran's nuclear program.

If they don't, the consequences could be dire.