More Saber Rattling from Iran

Once again, Israel is a target.

TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Iran will target Israel first if the United States does anything "evil", a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday.

The United States says it wants Iran's nuclear stand-off with the West solved diplomatically but has refused to rule out military action.

"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani was quoted as saying by Iran's student news agency ISNA.

"[Wherever] America does something evil"?

Isn't that kind of vague? What constitutes an "evil" act? Iran claims that we are the Great Satan. America, by Iran's definition, is an evildoer.

That statement is like a blank check. Dehqani really is saying that Iran intends to attack Israel.

Any excuse to wipe Israel off the map will suffice.

...Dehqani said naval wargames held in the Gulf last month "carried the warning to those countries that threaten Iran, including America and the Zionist regime".

Nearly every day, Ahmadinejad or some other Iranian official issues another threat to use military force, supposedly in response to America's threats.

The U.S. is acting diplomatically, and in step with other nations.

When President Bush said that the U.S. will take no option off the table in dealing with Iran, he is not saying that the U.S. will use force if Iran continues to defy the international community over its nuclear program. He is merely saying that he offers no guarantees as to future U.S. reaction to Iran's activities.

It would be irresponsible for Bush to narrow our options, especially when dealing with a nation whose president asserts, "We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live."

It would also send the wrong signal to Russia and China. The U.S. cannot appear to be the least bit weak-kneed and wobbly when it comes to Iran.

Reuters reports:

"The thing [Russia and China] have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attacks," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Iran's Kayhan newspaper.

China and Russia both have big energy interests in Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil exporter. Russia is also helping Iran build its first atomic power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under-secretary of state for political affairs, said in Paris that Tuesday's meeting would seek to keep the Security Council members and Germany united before a meeting of foreign ministers in New York on May 9.

Asked about Mottaki's comments, he said: "All I know is that China and Russia say that they don't want a nuclear-armed Iran. And China and Russia have voted with us against the government of Iran. So we intend to preserve this unity."

Burns said he expected a consensus to emerge over the next 30-40 days on the need to send a "stiff message" to Iran, adding that a range of sanctions had been discussed privately.

Although Ahmadinejad insists that the U.S. is the warmonger, Iran is filling that role. The Iranians continue to threaten Israel, brag about their military intentions, and defy the UN.

More troubling than Ahmadinejad's agenda is Iran's alliance with Russia and China.

That's where this gets very dangerous and very frightening.

The ramifications of a showdown over Iran have the potential to be explosive.
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Russia's Kommersant reports:

A new uranium deposit has been found in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan near the city of Bandar Abas, Vice President of Iran and head of the Iranian Organization for Atomic Energy Gholamreza Aghazadeh announced. “The reserves of uranium at this deposit have not been fully investigated,” he told the ISNA on Tuesday, “but by initial estimates the deposit is significant.” He added that processing of the uranium-containing ore would provide Iran with 30 tons of uranium concentrate (yellow cake) per year. Ali Larijadi, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, stated that “Iran has sufficient reserves of uranium so we don't have to worry about providing uranium for the production of nuclear fuel.”

I don't know how to read Russia's reaction to Iran's announcement about discovering a large uranium deposit.

What are the odds of Iran "finding" uranium just as U.S., British, French, German, Russian, and Chinese officials are meeting in Paris to discuss a UN Security Council resolution on Iran's nuclear program?

I'd say that the odds of Iran and Israel becoming close allies would be better than the chances of such a discovery just happening to coincide with the meeting.