Presenting a unified front at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, President Obama, French President Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a sharp warning to Iran's government about what President Obama called "disturbing information" -- a secret uranium enrichment facility Western intelligence agencies have discovered near Qom, 97 miles southwest of Tehran.
Calling the news "a challenge made to the entire international community," President Sarkozy said that "if by December there is not an in-depth change by the Iranian leaders, sanctions will have to be taken."
Brown said the "level of deception by the Iranian government and the scale of what we believe is the breach of international commitments will shock and anger the whole international community and it will harden our resolve…We will not let this matter rest. And we are prepared to implement further and more stringent sanctions.
Sanctions? Like the last three sets that were so watered down because of Russia and China, they did absolutely nothing?
Bet Ahmadinejad is just shaking in his boots.
Oh, and via Obama's statement, this stands out:
President Obama said "the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program" and called its construction a "direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the nonproliferation regime. These rules are clear: All nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy, those nations with nuclear weapons must move toward disarmament, those nations without nuclear weapons must forsake them."
Remember this is a regime Obama wants to speak to "unconditionally."
Also notice above where is gives the location of the site.. Qom, 97 miles southwest of Tehran.
A holy site.
Administration officials could not immediately say if the new site, built inside a mountain near the ancient city of Qum, one of the holiest Shiite cities in the Middle East, is on that list.
Here is another little tidbit from Wapo:
Obama, Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke in advance of the opening of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Their remarks came a day after Obama chaired a United Nations Security Council session on halting the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world. Although Obama referred to the nuclear ambitions of both Iran and North Korea during the Security Council session, diplomatic maneuvering kept any mention of the two countries out of a resolution that the council unanimously approved. The omission prompted passionate criticism from Sarkozy.
"How, before the eyes of the world, could we justify meeting without tackling them?" Sarkozy said. "We live in the real world, not a virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions."
More from NYT:
“They have cheated three times,” one senior administration official with access to the intelligence said of the Iranians late on Thursday evening. “And they have now been caught three times.”
The official was referring to information unearthed by an Iranian dissident group that led to the discovery of the underground plant at Natanz in 2002, and evidence developed two years ago — after Iran’s computer networks were pierced by American intelligence agencies — that the country had secretly sought to design a nuclear warhead. American officials believe that effort was halted in late 2003.
Here is a question for the leaders..... what makes them think that Ahmadinejad would ever negotiate in good faith? What makes them think that anything they were told, promised or assured of, in any talks, would be the truth when Iran has already proven, times three, to lie consistently?
Do you deal with someone you know, for a fact, is not going to honor any deals?
What does Ahmadinejad have to say about all this? Well first he cancelled his press conference, but according to TIME, he is telling Obama to "back off."
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has warned his U.S. counterpart not to press Tehran on new revelations about a uranium enrichment plant. "If I were [President] Obama's adviser, I would definitely advise him to refrain making this statement because it is definitely a mistake," Ahmedinejad told TIME in New York on Friday. "It would definitively be a mistake." At just about the same time, at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, Obama was announcing that Iran has a second, secret uranium enrichment facility.
So, the international community is insisting Tehran allow inspectors into a site that Iran has lied about consistently, and threatening him with sanctions.... haven't we been here before?
Yup.
.