Blogs of War

This is not good news:

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the prospect of talks with the United States on the nuclear program, saying nothing would be gained, state television reported Tuesday.

“Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them,” the television quoted Khamenei as telling Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

…”We do not negotiate with anybody on achieving and exploiting nuclear technology,” the TV quoted Khamenei as saying. “But if they recognize our nuclear rights, we are ready to negotiate about controls, supervisions and international guarantees.”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said that the West would misuse such a negotiating process to put pressure on the country.

Why negotiate when your opponent is willing to fold?

So, after declaring that a nuclear Iran was “unacceptable,” Bush blinked and authorized the E.U.-3 to approach Tehran with proposals to reward the mullahs if they promised to end their nuclear weapons program.

During these three years, the Iranians have advanced steadily toward acquiring nuclear weapons, defiantly announcing milestones along the way. At the end of May, with Ahmadinejad stridently reiterating Iran’s “right” to enrich the uranium necessary for nuclear weapons, the administration blinked again.

The mullahs don’t blink — they glare. Two weeks ago, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, dismissing the United States as a paper tiger, said: “Something very important is happening. . . . The Americans are no longer saying that Iran must be deprived of its nuclear rights forever. Iran has accomplished a great thing.”

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