Iran's Big 'Deal' Not Even Close

Boston Herald: Editorial

When is a “deal” not a deal, not even worth the paper it’s printed on? When the “deal” is Iran’s latest response to U.N. Security Council efforts aimed at halting Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program.

Iran’s much-awaited response was little more than rhetorically high-flying gobbledygook.

“If Europeans pay proper attention to positive and clear signals included in Iran’s response, the case will be solved through negotiation and without tension,” a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Hamid Reza Asefi, said yesterday. He described Iran’s response as a sign of his country’s good will.

But the “deal” doesn’t include a promise by Iran to halt nuclear enrichment - a key aspect of the proposal that promised Tehran a package of incentives for doing just that. READ MORE

So let’s see, under a Security Council resolution Iran had an Aug. 31 deadline to halt enrichment or face economic and political sanctions. But all its “response” says is that it might be willing to sit down and negotiate the issue.

So how is this progress?

Clearly it isn’t. France and Germany have joined the United States to make clear this isn’t even close to what the U.N. resolution means. China and Russia, on the other hand, who were all for the “carrots” aren’t exactly stand-up players on the sanctions piece.

Those who think they will somehow be held harmless if Iran develops a nuclear bomb are delusional - and that would include Russia and China.