Iran defiant as UN talks fail

[xchrom]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0222/breaking29.html

?ts=1329923229
ran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting with Iranian nuclear scientists and managers in Tehran today. Photograph: Reuters

The UN nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran's suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West

In a defiant response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's nuclear policies would not change despite mounting international pressure against what the West says are Iran's plans to obtain nuclear bombs.

"With God's help, and without paying attention to propaganda, Iran's nuclear course should continue firmly and seriously," he said on state television. "Pressures, sanctions and assassinations will bear no fruit. No obstacles can stop Iran's nuclear work."

As sanctions mount, ordinary Iranians are suffering from the effects of soaring prices and a collapsing currency. Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed over the past two years in bomb attacks that Tehran has blamed on Israel.

[leveymg]

1. One of the primary tenets of propaganda is to make the unthinkable seem inevitable.

The text may be completely accurate, but the message can also be completely misleading.

War with Iran is neither necessary nor inevitable over the nuclear issue. It's the same propaganda framing that got us into the Iraq debacle. This one will be worse, on every level.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Bonobo]

3. You said it. +1!

If this results in military action, it will be entirely our choice and none other.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. Neither Fukushima or Hiroshima ended in happy stories.