Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting Indonesia. Earlier today he spoke to a group of students in Jakarta. The Times of Oman reports:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned yesterday that Israel will “one day vanish,” ramping up the stakes in the midst of frantic international diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Is it logical to give compensation in the Middle East for an incident that occurred in Europe, if this incident is indeed true … by murdering thousands of local Palestinians and making millions of Palestinian refugees?” he asked.
Still, the U.N. remains optimistic that a diplomatic solution is in the works:
Nevertheless, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, said he felt “a good sense of optimism” about diplomacy to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“I think it is a very good idea for the Security Council to hold their horses, so to speak,” he told a press conference during a visit to Amsterdam.
“The more we go back to the negotiating table, the more we have a chance at a durable solution.”
“I am very optimistic and I hope both sides will move away from their war of words … we need compromises from both sides,” ElBaradei said.
I’m not sure exactly what compromises are needed from our side, but in any event, it doesn’t sound as though Iran is in a compromising mood:
Separately, the influential head of Iran’s parliament reiterated that Tehran would not give up uranium enrichment, the process which makes the fuel for reactors but what can also be the core for an atom bomb.
Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, who is close to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by news agencies as saying the Islamic republic “will in no way accept a suspension of enrichment.”
All this on the same day when American liberals are expressing faux outrage over the fact that the NSA is doing its best–and with remarkable success–to prevent terrorist attacks inside the U.S.
As I noted earlier, the report by Great Britain’s Intelligence and Security Committee on last July’s London subway bombings offers a stark lesson. Shortly before the subway attack, there was a flurry of telephone calls between two of the bombers and one or more telephones in Pakistan. The two terrorists had come under suspicion, but the phone conversations were not intercepted. Had they been, it seems highly likely that the terrorist attack could have been prevented.
We intercept international phone calls between suspected terrorists; the U.K. doesn’t–or not enough of them, anyway. Their subway was bombed; ours haven’t been. To the NSA, I say: Keep up the good work.
Via Power Line News.
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