Iran wants a little quid-pro-quo for letting those sailors go
posted at 4:49 pm on April 7, 2007 by see-dubya
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Just like an old fashioned mob shakedown: Hey, notice that your business didn’t burn down this week? How grateful are you for that? Allah sent me that link and thought Iran wants to orchestrate a prisoner release of its own. Probably that too, but I think they’re aiming higher. From that story:
Movahedian said it was a “mutual task” for Iran and the world’s major powers to “glean the fruits” of Tehran’s decision to release the Britons.
He said he would welcome recognition by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — of what Iran says is its right to enrich uranium in its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes.
“That’s the prime issue for Iran and I think that could help set a new basis for our future relations with Western countries,” he said.
Plus, here’s a Reuters dispatch by David Clarke linking the diplomatic solution to this crisis to the possibility of a diplomatic solution for the nuclear issue:
Analysts said the involvement of the top foreign policy adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, opening a new communication channel with Iran, was significant.
“There may be more of a disposition to try to find a way to get into negotiations on the nuclear issue, now that Iran has demonstrated that negotiations on this issue of detained service people can be productive,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for Non-Proliferation at the Institute for Strategic Studies.
There’s actually no need to read the whole thing…but do take note of where this bit of newswire fluff got published. I guarantee you they don’t run everything Reuters sends them.
(See, just look how reasonable we can be! Can we please have our nuclear program now?)
RELATED: Somali pirates finally release a UN-flagged aid ship and an Indian merchantman they’ve held captive since February.
I am impressed with how reasonable they are, and how responsive to diplomatic solutions. I say we supply these moderate, reasonable Somali pirates with unmonitored nuclear technology, right now.
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Translation: “Now that the Iranians have cleverly determined that not even their reversion back to punk hostage takers rises to the level of an act of war in the eyes of the West, Teheran is pumped at the prospect of the number of goodies the west will cough up in exchange for Iran going about completing its nuclear program down a less threatening path.”
shuzilla on April 7, 2007 at 5:08 PM
How cool would it have been if Britain had launched naval air strikes as soon as the captive sailors were safe? What good is a rope-a-dope without the eventual ass kicking?
Buck Turgidson on April 7, 2007 at 5:08 PM
Hmmm… so when they take the NEXT group of hostages and release them, will they then be considered even more reasonable???
Romeo13 on April 7, 2007 at 5:13 PM
Ok, now let me get this straight . . . I’ll kick you in the crotch with a steel towed boot and humiliate you for a couple of weeks then, I’ll give you an ice pack for the throbbing groin pain and a bag of goodies for your trouble, then you should tell me how grateful you are for those gifts and offer me something in return. If the British (and the rest of the free world) are really this stupid they deserve whatever befalls them.
rplat on April 7, 2007 at 5:19 PM
I’m starting to wonder if Iran won as big as it first appeared.
It reminded the country of 1979. I’ve seen 3 or 4 ex-hostages on TV every single day. Each swears Imanutjob was one of the captures. It reminded us of about Iran’s killing of our Marines in Beirut and all their other state sponsored terrorism including funding, supplying and training terrorists in Iraq.
It made Pelosi and the Dems look officious, naive and very dangerous.
It exposed the weakness of Europe (and Britain especially) and many Europeans did not like what they saw. You know the old saying, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Well, it looks like they are ready to admit it.
As time passes we may begin to think of this event very differently than we do today.
TheBigOldDog on April 7, 2007 at 5:27 PM
Okay fine. We should simply dart into Iranian waters, capture a dozen or so of their coast guard, parade them around on television, threaten them with execution, announce we are going to have trials … and then give them back to Iran. I don’t have a problem with that.
crosspatch on April 7, 2007 at 5:34 PM
Perhaps – if most people have been paying attention, still remember the past AND are willing to see these inconvenient truths about a man and reigeme we are asked to trust to keep the nukes “peaceful”. Having said that, Imanutjob may have just demonstrated to his peeps that we are as war-weary and impotent as we were back in 1979, which I think does more to determine what course Iran may allow him to take in gaining international “respect”.
shuzilla on April 7, 2007 at 5:39 PM
I hope we’ve communicated to Iran that if she want to keep her navy off the sea floor, she’ll not use it in a threatening way against us or our allies again.
Probably not.
shuzilla on April 7, 2007 at 5:44 PM
Of course there is a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear program. We diplomatically tell them to pound sand and they diplomatically accept!
SnakeintheGrass on April 7, 2007 at 5:55 PM
Aviation Week & Space Technology is reporting a successful test of new 30,000 lb. Massive Ordinance Penetrator. They have altered the bomb to fit the B-2 bomber rather than the usual MC-130 Combat Talon.
Maybe we are getting ready to show Iran just how grateful we are…
Zorro on April 7, 2007 at 5:55 PM
Michelle Malkin has a link to an awesome editorial by Fred Thompson at Red State. Thompson gives his take on the British fiasco.
It is amazing piece. I’m definitely supporting Fred Thompson. He is the exact type of Republican we need to nominate. Judge for yourself:
http://www.redstate.com/stories/foreign_affairs/the_pirates_of_tehran
januarius on April 7, 2007 at 5:56 PM
I was thinking more along the lines of, cross into Iraqi waters to kidnap British sailors & marines, then release them to show that your really can be trusted with responsibilities like atomic weapons. “See we didn’t hurt them, so we really wouldn’t hurt anyone with a WMD.”
taznar on April 7, 2007 at 6:01 PM
Whole thing reminds me of this Monty Python episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRm5WcjOikQ
Vercotti Bros: “Colonel, you’ve got a nice Army base here.”
“Wouldn’t want anything to happen to it…”
MikeHu on April 7, 2007 at 7:11 PM
I have been thinking the same thing.
Glynn on April 7, 2007 at 9:16 PM
You have me at a disadvantage sir, well played, spot on, and the like!
Excellent!
PinkyBigglesworth on April 8, 2007 at 1:01 AM
HAHA!!
Iran is lucky they don’t get there one and only gas refinery replaced with a smoldering crater…
Theworldisnotenough on April 8, 2007 at 1:05 AM
“if she want to keep her navy off the sea floor, she’ll not use it in a threatening way against us or our allies again.”
I am not sure about the allies but, I really think that if they try to pull this with the U.S. Navy every man and woman would fight to the death…
The game is afoot, they won’t be able to do this twice. At least, I sure hope not or all is lost…
In fact, I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if some small Iranian boat or two blew up in the next few weeks… There are serving Captains of the U.S. Navy that were advocating taking out a hull a day while the Brit sailors were hostages.
Babs on April 8, 2007 at 1:38 AM
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