By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
After a five-day delay, Iran has furnished an "informal oral counter-offer" to the fuel-for-fuel deal proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that has been endorsed by the United States, Russia and France. Details of the answer have not been revealed, but it has already been rejected by some Western diplomats.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the IAEA, confirmed he had received Iran's counter-proposal in Vienna, five days after the deadline for its submission expired. In a draft proposal by the IAEA, Tehran was asked to ship out most of its low-enriched uranium before the end of the year for reprocessing into higher-grade material under international supervision. The processed fuel would then be returned to Iran for use in a medical research nuclear facility.
Various reports indicate that Iran's counter-offer is not the final response, but rather one that has sufficient elements in it to motivate ElBaradei to continue pushing for a compromise.
...The administration of Barack Obama appears to have returned to the zero enrichment option favored by the George W Bush administration. This is in light of a key speech by the National Security Advisor, James Jones, before a pro-Israel lobbying group, in which he categorically stated that the administration remained steadfast on ending Iran's enrichment program.
...The latest initiatives in the US Congress have a similar air to the period before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when whipped-up fears of Iraq's (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction prevailed over reason and fueled a disastrous war.
read more @ asia times
2. US senate panel approves bill against Iran - thank you for cooperating now bend over
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved unanimously on Thursday a legislation that would authorize the Obama administration to impose tougher sanctions on Iran for failing to give up an alleged nuclear weapons program. The Senate panel took the action a day after the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill that would subject foreign companies doing gasoline business with Iran to tough U.S. sanctions.
The latest actions by U.S. lawmakers have apparently tightened loop on Iran for its disputed nuclear program.
3. Dan Burton has the Israeli talking points: hurry hurry hurry
A US congressman warned Wednesday that a slow progress on the Iranian question raised the prospect of a Mideast war. “The US must take action to resolve Iranian nuclear quagmire in order to avert risk of Israeli strike,” Republican Dan Burton told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had made similar comments earlier this week when he also warned of an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran if an agreement was not reached with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Committee Chairman Howard Berman said that while he is not happy to enforce solely US sanctions and endorses President Obama's dialogue efforts, the diplomatic effort will have to show results soon. He added that should dialogue fail, the next option he would favor is tough sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. The third option will be sanctions imposed outsides the framework of the Security Council, in case Russia or China will express objection in the UN.
4. Bibi pretending to negotiate for "peace" but of course there's the problem of Iran, so far there's only been a first step this will take some time i'm afraid we can negotiate "peace" until this is all ironed out to our satisfaction but really we are so committed blah blah blah
U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy held talks Friday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in occupied Jerusalem as part of an intense and ongoing bid to revive broken-off “peace negotiations” with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu called the UN-brokered plan for nuclear cooperation between Iran and major powers "a positive first step." Speaking at the start of a meeting with Mitchell, the premier hailed Obama's "ongoing efforts to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear military capability. "I think that the proposal that the president made in Geneva to have Iran withdraw its enriched uranium, or a good portion of it, outside Iran is a positive first step in that direction," Netanyahu said. Mitchell arrived Thursday to prepare for a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, her first official trip to “Israel” since the Netanyahu government took office in March.
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