Iran Flexes Strength as U.N. Considers Sanctions

Just days before President Obama hosts a nuclear summit in Washington, Iran announced Friday that "its nuclear path is irreversible," a dramatic move, despite the prospect of tough new sanctions.

In a ceremony where a choir and musicians performed a specially written nuclear symphony, Iran recently unveiled its homemade nuclear technology, including a new centrifuge - five times faster than the current model. Iran insists it's all for peaceful purposes, but it could also take the country closer to making a bomb.

Celebrating Iran's nuclear program in such an elaborate way is of course a public spectacle for Iranians, but it's also a deliberately provocative message to the world, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made crystal clear with words aimed squarely at the U.S., reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

"Anyone who thinks they can threaten Iranian resolve to carry on with our nuclear program," Ahmadinejad said, "is greatly mistaken."

But he knows a big new threat is looming.

The U.S. has marshaled unprecedented support at the U.N. Security Council for punishing new sanctions against Iran. Mr. Obama knows he can now count on Russia's backing, and for the first time the world's other superpower - China - looks as if it's on board too.

The formula for sanctions will be hard to get right. No one wants to hurt Iran's struggling opposition movement, but they do want to cripple the elite Revolutionary Guard's military and nuclear ambitions.

In public, Iran hasn't changed its tune on an aggressive nuclear program one bit, but the U.S. and its allies are hoping that behind the scenes its leaders will be having second thoughts.

[EstherHaman]

Iran?s ?belligerence", according to Mrs. Clinton, is making our case. What a crock of B.S. that is. Iran attended the conference that she did not have to attend in the first place. Then she was TOLD to surrender her LEU or sanctions would be put in place (because that is what the Zionists want). They agreed to trade it for the fuel rods that they need for medical purposes WITHIN their boarders because they don't trust the West and yet were refused!

Iran?s ?belligerence", that is totally not true. We don't even consider the Human Right's ramification of this issue. What happened with that? This subject has great consequences for the Iranian people who need the isotopes for their medical use and cancer treatment! Do we now forget about the Human Rights?!

Iran is a signatory to the NPT and they have passed 10 years of inspections by the IAEA and our own intelligence organizations have said over and over that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon program. Russia, next door to Iran, is apparently not worried or buying into any of the nuclear weapon fantasy we have created. But now these two, Hillary Clinton and Mr. Gates come and pull this propaganda piece right out of the air and act as two amateurs on national TV with no EVIDENCE at all to accuse Iran of mischief. What a joke. Hillary is Hilarious. She can't even answer the questions put to her and Gates has to complete her sentences for her. We couldn't make this stick with super glue! And they want the American youth to go and get killed over this B.S. again?! They are out of their cotton picking mind.

Sanction the Zionists who are building and expanding into the occupied territories with 200+ A-bombs that we KNOW they have. That would be a start.

[CitizenMikeM]

by Liberal_Insanity-0005 April 11, 2010 7:14 AM EDT
Yeah you retarded,only a stupid clown-in-chief could think that sanctions might work against Iran.Sanctions never worked against North Korea,why you think they will work now?
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Insulting people because they have a different opinion than you is what makes these boards disingenuous. Have you ever been to war? Fought? Ever been or want to be in a nuclear conflagration? Talk is cheap. Becomes more expensive when you have to walk the walk. Of course Iran is intent on building a nuclear capability, and eventually, they may require military intervention, but we had better get some nations on board with us or we;ll be reading YOUR blogs about why is Obama spending so much of our money on the war with Iran.

[humungo]

We should not jump to conclusions but wait to see what kind of "unprecedented support " the U.S really has to counter Iran at this stage.Russia and China have always played their own game in dealing with Iran.It is unlikely the two will simply endorse whatever Obama proposes.The chances are Obama will finally have something to gloat publicly for domestic consumption but not much to stop Iran in its tracks.The overall impression one gets is both Russia and China have Barack Obama on a leash,not Ahmedinejad.

[Dgunner]

SOMEONE IS IN THE KITCHEN WITH DINA! CAN THEY HELP HER BAKE?

[formrusmcsgt]

The U.S. has marshaled unprecedented support at the U.N. Security Council for punishing new sanctions against Iran.
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Not having dubya gumming things up is a huge help.

Threaten, insult, threaten, insult, etc. is no way to earn cooperation.

[Jax32]

Unprecedented support? You havent been paying attention...they practically had to bribe china with dropping the currency manipulation talk just to get them to "talk" about sanctions. The sanctions being considered are extremely weak and dont include any crippling sanctions on the Iran energy sector. Finally, there are countries like Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon that have come out and say that sanctions are no go. And the supposed Russian support is not really concrete, watch what the russians actually say not what sec. clinton says they are saying.