Goodbye Nuclear Weapons, See You in Iran!

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council, with President Obama as its chairman, voted to strengthen the restrictions on nuclear technology, making it more difficult to convert peaceful applications into weapons programs.  This, however, is still a matter of enforcement which has been a persistent problem for the United Nations in the past; its coffee and doughnut budget has been exceeded for every year of its existence.  Iran is at the heart of this matter, even though President Obama was very general in his comments during the meeting, but glared at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because "he knows what he did." 



Today, before the opening of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, President Obama, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, called on Iran to acknowledge another nuclear enrichment facility and let it be monitored by the IAEA.  This sets the stage before talks between the U.S., Iran and five other nations next week.  It looks like this is going to be the stick used to "encourage" the Islamic Republic to cooperate with the international community.  No word on whether or not there will be cake at the talks, which has long been used as a means of gaining cooperation.

At issue is the enriching of uranium, which at high enough levels of U²³⁵, can be made into a weapon.  Russia has long refused to be a part of strict sanctions against Iran and President Medvedev this time has made overtones that seem like he would be willing to participate, but has said nothing solid.  The Iranian regime is in a tenuous situation and gaining a nuclear weapon would likely strengthen their position within their own country, as well as in the world.  The crux of negotiations would be to either sweeten the deal enough that they comply with international norms, or make the punishment severe enough that they are forced to cooperate.  Cake is highly recommended as a tool for this.