1. Report that Bolton indicates the UNSC will send a “strong and determined signal” to Tehran with regard the nuke fuel program. No timetable. Recall that Bolton told me ten days ago that he is now the prince of multi-lateralism. Bolton goes where France and Britain and German lead, and he goes arm in arm with the reluctant Russians. The Chinese are inscrutably silent, fretting about their oil and gas supply line and all that cash they are slapping into Tehran’s hands.
2. Report that Russian UN ambassador joked that unless the UNSC slowed down with its pell-mell pace to demand an IAEA progress report, the UNSC could get to Chapter 7 by June. (Chapter 7, Article 42, of the UN Charter is the guns and guns and guns option.)
3. Inside Iran, report that an Iranian general said that “bandits” or “Rebels” attacked vehicles in the southeast of the country and killed 22. This sounds like Baluchistan action, cross border units fighting Pakistan for independence, willing to gun down Iran also.
Reuters reported these same attackers identified themselves as a Sunni rebel group. Report that the attack was on a provincial governor’s convoy. Report that 22 KIA, seven taken hostage, in order to bargain for release of members in Iran custody. Still sounds like Baluchis. (Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed of AlQ are Baluchis.)
4. Report that NSA Hadley opines the US-Iran talks are “a device” to divert from the contest at the UNSC. This is saying the obvious. Perhaps Hadley is ready to play the double game that is required to maneuver in Persian waters.
5. Report that StateSec Rice says that the Khalilzad-Iran talks over Iraq would not be “negotiations.” More double game talk. Say the obvious, then do the obvious, then declare you are not doing what you are doing. The mirrors within mirrors of diplomacy in the Ummah.
6. Report that the US accuses Iran of meddling in Iraq, and that Tehran was the author of “unhelpful activities” in Iraq. This is Foggy Bottom speak for hostilities are underway, as in the Japanese Empire is conducting “unhelpful activities” in Manchuria in 1941.
7. Report that Iran’s Foreign Minister Mottaki (this is a major player, get used to his name: he speaks with and for Ahmadinejad, and he is just as pious and fanatical and convinced as the Fuhrer) is demanding a timeline for US withdrawal from Iraq. If this reminds you of elements in the US poilitical apparatus, you are hearing correctly. Iran will play divide and confuse games with the peace now gang, with the momentum in the US to cut and run. Iran does not actually want the US out — and knows that the Bush team will not quit Iraq — because the US tied down with an Iran generated civil war in Iraq is exactly in line with the Iran war plan.
8. Report that Iran Ayatollah Jannali (understudy to Qom lesdership) declares that Iran will never climb down from its nuke program. He mentions the “dignity of Islam.” Read this as Iran speak for full speed ahead. Reads this as the same as Japan declaring that the USS Enterprise, sortied from Pearl, 1941, was conducting “unhelpful activities” by looking for the Japanese fleet.
9. Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council boss, the slick, luminous, pious, multilingual and suicidal Larijani, accuses the US of launching a “creeping regime change” in Iran. This is Tehran Foggy Bottom speak for hostilities are underway. State’s forward listening post for legals is at Dubai. State’s forward listening post for illegals is at Baku. The number of Farsi speakers now on contract with State and DOD is now officially a Most Secret.
10. Report that the US White House uses a presidential message to commemorate the Iranian holiday of Nowruz: this is the Persian new year. This is Foggy Bottom speak for we know what’s going on even inside totalitarian tyrannies: it’s springtime.
11. Report that some oil cartels are suspending their big ticket items in Iran, pending UNSC contest. This needs confirmation. And what of China’s investment, what of Russia’s?
