Played By Tehran

Cal Thomas | Syndicated columnist | Updated: Mar 13, 2006

Played By Tehran

March 7, 2006

There was a story in Friday’s London telegraph that should catch the attention of American officials and fast.

The man who for two years lead Iran’s nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic program.

In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who until last year headed talks with France, Germany and Britain, revealed how Tehran played for time and tried to dupe the west after its secret nuclear program was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.

He boasted that while talks were ongoing in Tehran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake – a key stage in the nuclear fuel process – at its Isfahan plant but simultaneously convince European diplomats they were not doing what they were doing.

The U.S. told the Europeans that Tehran was lying. The Europeans chose to believe the lie. Let’s see if the international atomic energy agency would rather believe the lie than the truth.


Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.

 

 

Played By Tehran