Monkeyfister

They have pushed the opening date back by one month.

via PressTV

Iran's nuclear point man says the country's first nuclear power plant will be inaugurated in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr by September.

"Today we passed one of the most important and final test, the hot water tests, of Bushehr power plant before its inauguration," IRNA quoted Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi as saying on Wednesday.

"After 37 years, grounds have been prepared for the plant's opening," he further explained.

"We have reached the point of no return. Grounds are prepared for the final opening of the reactor," he stressed.

The construction of the plant started in 1975 when Germany signed a contract with Iran. Berlin, however, pulled out of the project following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran then signed a deal with Russia in 1995. Under the deal, the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, but the completion has been repeatedly delayed due to financial and technical problems.

And this doesn't sound too promising:

via Moonie UPI

Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Spanish leaders in Madrid following his tour last week of Latin America.

The president said during his meeting that "the prospect of war grows" in the Middle East because of lingering disputes between Israel and Turkey, The Jerusalem Post reports.

Israel was scrutinized for a raid on a Turkish-flagged vessel trying to break a blockade on Gaza in May. Israeli forces killed nine civilians on the vessel in international waters.

Israel justified the raid as a defensive measure meant to keep goods that may have military uses out of the hands of Hamas militants.

Assad said during a news conference in Madrid said if "relations between Israel and Turkey are not renewed, it will be very difficult for Turkey to continue its role in (regional peace) negotiations."

Ankara has threatened to sever ties with Israel completely if it didn't receive a formal apology for the raid. Energy and defense ties were cut in the wake of the May 31 incident.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his country had "no intention of apologizing to Turkey," the Post said.

And I apologize about these two links, but this via Fox Noize isn't good at all.

ASPEN, Colorado -- The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the benefits of bombing Iran's nuclear program outweigh the short-term costs such an attack would impose.

In unusually blunt remarks, Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba publicly endorsed the use of the military option for countering Iran's nuclear program, if sanctions fail to stop the country's quest for nuclear weapons.

"I think it's a cost-benefit analysis," al-Otaiba said. "I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion … there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what."

"If you are asking me, 'Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?,' my answer is still the same: 'We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.' I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the U.A.E."

Al-Otaiba made his comments in response to a question after a public interview session with the Atlantic magazine at the Aspen Ideas Festival here.

Their hatching some godawful horrible ideas up there, in festive Aspen. Someone needs needs to pull the plug on that shit.

I am the sort of guy who looks for patterns in the news. When I see this sort of stuff posted on the news wires on the same day, I tend to light up. Israel's leadership is so over the top bat shit crazy right now, that they believe a preemptive attack on Bushehr will grant them 1000 years of peace. It very well may at that, because they, and the rest of us will all be dead, and the world will be radioactive for at least that long. Does anyone sane have any influence in Israel anymore? Does the Knesset, and Benji, really think that Iran will simply roll over? Do they not consider that Russia has invested a LOT of time, money and energy to get Bushehr online, and might just get a bit angry having their investments blown up? Do they not believe that Russia will have valid reasons to back Iran's counter-strikes? Why the fuck did Obama have Benji here, posing for the cameras, over a round of Kumbaya at this moment?

Oh, Israel. You MUST return to sanity. You are a nuclear nation without having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, contemplating a preemptive strike on a State that IS an NNPT signer, and allows regular and spot inspections. Your actions, executed in the belief of self-defense, will result in your own self-destruction. What in Heaven's Name are you thinking? Even if Iran HAD a bomb, which they do not, they would not use it on you.

Consider your prevailing winds, if nothing else. If Iran nuked you, the blast would kill Palestinians. If the blasts didn't, the fallout would, as well as many in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, possibly Cyprus, or even Crete, as well. Iran might hate you, but they don't want to kill Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Lebanese, or Cypriots. They sure as hell are not going to preemptively blow-up the Dome Of The Rock, The Western Wall, or Jerusalem on bare-faced, simple principle. Please, Israel-- come to your senses about an attack on Iran. Down that path lies world destruction.

We don't need that right now.


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Labels: Bushehr, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Stupidity, Nuclear War, Pakistan