AP: Iran leader's nuke diplomacy questioned

[ellisonz]

Iran leader's nuke diplomacy questioned
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 13, 2:42 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Conservatives and reformists are openly challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard-line nuclear diplomacy — an unusual agreement across Iran's political spectrum, with many saying his provocative remarks have increasingly isolated their country.

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After a year of silence, reformists are demanding that Iran dispel fears that it is seeking to build atomic weapons, pressing for a return to former President Mohammad Khatami's policy of suspending enrichment, a process that can produce the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs.

"Resisting the U.N. Security Council resolution will put us in a more isolated position," said the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reformist party.

Ahmadinejad's popularity already was weakened after his close conservative allies were defeated last month in local elections, which were widely seen as a referendum on his 18 months in power.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_diplomacy

A democratic heart pang in the power elite of Iran?

[Kagemusha]

1. Yeah, but the more Bush goes after their people, the worse it gets

For that democratic heart pang that is.

[ellisonz]

2. That's an assumption.

Iran does not read DU.

Average Iranians don't care about the Iranian role in Iraq. They care about their families and hope for the future. The old guard is much more determinedly radical than the coming generation. If you're in poverty/or borderline poverty why do you care about nuclear weapons/energy?

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/koppel/iran/people/people.html

Edit: Iraq, not Iran in the third sentence.

[Kagemusha]

3. Um you don't, but you care about Bush bombing your home country.

And moves that appear to lead to that outcome surely will harm the democratic pangs as they always have before..

[ellisonz]

4. Except the odds of that happening are probably about 20 to 1.

:think: