appeasing and being rebuffed by IRAN

Last Friday in London, Condoleezza Rice was in London with senior officials from Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany to discuss Iran. In an unexpected move, the group of left with an offer on the table for Iran: diplomatic ties and loosening of sanctions in return for Iran abandoning uranium-enrichment program.

Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei rebuffed the offer, suggesting that the other should not be too optimistic for any concession. Iran has doggedly argued that the thousands of new centrifuges are being used to enrich uranium for purely peaceful purposes.

This comes on the heels of a Bush administration policy that has been defined by refusal to engage with Iran, one of the “axis of evil” countries Bush defined in the beginning of his presidency. The other two, Syria and North Korea, have also been in the news lately. The Bush administration recently declassified information on an Israeli air force attack on a remote structure in Syria that took place last year.