Germany Accepts Uranium Enrichment in Iran

According to Reuters:

Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium for power generation provided there is close monitoring by U.N. inspectors to ensure it is not trying to develop atomic weapons, Germany's defense minister said on Wednesday

After years of pointless negotiations it comes down to being where they started, although with a change; that being giving Iran what it wants.

Germany and some other Western powers are willing to compromise with Iran over enrichment in order to resolve peacefully the nuclear stand-off with Tehran.

As the quote above describes, this resolves the stand-off peacefully; so it has been a SUCCESS!!! Unfortunately, the question of how the peace is maintained is not part of the equation.

When Reuters asked the German Defense Minister, Franz Josef Jung whether Iran should be permitted to enrich uranium:

"I think so. The offer includes everything. That means the civilian use of nuclear energy is possible but not atomic weapons. And monitoring mechanisms must be applied. I think it would be wise for Iran to accept this offer."

Presumably "monitoring mechanisms" that are an improvement of the mechanisms removed by Iran during these highly productive "negotiations." Some type of monitoring that requires a vast improvement over monitoring of say, "oil for food." "You know, the one that Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already dismissed.....as over and done."

But, I guess this has been addressed as Jung said:

IAEA inspections can provide those assurances through monitoring. That is not a problem.

So at this point the concern, of at least a diplomat who prefers to remain anonymous is as long as:

"this position is not retracted or undermined by accusations of going-it-alone, then it's real news."

Which presumably means the United States acting unilaterally. I certainly hope the U.S. does not muck up the works with its impatience and insistence that it requires more than just giving Iran what it has wanted all along. This would be a shame and a waste of three long years of diplomacy and negotiations that remarkably and aptly ended at the starting line.

The U.S. and Britain have held a more hard line position consisting of the requirement that Iran suspend uranium enrichment before talks could begin.

Reuters notes that Jung:

said he understood U.S. reservations but added that a ban on Iranian enrichment work was unrealistic.

His stance was that one could not expect Iran to not do something that the rest of the world has a right to do. Thanks for the patronizing support Franz.

Is it just me or doesn't uranium enrichment suspension temporarily for the purpose of showing good faith in negotiations, seem like an easy request/demand to adhere to?

Where do these U.S. reservations come from?

Could it be the overthrow of the Shah of Iran by extremists, followed by trespassing on U.S. soil leading to the taking hostage of American people? Was it the lack of diplomatic lines of communication over the past three decades between the U.S. and Iran? Also, could Iran's support of terrorist groups; including those in Iraq that might leave the U.S. weary?

I don't know, since I am not a diplomat and cannot possibly appreciate the feeling of achievement or accomplishment that must be felt by those involved in this tense world of a foreign officer of the U.S. and international community.

Perhaps this German change of heart stems from the fact that Gerhard Schroeder now heads the shareholders' committee of a gas consortium made up of Russia's state-controlled Gazprom and German energy giants BASF and E.ON.