On Wednesday, February 15th, confusing messages emerged from Iran. The president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made some fiery speeches on TV condemning the recent assassination of Iranian scientists. He said that there would be retaliation against European countries through oil embargos. Hours later however, the country’s Oil Ministry backed away from such threats. However, the same day, Iranian officials signaled willingness to negotiate with world powers over the future Iranian nuclear program.
The Obama administration has chosen to ignore these threats from Iran, saying that these mixed signals and turmoil within the country’s senior leadership simply proves that the political and economic pressure the West is applying to Iran is working.
Officials criticized Iran for having Ahmadinejad appear on television wearing a lab coat and a face mask to prove what he described a breakthroughs in Iran’s nuclear program. Among these claims was that Iran is loading fuel rods into an aging US nuclear reactor. The US in return played down these accomplishments, claiming them as being “hyped” and “not terribly impressive” .
I think this is just more of a game of cat and mouse with the West and Iran. Iran has oil that the West wants but it also has its nuclear program which the West fears. There will hopefully be some actual agreements in the future, but for now it seems to be a constant back and forth of threats and bragging.
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