While Iranian officials have been insisting for many months that this was never really an option on the table, the sudden talk by US officials of having Iran ship its low-enriched uranium stockpile to Russia seems to be adding difficulty to the deadline talks.
US officials, bizarrely, began the day by insisting the export of the stockpile was always intended to be part of the deal, though State Department officials later backed off that, saying there were alternatives.
The theory is that Iran could send the stockpile to Russia for conversion into fuel rods, though Iran is keen on having the entirety of the process, including the fuel rod conversion, done domestically to prevent having no fuel for their power plant.
Officials continue to insist the talks are going “down to the wire,” though the last minute US demands seem to be an effort to cow Iran into giving sudden concessions on a deal which by most indications is already virtually finalized, with the looming deadline as leverage.
The statement of the State Department confirms what I wrote yesterday namely that the shipment of Iran's stock of enriched U235 to Russia made zero sense after Iran had diluted the about 20% U235 material to below 10% U235 on demand by the 5+1 earlier. This looks like another poison pill gleefully trumpeted by our MSM.
Hitler used the same negotiating tactics as the USG: make more demands in order to prevent a deal being reached, then use the failure of the negotiations as a pretext for war.
As I've said in the past, the days of real diplomats in the American government and associated organizations is dead and gone. What we have now are rank amateurs and vaudeville understudies. It all stems from this misbegotten idea that the US is "exceptional" and should be kowtowed to in all instances.