WHAT IS MOST LIKELY TO HAPPEN NEXT?

Is there any way I can convince you to use quote tags for quotes instead of colors? The colors makes this more confusing (to those who don't know your markup) and difficult (for me who is intent on fixing it all if I am going to reply).

Now that it has been revealed than Iran has been building a secret nuclear facility and the US, UK and France have jointly denounced the effort, what is most likely to happen next?

1) Obama, Sarkozy and Brown successfully coerce or cajole the Iranians into abandoning their efforts to obtain nuclear weapons?

2) Israel launches pre-emptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities?

3) Iran demonstrates its nuclear weapons capability by detonating one underground?

I'm betting on #2, because #1 is not going to happen and the Israelis cannot wait for #3.

What about number 4: Nothing?

2) Both the current and the last US administrations have made clear that they do not support unilateral action. Given that the Israelis are already weary of Obama, they certainly aren't going to give him a pretext for lessing his already tepid support for Israel.

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Now that it has been revealed than Iran has been building a secret nuclear facility and the US, UK and France have jointly denounced the effort, what is most likely to happen next?

Is the facility designed for an energy program or a nuclear weapons program?

"Former Carter National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski made news in an interview implying that the US should be prepared to militarily confront any Israeli planes headed for a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities they suspect to be developing nuclear weapons."
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-lipscomb/maybe-brzezinski-is-half_b_294990.html

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Debra Law wrote:

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Now that it has been revealed than Iran has been building a secret nuclear facility and the US, UK and France have jointly denounced the effort, what is most likely to happen next?

Is the facility designed for an energy program or a nuclear weapons program?

You tell me.

The NPT, of which Iran is a signatory, does not prohibit the development of a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. We cannot assume that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

More facts must be gathered before we may speculate about "what is most likely to happen next."

The options you placed on the table, e.g., launching pre-emptive strikes against the Iranian facility, are highly premature and are reminiscent of condemnable cowboy tactics used by our former president, G.W. Bush.

Why don't you feel this way about Israel? Israel has a recent national history of attacking their neighbors and repressing their minority population.

Screw fairness, how about just some common sense? There is no right to prevent them from having nukes either,

and in many cases simply no acceptable way to prevent it. If Iran really wants nukes they will have them and there's nothing reasonable that anyone can do about it to stop them.

Engineer - prevention was unnecessary. South Africa (of course with the old regime still in place) did test a nuclear device over waters near Antarctica at a time no satellites were overhead. The 2-stage flash was however observed by other satellites and as you know cannot be generated by any other phenomenon, natural or manmade. The country's nuclear program was quietly dismantled long before apartheid was abolished.