It Appears All is Well In Vienna,

Hey Folks,

It is just now starting to be reported that the meeting in Vienna of foreign ministers from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China , all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, as well as Germany and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, was successful in creating a "far-reaching agreement".

According to British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett,

"We believe (the proposals) offer Iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation," He added "We have agreed a set of far-reaching proposals as a basis for discussions with Iran,"

"We are prepared to resume negotiations should Iran resume suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities as required by the IAEA, and we would also suspend action in the Security Council,"

"We have also agreed that if Iran decides not to engage in negotiation, further steps would have to be taken in the Security Council. We urge Iran to take the positive path and to consider seriously our substantive proposals which would bring significant benefits."

Now just yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said a military option remained as a last resort if talks or sanctions proved futile. We know what President Bush thinks of this also.

He said,

"The next step is for our coalition partners to go to the Security Council."

So why the all of a sudden turn around? It’s simple, the Bush administration is trying to get firm Russian support. This is why they have accepted language in a proposed Security Council resolution to support the offer that would rule out an immediate threat of military strikes.

President Bush is trying the nice guy thing. He even apologized, a week or so ago, for his "strong language."Now going with these proposals, could he be show a true willingness to try to bring about a peaceful resolution to this very volatile situation? I would like to think so. But remember what I said, "You remember leading up to Iraq, it seemed more of a "show". An appearance of seeking cooperation by president Bush KNOWING full well he was going in anyway." This is one of very few times I HOPE I’m wrong.

There are some very positive signs here. According to State Department spokesman Tom Casey, President Bush has spoken to Russian and Chinese leaders and that the conversations have been positive. He told reporters that the United States was willing to "go the extra mile". {By taking the immediate threat of Military force off the table}. But that the United States still sees Iran’s program to enrich uranium as non-negotiable. But so do they.

So I see this as a POSSIBLE step forward, and I would love to see this end in peace, and NOT WW3. I would love it if President Bush is sincere about this. But I have my doubts. Only time will tell.
Peter