According to reports, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now requested that his nuclear expects begin working on 20% nuclear fuel, sending yet another signal of his tenacious defiance regarding international community demands to halt Tehran’s nuclear program.

In a televised address, Ahmadinejad accused the Western nations of “playing games”, using this to justifying the need to begin using centrifuges to produce the nuclear fuel. He did however brazenly continue to play the media game, adding that the doors of “interacting” with the United States and others remain open from Iran’s perspective.

In the meantime, American Secretary of Defense Robert Gates released a statement over the weekend stating Iran’s overall response to Western demands regarding its nuclear program has been “quite disappointing”. This message was in sharp contradiction to the statements made at the Munich Security Conference on Friday by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who boldly announced Iran was nearing a deal with the United States, apparently another Iranian media ploy.

Earlier last week, Ahmadinejad signaled a willingness to comply with demands set forth by permanent members of the Security Council, to send processed uranium to another country, but it appears once again that this is nothing more than another media stunt.

Speaking from Ankara, Gates added that he hopes China will change its mind, now the only permanent member of the UN Security Council opposed to imposing significantly stiffer sanctions on Iran.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)