Iran has until September to show nuke good faith

Washington Times:

President Obama said Friday that Iran faces a September deadline to show good-faith efforts to halt its nuclear weapons program, and said the statement issued by the world's leading industrial nations meeting here this week means the international community is ready to act.

The president also said the current system of international organizations is a relic of the 20th century and needs to be updated, but also said the United Nations needs to step up and fulfill its role. He spoke at a press conference wrapping up three days of meetings here with the Group of Eight top economies -- exactly the sort of international institution that's come under fire for excluding major countries.

On Iran, Mr. Obama raised expectations for a September international summit in Pittsburgh, saying the invited nations will take stock of whether Iran has complied with international demands over its nuclear programs. He also denied reports that Washington tried but failed to achieve agreement on new sanctions here, saying the statement was what he wanted.

"It provides a timeframe," Mr. Obama said. "If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries, that are going to say we need to take further steps."

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This is actually a shorter time frame than he mentioned earlier of by year's end. I suspect it comes from a realization that Iran is not going to demonstrate any good faith anyway so cutting them off sooner rather than later gives the world leaders a few months to do something before a potential Israeli attack by the end of the year.

It also seems to make clear that the administration's willingness to have unconditional talks is not open ended. This may be too subtle for the current Iranian leadership. They are likely to see it as a mixed message. With the election still in dispute by many Iranians, I suspect Ahmadinejad is not positioned to make any concessions at this time. In fact, he seems more hostile than ever to dealing in good faith with the West.

He has recently suggested that he would like to debate Obama at the UN, but this is probably just an attempt to grab a role on the world stage where he can showcase his demagoguery.