Rafsanjani 'astonished'

Reuters.com: Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday he was astonished at the unanimity of a call by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog for Iran to halt enrichment activities, calling it a cruel decision. In a resolution on Thursday, the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unanimously asked Iran to resume suspension of all nuclear fuel related activities and asked the agency to verify compliance by Tehran. 'It was astonishing and really strange...that eventually what Europeans and America wanted was approved with unanimity. How is it possible?' Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University. 'We didn't think that an international organization, before the eyes of the whole world, would sanction that Iran should stop everything,' he added in a sermon broadcast live on state radio. 'The decision was a cruel one.' Iran, which has denied Western accusations that its atomic programme is a front for covert bomb-making, resumed work at its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan on Monday. Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council which arbitrates on legislative disputes between parliament and a hardline watchdog body, said Iran's decision to resume uranium conversion was irreversible. 'I am telling you to know that you could not treat Iran like Iraq or Libya,' Rafsanjani told worshippers who chanted 'death to America.'See how totally unlike Iraq or Libya they are? When Iraq and Libya chanted 'death to America' they used a 4/4 beat while Iranian use a 3/4 beat. Obviously they are entirely different. And the only reason Rafsanjani could possibly be astonished by this decision is if someone welched on a bribe he had paid them. I will however be astonished if any actual substantive measures are taken by the U.N. against Iran. Substantive measures start at a complete trade embargo.