Iran Vows to Continue Nuclear Program

Following the UN Security Council's decision to sanction Iran for continuing to enrich uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured) said the West would regret it, although he did not give any specific reasons why. He also said the UN needs to accept Iran's program and that the sanctions would not hurt the country. I was thinking the same thing about the sanctions yesterday, and the US Ambassador admitted as much when he said that the sanctions were really a warning and that they would push for stronger measures if needed (and they will be).

In order to reach a unanimous vote as required, concessions had to be made to get the sanctions passed. Russia requested several changes which made the sanctions quite weak. There are a few articles about this here and here.

Lastly, it appears that Iran will no longer cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. This should come as no surprise since it is a UN agency.

I think Iran will continue to be as difficult as possible and drag this issue out for as long as possible. With their connections to Russia and China, they know they are in no real danger in regards to the UN. I do not see any scenario, outside of Iran actually using nuclear weapons, where a military force goes into Iran. The US and Great Britain are taking a lot of heat at home and around the world for Iraq right now, to go into Iran would be political suicide. Additionally, I don't think they want to turn the rest of the Muslim world against them.