US offers Iran nuke swap deal, then pretends it didn't

In its never-ending effort to portray Iran as an intransigent bad-boy intent on defying a world-wide consensus against its peaceful use of atomic power and clandestinely developing nuclear weapons, the Unites States last week reportedly offered a third-party deal to provide medical isotopes, then abruptly withdrew the offer and denied ever having made it. The Associated Press, CNN, and other news agencies reported on Feb 10 and 11 that the US was "poised to offer Tehran a way to obtain medical isotopes" through an intermediary country, in an effort to "call Iran's bluff on its nuclear program", which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insists, despite the dearth of evidence, is a cover for nuclear weapons development. CNN quoted State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley as saying that Iran's threatened enhancement of their enrichment process to the 20% level necessary to produce medical isotopes was "unnecessary" in view of the purported offer to make the isotopes available for indirect purchase. A few days later, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported via the Associated Press that they had received the offer from the U.S., France, and Russia, and were "studying" it. The next day, Reuters News Agency reported that the U.S., France, and Russia denied ever having made such an offer, and that the only offer on the table was for Iran to ship its uranium out en masse to Russia and France for enrichment, which proposal Iran has already rejected. At the same time, Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama have added another layer of rhetoric to the shellacking of Iran as the belligerent rogue seeking nuclear hegemony in the Middle East. The AP reports that Obama declared Iran was on an "unacceptable path to nuclear weapons", while Fox News consumers were informed that Secretary Clinton blamed Iran for potentially triggering a "dangerous nuclear arms race in the Middle East." Meanwhile, other Middle Eastern countries, such as Turkey and Syria, have offered to act as go-betweens in an arrangement such as the State Dept. reportedly made, then denied making. Such a third-party arrangement could lead to a solution for Iran's expressed need for nuclear fuel for electricity generation as well. The only obstacle, apparently, is the necessity of maintaining the perception that Iran is unwilling to give up its alleged ambition to develop a nuclear weapon.