Iran has announced they are progressing to industrial scale uranium enrichment, which I’m not sure exactly what that means. It means more enrichment, but there needn’t be any announcement for that since everyone knew they were headed there anyways. Yes, it’s in direct defiance of the IAEA and the UN Security Council, but Iran’s entire nuclear program already was.

Asked if Iran has begun injecting uranium gas into 3,000 centrifuges for enrichment, top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani replied, “Yes.” He did not elaborate, but it was the first confirmation that Iran had installed the larger set of centrifuges after months of saying it intends to do so. Until now, Iran was only known to have 328 centrifuges operating.

It would be an unusual event if Iran did not somehow tie nuclear energy into piety.

“We have gathered here today to celebrate the entry of the uranium enrichment project into an industrial level, thanks to God’s eternal blessing,” head of its atomic energy organisation Gholam Reza Aghazadeh told a ceremony at Iran’s most sensitive nuclear plant.

Perhaps the most brazen remarks come from none other than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

“The great Iranian nation, which for past centuries has been a pioneer of science, will not allow some bullying powers to put obstacles in its path of progress by influencing the international community,” he said in a speech.

“We will go on to reach the summits,” he added in a keynote address at Iran’s ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

“Today… this country has joined the countries that produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale,” said Ahmadinejad, confirming an earlier announcement by Iran’s atomic energy chief.

I’m tired of pointing out how ridiculous this is. Iran feels it has achieved a scientific breakthrough with the help of Allah, yet many other countries already have this breakthrough and the science that started Iran’s nuclear program was in fact Pakistani science purchased on the black market. If the issue is that the so-called international community has tried to prevent this then it is Allah’s will, last I checked North Korea nor India are Islamic nations. It’s the ultimate paradox.

Ahmadinejad added that Iran “will defend its rights to the end,” which is a rather strange phrase used if its program was for peaceful purposes. Then again, so too is having Iranians burn a mock Britain/American flag at the announcement in a nation where protests are not allowed unless directed by the regime. The IAEA believes in peaceful nuclear energy, yet the UN group still contends Iran stands in defiance.

All this while England is still recovering from the hostage crisis, and appears to be willing to do nothing to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. But perhaps I’ve read this wrong all along when I contended the entire hostage crisis was an Iranian victory with the way England appeared weak and England’s friends even weaker.

JOHN WILLIAMS, the former communications director at the Foreign Office, believes ministers are unlikely to be troubled by those who say Britain was humiliated, especially after the details of the servicemen’s treatment emerged.

“We got the result we wanted,” he said. “Ahmadinejad may have thought he got himself a PR triumph, but it was pretty hollow, wasn’t it? He’s been shown to the world to be a complete liar.”

Ahmadinejad a liar? No way. He’s simply misunderstood. He’s a charming fellow when he appears on Western broadcasts, yet he’s his original self when he thinks the world isn’t watching. And it appears they haven’t been either.

If the ‘victory’ over Iran is that the world now sees Ahmadinejad as a liar, what will defeat look like when Iran takes the next 15 now that they know nothing happens to them?  And why would anyone in their right mind view Ahmadinejad as anything but, shall we say, challenged?  Where it would have hurt the Iranian regime most was having this rather shallow PR ‘victory’ driven home to the streets of Tehran where Ahmadinejad is losing support, but instead he looked like a gracious hero staring down England and her allies who were no where to be found.