Iran Threatens Europe

On Thursday, Iran blew off a meeting with the IAEA in Vienna. Now they've told Europe to sit down and shut up, or reap the whirlwind.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who is also the man behind Iran's foreign policy, has warned Europeans "not to force the Islamic Republic to cut short the dialogue process and to opt for another scenario."

Speaking on Tuesday night on state television he said: "We are for a strategy based on dialogue, but if the counterparty Europe plays dirty, then we will pass onto another plan that we have worked out and then there will be problems for the Europeans."

Without specifying the nature of the other plan and the other scenario, Larijani has compared the talks on Iran's nuclear programme to a chess game.

"In this game, we are for a result that will be satisfactory to both Iran and Europe," said Larijani adding that "if we lose, the same will also happen to the other party (Europe) and they will have to prepare themselves to live in a hell."

But Larijani used even stronger words for the United States. "A small error on the part of USA or the Zionists will be enough to induce us to unleash hell," said Larijani. "They know this very well and for this they haven't gone further than a verbal or psychological war," he said.

Larijani also reiterated how Tehran "does not have any intension of renouncing its cycle of producing nuclear fuel."

"For our requirements we do not intend to trust even our friends," he said, stressing Iran's right to "advance the research in all the areas of the nuclear sector."

Iran's estimated missile envelope. Shahab-3s are nuclear warhead capable and have already been manufactured by the hundreds. Note that the launch point is given as the center of Iran, but launch facilities in Tabriz, in the northwestern corner, substantially extend this range.

UPDATE: Iran accuses the US of working with Sunni jihadis in Iraq to kidnap nine Iranian border guards -- strictly speaking, an act of war. Expect more such agitprop as Iran works to turn world opinion in its favor, so that when they attack the US, it will be viewed as justified and deserved. Ridiculous? By now, most of the world would shrug if Israel were annihilated. The Great Satan is next.

UPDATE II: For Yahoo's The Hot Zone, Kevin Sites will be reporting from Iran next week. The preview:

Led by recently elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a new administration of hardliners is digging in its heels on the nuclear issue, canceling talks with negotiators and warning that Iran soon will resume nuclear research. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is ramping up his rhetoric against Israel. The Hot Zone will address these complex issues.

But Kevin also will report on some areas -- such as Iran's serious drug problem and growing HIV/AIDS crisis -- that are showing signs of progressive solutions.

We'll also take a look at Iran's reverence for its war dead, symbolized by a Tehran museum that glorifies its society's "martyrs."

It is not easy for a western reporter to get a visa to Iran. But starting next week in the Hot Zone, Kevin Sites takes the pulse of Iranian society and reports on a country that is much more complicated and colorful than you might have imagined.

Readers will recall that Kevin Sites is the same "objective journalist" who filmed a squad of Marines in Fallujah in November 2004, as they cleared a mosque from which they had been under heavy fire. Sites' film captured a Marine shooting an insurgent who appeared to be reaching for a weapon, one day after another Marine had been killed and five injured by a booby-trapped corpse. Sites didn't feel this complied with our ROE; the clip received Al-Jazeera's 2004 Video of The Year award.

More from the Jawa Report: Kevin Sites, You're Still A Traitor.