El Baradei Demands (?) Access to Iranian Site

Reuters wrote the headline, not me, but in the story they quote IAEA Chaiman Mohammed El Baradei thusly:

"I would ... ask Iran to support the agency's efforts to pursue further its investigation of the Lavizan-Shian and Parchin sites," Mohamed ElBaradei said, adding that his inspectors wanted to visit "areas of interest" at Parchin.

Ask? Since when is "asking", particularly when it's the U.N. talking, the equivalent of a demand? The Iranians evidently understand the distinction. More from the story:

"We will discuss (Parchin) with them. The door is not closed," Sirus Naseri, the head of Iran's delegation at this week's meeting of the IAEA board of governors, told reporters.

Hmmm.... Naseri doesn't exactly sound like he's quaking in his boots, and for good reason. The Iranians fully understand that they can stonewall the U.N. for as long as they like, because the U.N. isn't in a position to do anything about it, America is busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel doesn't have the resources to put the Iranian's program completely out of commission, Europe and China don't have a stomach for forceful action, and Russia is still providing lucrative material assistance to Iran in making bombs.