Tiny Tyrant Remains Defiant

Do we expect anything else from Ahmadinejad?

Iran vowed on Wednesday to press on with its nuclear fuel program, ignoring a U.N. deadline to freeze uranium enrichment or face broader sanctions, but offered to guarantee it would not try to develop atomic weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant as a 60-day grace period Iran had been given on December 23 to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel was expiring.

"We ... will continue our work to reach our right (to nuclear technology) in the shortest possible time," student news agency ISNA quoted him as saying in the town of Siahkal.

With the deadline running out, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been unable to verify Iran's program is wholly peaceful after three years of investigations, was expected to report to the U.N. Security Council by Thursday that Tehran was pursuing enrichment regardless of pressure to stop.

Is there a more useless entity than the IAEA?