WHAT PART OF "NO" DO OUR DIPLOMATS NOT UNDERSTAND? – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  If anything, the Iranian government is becoming more intransigent, not less, as "negotiations" over its nuclar program drag on aimlessly.  I'd thought they'd be a little more artful than this.

(Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog has not yet given good enough reasons to visit an Iranian site where it suspects there may have been experiments for developing nuclear weapons, Iranian media said.

The Parchin complex is at the centre of Western suspicions that Iran is developing atom bombs despite Tehran's repeated denials of any such ambition. A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week said satellite images showed "extensive activities" at Parchin.

Iranian officials have refused access to the complex, southeast of Tehran, saying it is a military site.

"The reasons and document have still not been presented by the agency to convince us to give permission for this visit," the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency on Saturday.

I guess our "pretty please" didn't quite make it.  And then there's this:

Iran's nuclear chief says his country is planning to build at least two new nuclear power plants next to an existing facility that became operational with Russia's help last year.

Fereidoun Abbasi Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted by state TV on Sunday as saying that it was in the very early stages of planning the new 1000-megawatt nuclear power plants and might begin construction within a year or two.

Iran's first power plant went into operation last May at the southern coastal city of Bushehr. It was started by German engineers in the 1970s, before Iran's Islamic revolution, and completed by Russia, which continues to help keep it running and provides fuel for it. Inaugurated in 2010, it is due to come fully on line in November.

COMMENT:  The Iranians are just laughing at us.  Obama has ceded control of the talks with Iran to the Europeans, who often seem to regard the goal of negotiations as...negotiations.  We are getting nowhere.  One American diplomat conceded that time is running out, but insisted that we try everything diplomatic before other steps are taken.  Translated:  We don't intend to do much of anything except try new sanctions. I'm sure that's the way the Iranians, who have stood up to our sanctions, see the situation.

May 27,  2012