On Wednesday, just hours before the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany reached agreement on new sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Khomeinist leadership came out with its strongest show of defiance yet. In a rare interview, given wide publicity by the state-owned media, former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Velayati warned that the Islamic republic would under no circumstances agree to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Since the UN insists that Iran should suspend its uranium enrichment program before it can return to talks about an eventual settlement of the dispute, Velayati was, in fact, heightening the current tension. Full Story