Iranian President Ahmadinejad's recent announcement that Iran will begin enriching uranium to 20% has gotten a lot of attention, but is it really aimed at domestic consumption on the eve of the big February 11 Victory Day celebrations/confrontations? The Green opposition forces are ramping up for another round of demonstrations and the Guards Corps and Basij are bracing for a crackdown. Reza Aslan says it's for domestic consumption and calls Iran's announcements "a joke" given its problems enriching to five percent. And Juan Cole has a quote from ‘Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, that suggests this is a negotiating position to persuade the West to accept Iran's terms, rather than a new level of confrontation.
This is a tense week in Iran due to the internal pressures as the holiday approaches; certainly I'd rather they didn't mix in nuclear brinksmanship, but I thought it worth calling these alternative interpretations to your attention.
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