August 30, 2007 (LPAC)--As President George Bush was driving himself literally into a war frenzy with his insane speech on August 28, reality was demonstrating that there is no "objective'' basis for a military confrontation with Iran now, or in the foreseeable future.

On Aug. 29, Iranian news media and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published the text of a document titled "Understandings of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA on the modalities of resolution of the outstanding issues.'' In a nut shell, the document established that Iran had provided the IAEA with answers to a series of questions about the status of Iran's nuclear energy program, that an agreement had been reached providing IAEA inspectors with access to critical facilities including the heavy water reactor at Arak, and that all remaining outstanding questions would be resolved through discussion and negotiations. 14 additional IAEA inspectors were given one year multiple entry visas to Iran, and the questions concerning Iran's plutonium research program were all satisfactorily answered. (see article here)

The full text of the agreement, which Iran requested be made public, proves that the statement by the IAEA last week, that this was a "milestone" was no exaggeration.

It is stated explicitly, for example regarding plutonium experiments, that Iran provided clarifications to the IAEA several times, and "On 20 August 2007 the Agency stated that earlier statements made by Iran are consistent with the Agency's findings, and thus this matter is resolved. This will be communicated officially by the Agency to Iran through a letter."

Regarding other matters which the IAEA had unresolved questions about, the procedure is similar: the IAEA will submit all its remaining queries by Aug. 31, then Iran will discuss them with the IAEA on Sept. 24-25, followed by another meeting in mid-October, and it is foreseen that the issue will be closed by November 2007.

Thus, Bush's most recent ravings about a nuclear holocaust provoked by Iran, should be seen in light of the fact--now official--that the IAEA has indeed made headway in its consistent diplomatic effort to settle the issues rationally. The clear message of the month long Iran-IAEA consultations, despite Bush-Cheney protestations is clear: diplomacy works, and there is no genuine reason for war-drums to continue beating.