Well knock me over with a straw…

LONDON - An 18-month attempt to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment collapsed Friday after a senior EU envoy failed to dent Iran’s resolve to expand the technology, despite the threat of new U.N. sanctions.

Really? You don’t say. I really thought they’d compromise this time. /sarcasm

And Iran is really concerned about those new sanctions.

“What did they achieve?” he asked about the two sets of sanctions already in place “Nothing. In fact, we made the greatest technology headway and breakthroughs in that specific period of time.”

What’s he talking about? The fact that despite the continuous sanctions and negotiations, Iran continues chugging along down the road.

He was alluding to advances in enrichment technology — Iran has set up and is running 3,000 enriching machines, or centrifuges, in the space of a year. That’s 10 times the amount it had when the Security Council passed its first set of sanctions in December 2006.

Oh, and all of those who think we should sit down with Iran?

U.S. criticism of Iran goes beyond the nuclear issue, with Washington alluding that Tehran foments terrorism in the region, but Jalili was dismissive of the “noise by the Americans,” adding: “We don’t pay much attention to them.”

Yeah, can’t wait to sit down for negotiations with these people.

Ace’s Krakatoa writes:

In other news, Michael Moore announces his 18 minutes of intense dialogue with “four rotisserie chickens, two racks of Applebee’s baby back ribs and a gallon of egg nog” ended “rather well”. Reports that he later turned down a waffer-thin mint have yet to be substantiated.