What else could Iran be up to? The overly generous incentive package offered to Iran has met with some surprising results, Iran has welcomed the overture as a positive step and has given the indication that they are at least willing to discuss the matter, coming after months of saber rattling and vows never to give up enrichment activity, Iran may very well have another agenda…what if this was Iran’s objective from the start, to extort financial and technological booty in exchange for terminating its nuclear exploits?

The details of the incentive package are unknown, what is clear however, is the Western powers agreed to a host of lucrative trade deals and technology transfers (AT NO COST TO IRAN). Even the US, which doesn’t even recognize Iran, has offered to share nuclear technology with the Islamic Republic, not a bad haul for a few years of saber rattling.

Iran has known for some time that the West, especially the EU3 would do just about anything to stop Iran from developing an indigenous nuclear capability, from the onset of the EU-Iran negotiations the European powers used trade and technology transfers as an incentive to Iran. With each rejection, the offers from the EU became more lucrative, this point was certainly not lost with Iran.

One thing is for certain Iran has not and does not require a peaceful nuclear power capability to meet its growing energy needs. Iran holds vast stockpiles of oil and natural gas, which are more than sufficient to meet those energy needs, nor is it true that Iran has any interest in promoting greater economic progress for its citizens, in reality, Iran has done nothing to develop its economy and as a results poverty and unemployment remain astronomically high.

Given this reality Iran’s nuclear program could have only two purposes: to develop an indigenous nuclear weapons capability, and perhaps that was its initial purpose, or to use it as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the West, just as North Korea has done. Even if Iran does agree to the incentive package recently offered, the world can have no guarantee of Iranian compliance and before long we may find ourselves in the same position we now find with North Korea, a nuclear powered rogue state with sinister intentions, except in Iran’s case the consequences could be far more dire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/middleeast/07cnd-iran.html

Other possible Explanations:
http://www.thephalanx.com/2006/05/iran-saber-rattling-farce-perhaps.html
http://www.thephalanx.com/2006/04/irans-open-secret.html
http://www.thephalanx.com/2006/03/iran-conspires-with-russia-and-laughs.html
http://www.thephalanx.com/2006/03/iranians-admit-to-chicanery-in-nuclear.html
http://www.thephalanx.com/2006/02/what-do-saburo-kurusu-and-ali.html