American Thinker- Print Article

While the UN huffs and puffs about Iran going nuclear, threatening to throw a fit if it continues, Iran, oh so very frightened of all this, placed the following ad in the International Herald Tribune, owned by the New York Times incidentally.

INVITATION FOR BIDS - Construction of Two Large Scale Nuclear Power Plants In Iran

The Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran (NPPD) (an affiliate company of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran - AEOI) as the owner, invites sealed Bids from contractors/companies for the Design, Supply of Equipment, Construction and Commissioning of two large scale units (1000-1600 MWe each) with third generation Nuclear Power, Pressurized Light Water Reactor in the Bushehr Province of Iran.

Qualified bidders who have sufficient experiences in the Construction and Commissioning of such plants are requested to obstain the respective Bid Inquiry Specification (BIS) documents upon payment of a non-refundable fee of €15000 (fifteen thousands Euros) transferred to the following account:
Account no.: 01754283800
Name of Bank: Austria Bank-Creditanstalt

[...]

All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Bont of twenty million Euros, and must be delivered to AEOI's representatives office in Vienna by 02.08.2007 or to the company's headquarter office in Tehran on 08.08.2007. The bids will be opened at the company's headquarter office in Tehran on 08.08.2007 at 10:00 am in the presence of the Bidder's Representatives who wish to attend.

For further information, please contact: Mr. Esmaeili, +431-2140971, Email: esmaeili@teleweb.at

According to the vice president of Iran's nuclear program

...the tender presents an opportunity for Western nations to join in Iran's pursuit of nuclear capabilities. "The international tenders for construction of the two nuclear power plants [are] a good yardstick to test the Westerners' good will," he said.

Ironically this ad also appeared in the edition the IHT sends to Israel where it was included in the English language edition of an Israeli paper. Asked to explain why an Israeli paper would print this type of an from a country which has publicly sworn numerous times to destroy it the manager explained the paper

...receives the International Herald Tribune as a finished product. "We sometimes don't even see it until it is in print," she said. "We do not review their ads, only those that appear in the Haaretz section of the paper."

Hmmm, would Iran accept an Israeli bid?

Bid on building Iran's nuclear reactor