Secret Services Say Iran is Trying to Assemble a Nuclear Missile
(Ian Cobain and Ian Traynor, Guardian)
Wednesday, January 4
The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country's weapons programmes.
The 55-page intelligence assessment, dated July 1 2005, draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies, and has been used to brief European government ministers and to warn leading industrialists of the need for vigilance when exporting equipment or expertise to so-called rogue states.
The assessment declares that Iran has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining - in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union - the expertise, training, and equipment for nuclear programmes, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals.
Full Version: Iran - Volume 2
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
===
Rice Says Patience With Iran Waning:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signaled Thursday that time is running out for Iran to avoid being hauled before the U.N. Security Council over its disputed nuclear program, and she denied that the threat is mere "saber rattling."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../w080902S64.DTL
===
Michel Chossudovsky: Nuclear War against Iran:
The launching of an outright war using nuclear warheads against Iran is now in the final planning stages. Coalition partners, which include the US, Israel and Turkey are in "an advanced stage of readiness".
http://tinyurl.com/7lepw
Rice Says Patience With Iran Waning:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signaled Thursday that time is running out for Iran to avoid being hauled before the U.N. Security Council over its disputed nuclear program, and she denied that the threat is mere "saber rattling."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../w080902S64.DTL
===
Michel Chossudovsky: Nuclear War against Iran:
The launching of an outright war using nuclear warheads against Iran is now in the final planning stages. Coalition partners, which include the US, Israel and Turkey are in "an advanced stage of readiness".
http://tinyurl.com/7lepw
- Israel Iran Nuclear Balance
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israel_Iran_N...ar_Balance.html
Washington (UPI) Jan 05, 2006 - The most dangerous strategic nuclear arms race in the world today is the one between Israel and Iran -- far more complex than almost anyone realizes and vastly more dangerous.
- Target Iran
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Target_Iran.html
- Western Agencies Say Iran Out To Build Nuclear Missile
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Western_Agenc...ar_Missile.html
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israel_Iran_N...ar_Balance.html
Washington (UPI) Jan 05, 2006 - The most dangerous strategic nuclear arms race in the world today is the one between Israel and Iran -- far more complex than almost anyone realizes and vastly more dangerous.
- Target Iran
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Target_Iran.html
- Western Agencies Say Iran Out To Build Nuclear Missile
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Western_Agenc...ar_Missile.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 6, 2006
Iran's Nuclear Team Fails to Keep a Date With the U.N.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, Jan. 5 - Iran threw negotiations over its nuclear program into disarray on Thursday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' monitoring agency in Vienna. The leader of Iran's negotiating team was said to be returning to Tehran.
The unexpected turn of events stunned and frustrated officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and foreign diplomats, who scrambled to make sense of Iran's decision. The meeting had been scheduled so Iran could explain its decision to restart nuclear research and development on Monday.
"There was no explanation," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the agency. "We're still seeking clarification."
One possible explanation is that Iran has decided to defy the rest of the world and plunge ahead with nuclear activities, which risk international censure or sanctions and could shatter a 14-month agreement with France, Britain and Germany under which Iran agreed to suspend most of its nuclear work.
Another explanation is that in the face of strong international criticism, Iran's negotiating strategy is in chaos. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power last year in Iran, officials who were part of its national security apparatus, including its nuclear negotiating team, have been replaced with people who are driven by hard-line views.
Certainly Iran's failure to explain its intentions erodes trust in the country as a reliable negotiating partner. In its letter to the atomic energy agency two days earlier announcing its research plans, Iran gave assurances that it intended to carry out the work under the supervision of agency inspectors, and asked the agency to take the necessary steps for the research to start again.
That position raised speculation that Iran was trying to test whether it could proceed with its nuclear program and stay within the boundaries of its international legal obligations, even if that violated its agreement with the Europeans.
In an address in Qum carried on state television on Thursday, Mr. Ahmadinejad repeated his assertions of Iran's intention to carry out nuclear research, saying some people "have said the Iranian nation has no right to nuclear research, but they should know that the Iranian nation and government will defend the right to nuclear research and technology, and will go forward prudently."
The negotiating team, led by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy chief of Iran's atomic energy agency, had been expected to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the director of the United Nations agency.
At first, the Iranians said in a telephone conversation that they would be late. Then, in a later telephone call, they canceled the meeting. Mr. Saeedi was returning home, the Iranian delegation told the agency.
That move suggested that there would be no explanation of Iran's intentions before it resumes its research on Monday.
American and European officials and some experts at the atomic energy agency said they were concerned that the research could focus on small-scale enrichment experiments, which could help advance Iran's knowledge about how to produce nuclear fuel - either for civilian plants or, at higher enrichment levels, for weapons.
In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran not to resume nuclear research, saying, "They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work."
She expressed confidence that the United States would succeed in taking Iran's case to the Security Council for an unspecified punishment should negotiations fail. However, the United States has thus far failed to persuade Russia and China to seek punitive measures, a difficult step because there is no clear-cut violation of Iran's obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran's decision in August to restart uranium conversation activities in Isfahan violated the European agreement. But inspectors from the United Nations agency were there to break the seals on the equipment and have been monitoring the activities, which do not violate Iran's obligations under the treaty.
One official close to the talks said the Iranians were believed to have withdrawn because they had been caught off-guard by the uncompromising stance of Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's director, in messages and in a meeting on Wednesday with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations office in Vienna, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh.
The official declined to be identified by name or even national origin because the official is not authorized to speak for attribution.
Dr. ElBaradei and his colleagues have harshly criticized Iran's decision to restart nuclear research, warning Iran of potential consequences of its action.
Among the issues outstanding are Iran's refusal to allow inspectors access to a site in Tehran called Lavisan-Shian, which was bulldozed by Iran in 2004 before it could be inspected. The agency wants to interview scientists who worked there and determine whether they were conducting nuclear research.
Another mystery is how Iran first obtained centrifuges used to enrich uranium. The agency is also still not convinced by Iran's explanations about the sources of both low- and high-enriched uranium found in Iran.
The Iranian delegation was apparently unprepared to respond to questions like these on Thursday, the official close to the talks said.
A number of Iranian officials, including President Ahmadinejad, have boldly asserted Iran's right to conduct nuclear research and its intention to proceed as scheduled, despite warnings from that to do so would risk punitive measures.
Iran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes is extremely popular in Iran, and the president's remarks on Thursday were greeted with cries of "Ahmadinejad, our hero, we support you," Reuters reported from Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
January 6, 2006
Iran's Nuclear Team Fails to Keep a Date With the U.N.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, Jan. 5 - Iran threw negotiations over its nuclear program into disarray on Thursday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' monitoring agency in Vienna. The leader of Iran's negotiating team was said to be returning to Tehran.
The unexpected turn of events stunned and frustrated officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and foreign diplomats, who scrambled to make sense of Iran's decision. The meeting had been scheduled so Iran could explain its decision to restart nuclear research and development on Monday.
"There was no explanation," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the agency. "We're still seeking clarification."
One possible explanation is that Iran has decided to defy the rest of the world and plunge ahead with nuclear activities, which risk international censure or sanctions and could shatter a 14-month agreement with France, Britain and Germany under which Iran agreed to suspend most of its nuclear work.
Another explanation is that in the face of strong international criticism, Iran's negotiating strategy is in chaos. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power last year in Iran, officials who were part of its national security apparatus, including its nuclear negotiating team, have been replaced with people who are driven by hard-line views.
Certainly Iran's failure to explain its intentions erodes trust in the country as a reliable negotiating partner. In its letter to the atomic energy agency two days earlier announcing its research plans, Iran gave assurances that it intended to carry out the work under the supervision of agency inspectors, and asked the agency to take the necessary steps for the research to start again.
That position raised speculation that Iran was trying to test whether it could proceed with its nuclear program and stay within the boundaries of its international legal obligations, even if that violated its agreement with the Europeans.
In an address in Qum carried on state television on Thursday, Mr. Ahmadinejad repeated his assertions of Iran's intention to carry out nuclear research, saying some people "have said the Iranian nation has no right to nuclear research, but they should know that the Iranian nation and government will defend the right to nuclear research and technology, and will go forward prudently."
The negotiating team, led by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy chief of Iran's atomic energy agency, had been expected to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the director of the United Nations agency.
At first, the Iranians said in a telephone conversation that they would be late. Then, in a later telephone call, they canceled the meeting. Mr. Saeedi was returning home, the Iranian delegation told the agency.
That move suggested that there would be no explanation of Iran's intentions before it resumes its research on Monday.
American and European officials and some experts at the atomic energy agency said they were concerned that the research could focus on small-scale enrichment experiments, which could help advance Iran's knowledge about how to produce nuclear fuel - either for civilian plants or, at higher enrichment levels, for weapons.
In Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran not to resume nuclear research, saying, "They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work."
She expressed confidence that the United States would succeed in taking Iran's case to the Security Council for an unspecified punishment should negotiations fail. However, the United States has thus far failed to persuade Russia and China to seek punitive measures, a difficult step because there is no clear-cut violation of Iran's obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran's decision in August to restart uranium conversation activities in Isfahan violated the European agreement. But inspectors from the United Nations agency were there to break the seals on the equipment and have been monitoring the activities, which do not violate Iran's obligations under the treaty.
One official close to the talks said the Iranians were believed to have withdrawn because they had been caught off-guard by the uncompromising stance of Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's director, in messages and in a meeting on Wednesday with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations office in Vienna, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh.
The official declined to be identified by name or even national origin because the official is not authorized to speak for attribution.
Dr. ElBaradei and his colleagues have harshly criticized Iran's decision to restart nuclear research, warning Iran of potential consequences of its action.
Among the issues outstanding are Iran's refusal to allow inspectors access to a site in Tehran called Lavisan-Shian, which was bulldozed by Iran in 2004 before it could be inspected. The agency wants to interview scientists who worked there and determine whether they were conducting nuclear research.
Another mystery is how Iran first obtained centrifuges used to enrich uranium. The agency is also still not convinced by Iran's explanations about the sources of both low- and high-enriched uranium found in Iran.
The Iranian delegation was apparently unprepared to respond to questions like these on Thursday, the official close to the talks said.
A number of Iranian officials, including President Ahmadinejad, have boldly asserted Iran's right to conduct nuclear research and its intention to proceed as scheduled, despite warnings from that to do so would risk punitive measures.
Iran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes is extremely popular in Iran, and the president's remarks on Thursday were greeted with cries of "Ahmadinejad, our hero, we support you," Reuters reported from Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
Commentary: Iran's pursuit of the Islamic nuke
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
Published January 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- If anyone has any doubt about the kind of nuclear work Iran has been doing for the past 18 years, it must be a case of naiveté compounded by gullibility. Nor should there be any uncertainty about what Iran's mullahocracy would do with a nuclear weapon. All of Iran's leaders since Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini replaced the shah in Feb. 1979 have made clear the objective is the destruction of Israel.
In Iran's last presidential race, western governments and media favored Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was a "known" quantity and a "moderate." Michael Rubin, the editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, pricked that soap bubble.
Four years ago, when he took the podium at Tehran University to deliver the Friday sermon, Rajsanjani forecasted that one day the Islamic world would be equipped with nuclear weapons that only Israel possessed (in the Middle East). At that point, he explained, "the strategy of the imperialists will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything." And, added the "moderate" former president Rafsanjani, "It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality."
Another prominent "moderate," courted by Europe's democracies, was former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami. "In the Koran," he declared in a homily Oct. 24, 2000, "God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed."
The Bush administration argues a small minority of terrorists that have perverted the meaning of Islam have hijacked the Islamic religion. But didn't Khatami speak for Shiite Islam when he said, "If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill." This is not Osama bin Laden or sidekick Ayman al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi speaking on behalf of militant Islam, but a man who at the time he invoked the Koran to kill infidels was regarded in the West as the "moderate" President of Iran.
Possession of a nuclear weapon is fundamental to Islamist belief. No odes to world peace if they do this, or dirges to world catastrophe if they do that, are going to deflect the mullahs' core belief as dictated by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Fundamental to Israeli defense doctrine is that no weapon of mass destruction can be tolerated in any Middle Eastern arsenal. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, the geopolitical sage of the orient, said in a UPI interview three months before 9/11, the biggest threat on horizon 2010 is "an Islamist bomb and mark my words, it will travel."
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, currently under the control of pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, was developed by the same man who began assisting Iran's nuclear efforts 18 years ago. Dr. A.Q. Khan, also known as Dr. No for the nuclear black market he created for the benefit of America's enemies, began imparting his nuclear know-how to Iran in 1988. Israel believes if Iran resumes its weapons-grade uranium enrichment process, March 2006 becomes a critical month for the acquisition of its first nuclear weapon.
All is not well in Pakistan either. Radical clerics won a major victory against Musharraf by refusing to expel foreign students in madrassas, the Koranic schools where hatred of America and Israel, is still being taught.
Tehran started the new year by announcing it doesn't like a Russian compromise proposal and will resume nuclear fuel research shortly.
Iranian agents have also been scouring Europe for missile parts, says a 55-page intelligence assessment dated July 1, 2005. Leaked to The Guardian in the U.K., it draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies.
Iran, says this report, has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining - in Western Europe and in former Soviet republics, the expertise, training and equipment for nuclear programs, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals.
The document, says the Guardian, lists scores of Iranian companies and institutions involved in the arms race. It also details Tehran's determination to perfect a ballistic missile capable of delivering warheads far beyond its borders. Iran is trying to extend the range of its Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of almost 1,000 miles, capable of reaching Israel.
Taking their cue from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who declared Israel "should be wiped off the map" and that the World War II Holocaust was a figment of Zionist propaganda, Iranian commentators are pushing the envelope to nauseous absurdity.
Tehran TV political analyst Hosein Rouyvaran said Nazi concentration camps were "detention centers" where no more than 250,000 Jews died and where "for hygienic reasons, they used to burn the bodies of those who died of typhus or contagious diseases (in crematoria)." Gas chambers, this moron explained, were "for disinfecting the clothes and the possessions of the prisoners.
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
Published January 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- If anyone has any doubt about the kind of nuclear work Iran has been doing for the past 18 years, it must be a case of naiveté compounded by gullibility. Nor should there be any uncertainty about what Iran's mullahocracy would do with a nuclear weapon. All of Iran's leaders since Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini replaced the shah in Feb. 1979 have made clear the objective is the destruction of Israel.
In Iran's last presidential race, western governments and media favored Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was a "known" quantity and a "moderate." Michael Rubin, the editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, pricked that soap bubble.
Four years ago, when he took the podium at Tehran University to deliver the Friday sermon, Rajsanjani forecasted that one day the Islamic world would be equipped with nuclear weapons that only Israel possessed (in the Middle East). At that point, he explained, "the strategy of the imperialists will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything." And, added the "moderate" former president Rafsanjani, "It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality."
Another prominent "moderate," courted by Europe's democracies, was former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami. "In the Koran," he declared in a homily Oct. 24, 2000, "God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed."
The Bush administration argues a small minority of terrorists that have perverted the meaning of Islam have hijacked the Islamic religion. But didn't Khatami speak for Shiite Islam when he said, "If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill." This is not Osama bin Laden or sidekick Ayman al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi speaking on behalf of militant Islam, but a man who at the time he invoked the Koran to kill infidels was regarded in the West as the "moderate" President of Iran.
Possession of a nuclear weapon is fundamental to Islamist belief. No odes to world peace if they do this, or dirges to world catastrophe if they do that, are going to deflect the mullahs' core belief as dictated by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Fundamental to Israeli defense doctrine is that no weapon of mass destruction can be tolerated in any Middle Eastern arsenal. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, the geopolitical sage of the orient, said in a UPI interview three months before 9/11, the biggest threat on horizon 2010 is "an Islamist bomb and mark my words, it will travel."
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, currently under the control of pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, was developed by the same man who began assisting Iran's nuclear efforts 18 years ago. Dr. A.Q. Khan, also known as Dr. No for the nuclear black market he created for the benefit of America's enemies, began imparting his nuclear know-how to Iran in 1988. Israel believes if Iran resumes its weapons-grade uranium enrichment process, March 2006 becomes a critical month for the acquisition of its first nuclear weapon.
All is not well in Pakistan either. Radical clerics won a major victory against Musharraf by refusing to expel foreign students in madrassas, the Koranic schools where hatred of America and Israel, is still being taught.
Tehran started the new year by announcing it doesn't like a Russian compromise proposal and will resume nuclear fuel research shortly.
Iranian agents have also been scouring Europe for missile parts, says a 55-page intelligence assessment dated July 1, 2005. Leaked to The Guardian in the U.K., it draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies.
Iran, says this report, has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining - in Western Europe and in former Soviet republics, the expertise, training and equipment for nuclear programs, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals.
The document, says the Guardian, lists scores of Iranian companies and institutions involved in the arms race. It also details Tehran's determination to perfect a ballistic missile capable of delivering warheads far beyond its borders. Iran is trying to extend the range of its Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of almost 1,000 miles, capable of reaching Israel.
Taking their cue from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who declared Israel "should be wiped off the map" and that the World War II Holocaust was a figment of Zionist propaganda, Iranian commentators are pushing the envelope to nauseous absurdity.
Tehran TV political analyst Hosein Rouyvaran said Nazi concentration camps were "detention centers" where no more than 250,000 Jews died and where "for hygienic reasons, they used to burn the bodies of those who died of typhus or contagious diseases (in crematoria)." Gas chambers, this moron explained, were "for disinfecting the clothes and the possessions of the prisoners.
Iran to remove UN seals at atomic research sites Reuters
Iran said on Sunday it was preparing to remove UN seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago. It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, removed some seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). European Union and U.S. officials have said the move, which follows Iran's resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant in August, will jeopardize efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's atomic ambitions and could accelerate calls for its case to be sent to the U.N. Security Council. "We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference. "It depends on the IAEA to announce its readiness as this will take place under the agency's supervision," he added. A resumption of atomic research and development would mean that all of Iran's nuclear programme, much of which was put on hold as part of negotiations with the EU that started in late 2003, was active once again apart from the actual enrichment of uranium at its unfinished Natanz facility. Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle since it can be used to produce bomb-grade material as well as nuclear reactor fuel. Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume on Monday. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and the assembly of enrichment centrifuges. "R&D activities will be under the IAEA's supervision and there is nothing to be worried about," Asefi said.
IAEA IN THE DARK
IAEA officials say an Iranian team failed to show up for talks in Vienna last week to explain what activities Iran planned to resume. Asked why the Iranian team flew back from Vienna without meeting the IAEA, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state television on Saturday: "Holding any meeting has to be based on the attainment of an aim and a result. The cancellation of the meeting in fact took place in this light." Iran said on Saturday that an IAEA team had arrived in Tehran to supervise the resumption of research work. But an IAEA spokeswoman said the IAEA team were on a "routine visit" and that the agency was still awaiting clarifications from Iran. Washington and the EU want Iran to agree to a proposal, put forward by Moscow, that Iran transfer all its uranium enrichment activities to a joint venture in Russia. Russian and Iranian officials met in Tehran over the weekend to discuss the plan but Iran has made it clear it will only consider ideas that allow it to enrich on its own soil. "We have a positive view regarding these talks, as do the Russians," Asefi said. "These talks can discuss different plans but the main issue is respecting and accepting Iran's legitimate rights." Vaeedi warned that it would not be in the West's interest to refer Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, where sanctions could be imposed on Tehran. He noted that Iran's parliament approved a bill late last year whereby, should Iran's case be sent to the Security Council, Tehran would resume enrichment and scale back cooperation with IAEA inspectors.
EU condemns Iran’s “unilateral” nuclear drive Iran Focus
Russians Visit Iran on Nuclear Plan New York Times
Houston Chronicle - IranMania News - Scotsman - Caucaz.com - all 511 related »
Iran said on Sunday it was preparing to remove UN seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago. It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, removed some seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). European Union and U.S. officials have said the move, which follows Iran's resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant in August, will jeopardize efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's atomic ambitions and could accelerate calls for its case to be sent to the U.N. Security Council. "We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference. "It depends on the IAEA to announce its readiness as this will take place under the agency's supervision," he added. A resumption of atomic research and development would mean that all of Iran's nuclear programme, much of which was put on hold as part of negotiations with the EU that started in late 2003, was active once again apart from the actual enrichment of uranium at its unfinished Natanz facility. Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle since it can be used to produce bomb-grade material as well as nuclear reactor fuel. Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume on Monday. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and the assembly of enrichment centrifuges. "R&D activities will be under the IAEA's supervision and there is nothing to be worried about," Asefi said.
IAEA IN THE DARK
IAEA officials say an Iranian team failed to show up for talks in Vienna last week to explain what activities Iran planned to resume. Asked why the Iranian team flew back from Vienna without meeting the IAEA, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state television on Saturday: "Holding any meeting has to be based on the attainment of an aim and a result. The cancellation of the meeting in fact took place in this light." Iran said on Saturday that an IAEA team had arrived in Tehran to supervise the resumption of research work. But an IAEA spokeswoman said the IAEA team were on a "routine visit" and that the agency was still awaiting clarifications from Iran. Washington and the EU want Iran to agree to a proposal, put forward by Moscow, that Iran transfer all its uranium enrichment activities to a joint venture in Russia. Russian and Iranian officials met in Tehran over the weekend to discuss the plan but Iran has made it clear it will only consider ideas that allow it to enrich on its own soil. "We have a positive view regarding these talks, as do the Russians," Asefi said. "These talks can discuss different plans but the main issue is respecting and accepting Iran's legitimate rights." Vaeedi warned that it would not be in the West's interest to refer Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, where sanctions could be imposed on Tehran. He noted that Iran's parliament approved a bill late last year whereby, should Iran's case be sent to the Security Council, Tehran would resume enrichment and scale back cooperation with IAEA inspectors.
EU condemns Iran’s “unilateral” nuclear drive Iran Focus
Russians Visit Iran on Nuclear Plan New York Times
Houston Chronicle - IranMania News - Scotsman - Caucaz.com - all 511 related »
US accused of backing kidnappers of Iranian soldiers :
Iran said on Saturday that kidnappers who had taken nine Iranian border guards as hostage in the eastern parts of the country were linked to the Taliban and supported by the United States, the official IRNA news agency reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/...ent_4022965.htm
===
Iran's nuclear ambitions pose the next big test:
Israel's acting leader has already been briefed on plans to strike at atomic facilities
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11492.htm
===
War pimp alert:
Iran rejection of nuclear deal becoming clear:
Rice: Rice said she hoped "diplomacy has not been exhausted," but added that it was "becoming clearer" Iranians are not accepting a diplomatic compromise that constrains their nuclear ambitions.
http://tinyurl.com/cmttn
===
Iran to remove UN seals at atomic research sites:
Iran said yesterday it was preparing to remove UN seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/01/09/d601091308108.htm
===
War pimp alert:
UK cleared nuclear cargo to Iran :
Defence experts demand tightening of export regulations on potential weapon materials
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/st...1681851,00.html
===
Bullying Iran is not an option :
Before Western leaders seek sanctions against Iran, they should put their own houses in order on nuclear weapons and nuclear power
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11491.htm
===
Iran's peaceful nuclear activities cannot be prevented by 'doubt creating' policy :
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Afro-Arab affairs Mohammad-Reza Baqeri said here Sunday that by raising doubts (about Iran's nuclear program), Western nations cannot prevent Iran's peaceful nuclear activities which are in line with international rules and regulations.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...87628193123.htm
Iran said on Saturday that kidnappers who had taken nine Iranian border guards as hostage in the eastern parts of the country were linked to the Taliban and supported by the United States, the official IRNA news agency reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/...ent_4022965.htm
===
Iran's nuclear ambitions pose the next big test:
Israel's acting leader has already been briefed on plans to strike at atomic facilities
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11492.htm
===
War pimp alert:
Iran rejection of nuclear deal becoming clear:
Rice: Rice said she hoped "diplomacy has not been exhausted," but added that it was "becoming clearer" Iranians are not accepting a diplomatic compromise that constrains their nuclear ambitions.
http://tinyurl.com/cmttn
===
Iran to remove UN seals at atomic research sites:
Iran said yesterday it was preparing to remove UN seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/01/09/d601091308108.htm
===
War pimp alert:
UK cleared nuclear cargo to Iran :
Defence experts demand tightening of export regulations on potential weapon materials
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/st...1681851,00.html
===
Bullying Iran is not an option :
Before Western leaders seek sanctions against Iran, they should put their own houses in order on nuclear weapons and nuclear power
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11491.htm
===
Iran's peaceful nuclear activities cannot be prevented by 'doubt creating' policy :
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Afro-Arab affairs Mohammad-Reza Baqeri said here Sunday that by raising doubts (about Iran's nuclear program), Western nations cannot prevent Iran's peaceful nuclear activities which are in line with international rules and regulations.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...87628193123.htm
Iran Says It Will Resume Nuclear Research January 9
By VOA News
08 January 2006
Hamid Reza Asefi
Iran says it will resume its nuclear fuel research on Monday.
In Tehran Saturday, Iranian officials said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived to remove seals from the country's nuclear facilities. Iran says it will be in close contact with the IAEA regarding the research program.
The announcement came as Russian officials arrived for talks seeking an end to the nuclear impasse with the United States and European Union.
Moscow's proposal, backed by U.S. and EU officials, is aimed at getting Tehran to completely move uranium enrichment off its territory and onto Russian soil to ensure Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons.
Current EU president Austria said the bloc regretted Iran's announcement at a time when international confidence in the peaceful nature of its program is far from restored.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. The United States and Europe accuse Iran of clandestine efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
By VOA News
08 January 2006
Hamid Reza Asefi
Iran says it will resume its nuclear fuel research on Monday.
In Tehran Saturday, Iranian officials said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived to remove seals from the country's nuclear facilities. Iran says it will be in close contact with the IAEA regarding the research program.
The announcement came as Russian officials arrived for talks seeking an end to the nuclear impasse with the United States and European Union.
Moscow's proposal, backed by U.S. and EU officials, is aimed at getting Tehran to completely move uranium enrichment off its territory and onto Russian soil to ensure Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons.
Current EU president Austria said the bloc regretted Iran's announcement at a time when international confidence in the peaceful nature of its program is far from restored.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. The United States and Europe accuse Iran of clandestine efforts to develop an atomic bomb.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
January 9, 2006
Iran Says Nuclear Sites Will Be Unsealed Today
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:06 a.m. ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran confirmed it would resume research on nuclear fuel on Monday, prompting swift warnings by Germany of ``consequences'' and by the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog that the world was running out of patience with Tehran.
``Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled,'' government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference on Monday morning.
Germany, France and Britain have been trying for over two years to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which could be used to make atom bomb fuel. The EU and the United States suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran strongly denies.
EU and U.S. officials have said a resumption of research could lead to Tehran being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters an Iranian resumption of research ``cannot be left without consequences. We will discuss it with our colleagues from France and Great Britain ... by Thursday at the latest.''
``It would be a breach of the agreements we reached in Paris ... `` he said, referring to the November 2004 accord in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment program while in talks with the EU trio.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei added to the pressure on Iran to hold its hand.
``I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience, the credibility of the verification process is at stake and I'd like, come March, which is my next report, to be able to clarify these issues,'' he told Sky Television in an interview to be broadcast on Monday.
``Everybody would like to see us clarifying the remaining issues, everybody would like to see a regime by which the international community is assured that the Iranian program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and there are still a number of issues we are looking at,'' he said.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Iran's decision was ``the wrong step in the wrong direction and is a cause of very serious concern.''
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and says it has the right to enrich uranium on its own soil.
``Iran will never abandon its legitimate right to nuclear technology, obtained by the young Iranian scientists,'' state television quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate say on state matters, as saying.
The EU and the United States back a plan put forward by Moscow for Iran to enrich uranium in Russia, which would ensure the uranium was enriched only to levels where it could be used to generate electricity and not to make nuclear bombs.
Talks between Russia and Iran on the proposal ended on Sunday without any progress but are due to resume on February 16.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due on Monday to hold his first major news conference since taking office in August.
MISTRUST IN THE WEST
A staunch conservative, Ahmadinejad has resolutely refused to renounce Iran's right to uranium enrichment and has stirred up more mistrust in the West by dismissing the Holocaust as ``a myth'' and calling Israel a ``tumor'' to be ``wiped off the earth.''
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference on Sunday Iran would restart work when the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, was ready to supervise the removal of seals it put in place two years ago to freeze activities while talks went ahead.
The IAEA said two letters sent by Iran to explain its move left key questions unresolved and the Vienna-based agency said it had asked for more information. If Iran complies with the IAEA requests, the restart of nuclear work could be delayed.
Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development (R&D) could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and assembly of centrifuge enrichment machines.
That would mean all of Iran's nuclear program was active once again, apart from uranium enrichment at an unfinished plant at Natanz.
Diplomats close to the IAEA said that if Iran went ahead and restarted nuclear R&D it would prompt a report to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors which would then decide whether to call an emergency full meeting of all member countries.
That meeting could decide whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council which could impose sanctions.
But Khamenei said Iran would survive any sanctions.
``The sanctions imposed on Iran have made Iranians rely on their own capabilities,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. ``So, sanctions will have no impact on Iran.''
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd.
Iran Says Nuclear Sites Will Be Unsealed Today
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:06 a.m. ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran confirmed it would resume research on nuclear fuel on Monday, prompting swift warnings by Germany of ``consequences'' and by the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog that the world was running out of patience with Tehran.
``Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled,'' government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference on Monday morning.
Germany, France and Britain have been trying for over two years to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which could be used to make atom bomb fuel. The EU and the United States suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran strongly denies.
EU and U.S. officials have said a resumption of research could lead to Tehran being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters an Iranian resumption of research ``cannot be left without consequences. We will discuss it with our colleagues from France and Great Britain ... by Thursday at the latest.''
``It would be a breach of the agreements we reached in Paris ... `` he said, referring to the November 2004 accord in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment program while in talks with the EU trio.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei added to the pressure on Iran to hold its hand.
``I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience, the credibility of the verification process is at stake and I'd like, come March, which is my next report, to be able to clarify these issues,'' he told Sky Television in an interview to be broadcast on Monday.
``Everybody would like to see us clarifying the remaining issues, everybody would like to see a regime by which the international community is assured that the Iranian program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and there are still a number of issues we are looking at,'' he said.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Iran's decision was ``the wrong step in the wrong direction and is a cause of very serious concern.''
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and says it has the right to enrich uranium on its own soil.
``Iran will never abandon its legitimate right to nuclear technology, obtained by the young Iranian scientists,'' state television quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate say on state matters, as saying.
The EU and the United States back a plan put forward by Moscow for Iran to enrich uranium in Russia, which would ensure the uranium was enriched only to levels where it could be used to generate electricity and not to make nuclear bombs.
Talks between Russia and Iran on the proposal ended on Sunday without any progress but are due to resume on February 16.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due on Monday to hold his first major news conference since taking office in August.
MISTRUST IN THE WEST
A staunch conservative, Ahmadinejad has resolutely refused to renounce Iran's right to uranium enrichment and has stirred up more mistrust in the West by dismissing the Holocaust as ``a myth'' and calling Israel a ``tumor'' to be ``wiped off the earth.''
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference on Sunday Iran would restart work when the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, was ready to supervise the removal of seals it put in place two years ago to freeze activities while talks went ahead.
The IAEA said two letters sent by Iran to explain its move left key questions unresolved and the Vienna-based agency said it had asked for more information. If Iran complies with the IAEA requests, the restart of nuclear work could be delayed.
Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development (R&D) could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and assembly of centrifuge enrichment machines.
That would mean all of Iran's nuclear program was active once again, apart from uranium enrichment at an unfinished plant at Natanz.
Diplomats close to the IAEA said that if Iran went ahead and restarted nuclear R&D it would prompt a report to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors which would then decide whether to call an emergency full meeting of all member countries.
That meeting could decide whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council which could impose sanctions.
But Khamenei said Iran would survive any sanctions.
``The sanctions imposed on Iran have made Iranians rely on their own capabilities,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. ``So, sanctions will have no impact on Iran.''
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd.
An Attack on Iran is Inevitable:
A military confrontation with Iran is inevitable. Israel will need to destroy as much of Iran’s nuclear weapons capability as possible. If it does not, Iran’s ayatollahs will launch nuclear-armed ballistic missiles at Israel.
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_11190.shtml
===
Russia hopes Iran nuclear dispute not to trigger war:
Russia has been resisting calls from the United States and the European Union to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions
http://tinyurl.com/d8r6t
===
Plane crash kills Iran commander :
A small military passenger jet crashed in northwestern Iran today, killing the commander of the ground forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards. It was the second time in two months that a military plane has crashed in Iran.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle337518.ece
A military confrontation with Iran is inevitable. Israel will need to destroy as much of Iran’s nuclear weapons capability as possible. If it does not, Iran’s ayatollahs will launch nuclear-armed ballistic missiles at Israel.
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_11190.shtml
===
Russia hopes Iran nuclear dispute not to trigger war:
Russia has been resisting calls from the United States and the European Union to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions
http://tinyurl.com/d8r6t
===
Plane crash kills Iran commander :
A small military passenger jet crashed in northwestern Iran today, killing the commander of the ground forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards. It was the second time in two months that a military plane has crashed in Iran.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle337518.ece
IRAN NUKES
- Iran Heading Into Abyss Over Nuclear Policy
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Heading_...ear_Policy.html
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 09, 2006 - Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz accused Iran on Monday of driving itself to the brink of the abyss by deciding to resume ultra-sensitive nuclear research, public radio reported.
- Iran To Resume Nuke Research Amid Sanction Threats
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_To_Resum...on_Threats.html
- Israel's New Security Doctrine
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israels_New_S...y_Doctrine.html
- Iran Heading Into Abyss Over Nuclear Policy
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Heading_...ear_Policy.html
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 09, 2006 - Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz accused Iran on Monday of driving itself to the brink of the abyss by deciding to resume ultra-sensitive nuclear research, public radio reported.
- Iran To Resume Nuke Research Amid Sanction Threats
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_To_Resum...on_Threats.html
- Israel's New Security Doctrine
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israels_New_S...y_Doctrine.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 10, 2006
Iran, Defiant, Insists It Plans to Restart Nuclear Program
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, Jan. 9 - Defying its European partners and the United States, Iran plans to reopen its vast uranium enrichment complex to resume nuclear activities that it suspended 14 months ago, officials involved in negotiations with Iran said Monday.
Iran told the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency last week that it was planning to restart nuclear research and development, without specifying what type of activities it would resume, or where.
But in messages and letters to the agency in recent days, Iran said it planned to reopen the enrichment complex, in Natanz in central Iran, and perhaps an unspecified number of other sites, said the officials, who declined to be identified by name because they lack authorization to discuss the matter for attribution.
The Iranian move came in defiance of unusual separate messages delivered to the Tehran government over the weekend by Russia and China, as well as the United States, Britain and France. The messages warned Iran not to embark on further uranium activities.
Britain, France and the United States tried to have the five countries submit one joint declaration to Iran, but China, not wanting such a move to look like an attempt to gang up on Tehran, insisted that five separate messages be delivered. All said much the same thing.
European and American diplomats said enlisting China and Russia amounted to a further ratcheting up of pressure on Iran, because the five countries possess nuclear weapons and are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The United States wants the Council to impose sanctions on Iran if it does not abandon its suspected nuclear ambitions.
The stated plan by Iran to reopen its uranium enrichment plant reflects a high-stakes gamble by Iran to test its legal right to conduct certain nuclear activities under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968, the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear technology.
The United States, and to an increasing extent European governments, say they believe that Natanz is part of a long-suspected nuclear weapons program that they contend is more advanced than the Iraqi program was at its height under Saddam Hussein's rule.
The operations at the Natanz site were kept secret from the atomic energy agency and were not confirmed by its inspectors until February 2003. The inspectors found preparations for the construction of more than 50,000 centrifuges - tall, thin machines that spin at supersonic speed to enrich uranium so that it can be used in nuclear reactors.
When uranium is enriched to a very high degree, it can be used in a nuclear weapon. The fast-spinning centrifuges could make fuel for up to 20 nuclear weapons a year, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For Iran's clerical leadership and even much of its population, Natanz is synonymous with modernity and power.
Iran insists that its goal at Natanz is to conduct research and produce fuel for a civilian nuclear power program. Some of Iran's most experienced nuclear scientists used to work there, and Iran described the closing of the complex - under an agreement with France, Britain and Germany in November 2004 to freeze most of its nuclear activities - as voluntary and temporary.
In Tehran, Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, said Monday at a news conference that Iran would resume nuclear research and development, as announced last week to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled," he said, without giving any details.
Agency officials in Vienna and their inspectors in Iran struggled without success throughout the day to wring information from the government about its plans, as Tehran had asked that the activities be carried out under the watchful eyes of the inspectors.
By day's end the agency said the research at Natanz had not yet restarted. "Our inspectors who were at the scene today reported that there was no new activity or breaking of seals," said Melissa Fleming, an agency spokeswoman.
The sticking point appears to be Iran's indecision about whether to merely test its equipment or go further and conduct experiments with nuclear fuel, which Mohamed ElBaradei, the international agency's director, called "a red line for the international community" in an interview on Monday with the BBC.
He urged Iran to "exercise maximum restraint," and predicted that the impasse with Iran "could turn into a major crisis," because of Iran's lack of full cooperation with his agency and its plans to restart nuclear research.
The international nuclear agency has failed to persuade Iran to turn over some important information about its nuclear history and to give agency inspectors access to certain sites. But Iran's lack of openness is a separate issue from whether it has a legal right to conduct nuclear research.
Dr. ElBaradei acknowledged that a wide array of nuclear activities were permitted under the nonproliferation treaty. "As a matter of law, Iran has the right to do all the nuclear activities, including enriching uranium," he told James P. Rubin in an interview on Monday with the London-based Sky News.
Iran's announcement that it planned to resume its nuclear research brought a new flurry of international condemnation.
"Very, very disastrous signals" are coming from Iran, Germany's new foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters before a cabinet meeting outside Berlin.
The White House on Monday warned Iran that it might be referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible censure or sanctions. The international community has already warned Iran that "the next step would be a referral to the Security Council," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan.
Late last year, the 35-country board of the international nuclear agency voted to refer Iran's case for consideration by the Security Council if it did not meet its international obligations. But Russia, China and some other important countries are still resistant to Council action.
Marking the start of Austria's six-month presidency of the European Union on Monday, Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel said sanctions were always a "possibility," adding that the 25-country union had always considered them "a last resort."
Germany, France and Britain are concerned that Iran's newest move could shatter the agreement they reached in November 2004 under which Iran agreed to freeze most of its nuclear activities, including nuclear research, in exchange for a broad package of political and economic incentives.
Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this article.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
January 10, 2006
Iran, Defiant, Insists It Plans to Restart Nuclear Program
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, Jan. 9 - Defying its European partners and the United States, Iran plans to reopen its vast uranium enrichment complex to resume nuclear activities that it suspended 14 months ago, officials involved in negotiations with Iran said Monday.
Iran told the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency last week that it was planning to restart nuclear research and development, without specifying what type of activities it would resume, or where.
But in messages and letters to the agency in recent days, Iran said it planned to reopen the enrichment complex, in Natanz in central Iran, and perhaps an unspecified number of other sites, said the officials, who declined to be identified by name because they lack authorization to discuss the matter for attribution.
The Iranian move came in defiance of unusual separate messages delivered to the Tehran government over the weekend by Russia and China, as well as the United States, Britain and France. The messages warned Iran not to embark on further uranium activities.
Britain, France and the United States tried to have the five countries submit one joint declaration to Iran, but China, not wanting such a move to look like an attempt to gang up on Tehran, insisted that five separate messages be delivered. All said much the same thing.
European and American diplomats said enlisting China and Russia amounted to a further ratcheting up of pressure on Iran, because the five countries possess nuclear weapons and are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The United States wants the Council to impose sanctions on Iran if it does not abandon its suspected nuclear ambitions.
The stated plan by Iran to reopen its uranium enrichment plant reflects a high-stakes gamble by Iran to test its legal right to conduct certain nuclear activities under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968, the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear technology.
The United States, and to an increasing extent European governments, say they believe that Natanz is part of a long-suspected nuclear weapons program that they contend is more advanced than the Iraqi program was at its height under Saddam Hussein's rule.
The operations at the Natanz site were kept secret from the atomic energy agency and were not confirmed by its inspectors until February 2003. The inspectors found preparations for the construction of more than 50,000 centrifuges - tall, thin machines that spin at supersonic speed to enrich uranium so that it can be used in nuclear reactors.
When uranium is enriched to a very high degree, it can be used in a nuclear weapon. The fast-spinning centrifuges could make fuel for up to 20 nuclear weapons a year, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For Iran's clerical leadership and even much of its population, Natanz is synonymous with modernity and power.
Iran insists that its goal at Natanz is to conduct research and produce fuel for a civilian nuclear power program. Some of Iran's most experienced nuclear scientists used to work there, and Iran described the closing of the complex - under an agreement with France, Britain and Germany in November 2004 to freeze most of its nuclear activities - as voluntary and temporary.
In Tehran, Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, said Monday at a news conference that Iran would resume nuclear research and development, as announced last week to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled," he said, without giving any details.
Agency officials in Vienna and their inspectors in Iran struggled without success throughout the day to wring information from the government about its plans, as Tehran had asked that the activities be carried out under the watchful eyes of the inspectors.
By day's end the agency said the research at Natanz had not yet restarted. "Our inspectors who were at the scene today reported that there was no new activity or breaking of seals," said Melissa Fleming, an agency spokeswoman.
The sticking point appears to be Iran's indecision about whether to merely test its equipment or go further and conduct experiments with nuclear fuel, which Mohamed ElBaradei, the international agency's director, called "a red line for the international community" in an interview on Monday with the BBC.
He urged Iran to "exercise maximum restraint," and predicted that the impasse with Iran "could turn into a major crisis," because of Iran's lack of full cooperation with his agency and its plans to restart nuclear research.
The international nuclear agency has failed to persuade Iran to turn over some important information about its nuclear history and to give agency inspectors access to certain sites. But Iran's lack of openness is a separate issue from whether it has a legal right to conduct nuclear research.
Dr. ElBaradei acknowledged that a wide array of nuclear activities were permitted under the nonproliferation treaty. "As a matter of law, Iran has the right to do all the nuclear activities, including enriching uranium," he told James P. Rubin in an interview on Monday with the London-based Sky News.
Iran's announcement that it planned to resume its nuclear research brought a new flurry of international condemnation.
"Very, very disastrous signals" are coming from Iran, Germany's new foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters before a cabinet meeting outside Berlin.
The White House on Monday warned Iran that it might be referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible censure or sanctions. The international community has already warned Iran that "the next step would be a referral to the Security Council," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan.
Late last year, the 35-country board of the international nuclear agency voted to refer Iran's case for consideration by the Security Council if it did not meet its international obligations. But Russia, China and some other important countries are still resistant to Council action.
Marking the start of Austria's six-month presidency of the European Union on Monday, Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel said sanctions were always a "possibility," adding that the 25-country union had always considered them "a last resort."
Germany, France and Britain are concerned that Iran's newest move could shatter the agreement they reached in November 2004 under which Iran agreed to freeze most of its nuclear activities, including nuclear research, in exchange for a broad package of political and economic incentives.
Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this article.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
US, Europeans Criticize Latest Iran Move ABC News
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to community leaders during the launch of his flagship "Respect" agenda at London's 10 Downing Street, Tuesday Jan. 10, 2006. Blair promised stiffer fines for anti-social behaviour and a wave of other measures to turn the tide against the anti-social yob culture. A spokesman for the prime minister referring to Iran's decision resume nuclear research said that the international community is 'running out of patience' with Iran.
EU warns Iran against its nuclear project EUobserver.com
Russia holds last hope for diplomacy Australian
New York Times - Reuters - Times Online - Forbes - all 1,194 related »
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to community leaders during the launch of his flagship "Respect" agenda at London's 10 Downing Street, Tuesday Jan. 10, 2006. Blair promised stiffer fines for anti-social behaviour and a wave of other measures to turn the tide against the anti-social yob culture. A spokesman for the prime minister referring to Iran's decision resume nuclear research said that the international community is 'running out of patience' with Iran.
EU warns Iran against its nuclear project EUobserver.com
Russia holds last hope for diplomacy Australian
New York Times - Reuters - Times Online - Forbes - all 1,194 related »
Five nuclear powers send messages to Iran: US By Sue Pleming
Mon Jan 9, 6:21 PM ET
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have sent strong messages telling Iran to halt plans for nuclear fuel research and resume talks with European powers, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the so-called P5 -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China -- had sent separate notes to Tehran in recent days over its plans to resume research on nuclear fuel.
The United States had been looking for a strong joint statement but finally settled on separate statements with the same message -- that Iran should not resume the research.
"We have worked closely with the Russians, the Chinese, the French, the British and others," said the State Department official, adding, "The Iranians have received these messages."
In addition, the five nuclear powers also urged Iran to return to "serious negotiations" with the so-called European Union-3, Britain, France and Germany, which have spearheaded talks with Iran over its nuclear plans.
A Western diplomatic source said China had balked at sending a joint statement to Iran from all five and had also tried to water down the final messages.
"Technically, China is being difficult, but with Russia on board it would be hard for China to be the only spoiler," the diplomat said.
EMERGENCY MEETING
Iran confirmed on Monday it would resume research on nuclear fuel, which diplomats have said would prompt a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board, which would then call an emergency meeting.
The diplomatic source said the emergency session could be held as soon as a week from now. That meeting could determine whether Iran would be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
"There is some momentum now for action," said the Western diplomat, adding that European nations in particular were growing increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear plans.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said it is a matter of time before Iran is referred to the council and Washington is optimistic it has enough support in that body for tough action.
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity and denies Western accusations it is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian program.
For two years, Washington has threatened to elevate Iran's case to the Security Council, but delayed forcing a showdown while other strategies were tried. Support from countries including Russia has also been lacking.
Moscow has tried to ease tensions by proposing a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium in Russia but Iranian officials have described that proposal as unacceptable.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran must honor its international agreements to freeze uranium enrichment or face referral to the Security Council.
"This is an issue of trust," McClellan said. "The international community is making it clear that if they don't come into compliance and adhere to their obligations that the next step would be referral to the Security Council."
McClellan said Tehran needed to abide by all its international obligations, including the Paris agreement of November 2004 in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment program while in talks with the EU-3.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Wilson at the White House)
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Mon Jan 9, 6:21 PM ET
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have sent strong messages telling Iran to halt plans for nuclear fuel research and resume talks with European powers, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the so-called P5 -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China -- had sent separate notes to Tehran in recent days over its plans to resume research on nuclear fuel.
The United States had been looking for a strong joint statement but finally settled on separate statements with the same message -- that Iran should not resume the research.
"We have worked closely with the Russians, the Chinese, the French, the British and others," said the State Department official, adding, "The Iranians have received these messages."
In addition, the five nuclear powers also urged Iran to return to "serious negotiations" with the so-called European Union-3, Britain, France and Germany, which have spearheaded talks with Iran over its nuclear plans.
A Western diplomatic source said China had balked at sending a joint statement to Iran from all five and had also tried to water down the final messages.
"Technically, China is being difficult, but with Russia on board it would be hard for China to be the only spoiler," the diplomat said.
EMERGENCY MEETING
Iran confirmed on Monday it would resume research on nuclear fuel, which diplomats have said would prompt a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board, which would then call an emergency meeting.
The diplomatic source said the emergency session could be held as soon as a week from now. That meeting could determine whether Iran would be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
"There is some momentum now for action," said the Western diplomat, adding that European nations in particular were growing increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear plans.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said it is a matter of time before Iran is referred to the council and Washington is optimistic it has enough support in that body for tough action.
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity and denies Western accusations it is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian program.
For two years, Washington has threatened to elevate Iran's case to the Security Council, but delayed forcing a showdown while other strategies were tried. Support from countries including Russia has also been lacking.
Moscow has tried to ease tensions by proposing a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium in Russia but Iranian officials have described that proposal as unacceptable.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran must honor its international agreements to freeze uranium enrichment or face referral to the Security Council.
"This is an issue of trust," McClellan said. "The international community is making it clear that if they don't come into compliance and adhere to their obligations that the next step would be referral to the Security Council."
McClellan said Tehran needed to abide by all its international obligations, including the Paris agreement of November 2004 in which Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment program while in talks with the EU-3.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Wilson at the White House)
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail....8100&con_type=1
Iran's nuclear defiance sparks outrage
Iran removed UN seals on equipment at its uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain the freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from Europe and the United States.
Ali Akbar Dareini
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Iran removed UN seals on equipment at its uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain the freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from Europe and the United States.
Germany's foreign minister raised doubts over the future of European-led negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, questioning whether there remains any basis for more talks.
Britain warned that the international community was "running out of patience" with Teheran, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying Iran had breached resolutions by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long standing international concerns," Straw said.
France, Germany and Britain have been leading long and troubled negotiations with Iran aimed at ensuring its program is peaceful.
American officials denounced the move, calling it a step toward creating the material for nuclear bombs - a charge denied by Iran, which contends its program aims only to produce energy.
The seals were removed from equipment at the nuclear plant at Natanz, the center of Iran's uranium enrichment program.
But Iran argued that it was not resuming enrichment, a key process that can produce either material for a nuclear weapon or fuel for a reactor. Instead, it said it was restarting research activities at the plant.
The new work "is merely in the field of research - no more than that," the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, said. Production of nuclear fuel, which would involve enrichment, "remains suspended," he said.
Iranian nuclear workers removed the seals in the presence of IAEA inspectors, then researchers resumed their work, Saeedi said, though he did not specify the equipment that had been unsealed. That, he went on, was "a confidential issue between us and the IAEA."
In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming confirmed the removal of the seals and said that the agency's 35-nation board of governors would be informed about what the Iranians planned to do with the unsealed equipment.
Iran's decision to freeze some nuclear activities was voluntary, so the IAEA representatives had no option but to watch as the seals were removed.
The move further erodes the suspension of nuclear activities that has been the centerpiece of Iran's negotiations with the West. Teheran agreed to the freeze in October 2003 as a confidence- building measure and to avoid being referred to the UN Security Council, where it could face possible sanctions.
In August, Iran removed seals at another nuclear plant outside the city of Isfahan and resumed uranium reprocessing - a step before enrichment in the nuclear fuel process. That move prompted Europe to break off negotiations. The talks resumed in December, and the two sides had been due to hold a new round this month.
French President Jacques Chirac warned Iran Tuesday that it would commit a serious mistake if it ignored the international community on its nuclear program. And German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that with the latest step Teheran had "crossed lines which it knew would not remain without consequences." Steinmeier also said he had asked IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to evaluate the dangers of Iran's move.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iran's nuclear defiance sparks outrage
Iran removed UN seals on equipment at its uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain the freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from Europe and the United States.
Ali Akbar Dareini
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Iran removed UN seals on equipment at its uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain the freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from Europe and the United States.
Germany's foreign minister raised doubts over the future of European-led negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, questioning whether there remains any basis for more talks.
Britain warned that the international community was "running out of patience" with Teheran, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying Iran had breached resolutions by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long standing international concerns," Straw said.
France, Germany and Britain have been leading long and troubled negotiations with Iran aimed at ensuring its program is peaceful.
American officials denounced the move, calling it a step toward creating the material for nuclear bombs - a charge denied by Iran, which contends its program aims only to produce energy.
The seals were removed from equipment at the nuclear plant at Natanz, the center of Iran's uranium enrichment program.
But Iran argued that it was not resuming enrichment, a key process that can produce either material for a nuclear weapon or fuel for a reactor. Instead, it said it was restarting research activities at the plant.
The new work "is merely in the field of research - no more than that," the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, said. Production of nuclear fuel, which would involve enrichment, "remains suspended," he said.
Iranian nuclear workers removed the seals in the presence of IAEA inspectors, then researchers resumed their work, Saeedi said, though he did not specify the equipment that had been unsealed. That, he went on, was "a confidential issue between us and the IAEA."
In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming confirmed the removal of the seals and said that the agency's 35-nation board of governors would be informed about what the Iranians planned to do with the unsealed equipment.
Iran's decision to freeze some nuclear activities was voluntary, so the IAEA representatives had no option but to watch as the seals were removed.
The move further erodes the suspension of nuclear activities that has been the centerpiece of Iran's negotiations with the West. Teheran agreed to the freeze in October 2003 as a confidence- building measure and to avoid being referred to the UN Security Council, where it could face possible sanctions.
In August, Iran removed seals at another nuclear plant outside the city of Isfahan and resumed uranium reprocessing - a step before enrichment in the nuclear fuel process. That move prompted Europe to break off negotiations. The talks resumed in December, and the two sides had been due to hold a new round this month.
French President Jacques Chirac warned Iran Tuesday that it would commit a serious mistake if it ignored the international community on its nuclear program. And German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that with the latest step Teheran had "crossed lines which it knew would not remain without consequences." Steinmeier also said he had asked IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to evaluate the dangers of Iran's move.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...4b_MWQ&refer=us
U.S. Says Iran May Face UN Action on Nuclear Research (Update1)
Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration warned Iran that its decision to resume research on uranium reprocessing may lead to action against the country at the United Nations Security Council.
``There is serious concern within the international community about the regime's behavior,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington. His comment followed a similar statement from Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran's decision to resume research on the nuclear fuel cycle followed two years of voluntary suspension designed to underline the Iranian government's contention that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, in announcing that seals affixed by the IAEA were taken off ``several research centers,'' made a distinction between research and production, which Iran also halted at the IAEA's request in 2003.
Uranium conversion is the second step in mastering the nuclear fuel cycle, which includes mining, conversion, enrichment and reprocessing. Fuel enrichment, which uses a gas obtained through uranium conversion, can be used in the production of weapons-grade uranium.
Iran has been under threat of UN action over its atomic program since September, after the Middle East's No. 2 oil producer said it would no longer abide by an agreement with the European Union to suspend uranium conversion.
IAEA Vote
IAEA inspectors witnessed the removal of seals at Natanz, South of Tehran, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
``Based on the information currently available, the removal of Agency seals at enrichment site of Natanz, and at two related storage and testing locations, Pars Trash and Farayand Technique, will be completed by 11 January 2006,'' the IAEA said.
The U.S. and the EU are concerned that Iran may be seeking to make weapons.
The IAEA board last September voted in favor of referring Iran to the Security Council at a later date, leaving more time for negotiations with the Islamic Republic. The U.S.-backed resolution, submitted by French, German and U.K. diplomats, found Iran in ``non-compliance'' with its nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty obligations.
Iran reacted to that decision by saying it would cancel the suspension of uranium enrichment if the resolution was not amended. Iran already has an enrichment facility in Natanz, which was sealed at IAEA request in 2003.
`Continue Talking'
McClellan declined to say whether the breaking of UN seals alone constituted a resumption of Iran's nuclear program that would spur Security Council action.
``We'll continue talking'' about ``the next step,'' he said. ``If the regime in Iran continues on the current course, there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council.''
In the Majlis, Iran's parliament, 221 members, or more than three quarters of legislators, signed a statement supporting today's decision, the state-run news agency IRNA reported. They called the suspension of nuclear research a ``major blow to the morale and character'' of Iran's young nuclear scientists.
Russia's Proposal
Russian Foreign Ministry officials discussed with their Iranian counterparts on Jan. 7-8 a proposal allowing Iran to enrich uranium in Russia. The Islamic Republic has already partly rejected the offer, insisting on the ``right'' to carry out enrichment on its own soil. A new round of talks is scheduled next month.
Russia is ``concerned'' about Iran's decision to resume nuclear research, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today, according to RIA Novosti news service.
The European Union, represented in talks with Iran by Britain, France and Germany, has offered closer trade ties as long as Iran's leaders abandon uranium enrichment and reprocessing needed for weapons. The next EU-Iran session is set for Jan. 18 in Vienna, the seat of the IAEA, a UN agency.
``The international community has an imperative to make agreements respected for the security of everyone,'' French President Jacques Chirac told ambassadors to France today in a New Year's address in Paris. Iran and North Korea ``would be committing a serious error in not taking the hand we are offering them.''
U.K. Reaction
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain is ``profoundly concerned'' about today's Iranian decision. ``This amounts to yet another breach of IAEA Board resolutions, as well as the Paris Agreement that Iran signed with the U.K., France and Germany in November 2004.''
IAEA's ElBaradei has called on Iran to cooperate with the UN watchdog, saying, ``I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience,'' the Financial Times reported Jan. 7.
The IAEA and ElBaradei, its director general, won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for their work to prevent the military use of nuclear energy.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net
Marc Wolfensberger in Tehran at mwolfens@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 10, 2006 11:59 EST
U.S. Says Iran May Face UN Action on Nuclear Research (Update1)
Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration warned Iran that its decision to resume research on uranium reprocessing may lead to action against the country at the United Nations Security Council.
``There is serious concern within the international community about the regime's behavior,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington. His comment followed a similar statement from Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran's decision to resume research on the nuclear fuel cycle followed two years of voluntary suspension designed to underline the Iranian government's contention that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, in announcing that seals affixed by the IAEA were taken off ``several research centers,'' made a distinction between research and production, which Iran also halted at the IAEA's request in 2003.
Uranium conversion is the second step in mastering the nuclear fuel cycle, which includes mining, conversion, enrichment and reprocessing. Fuel enrichment, which uses a gas obtained through uranium conversion, can be used in the production of weapons-grade uranium.
Iran has been under threat of UN action over its atomic program since September, after the Middle East's No. 2 oil producer said it would no longer abide by an agreement with the European Union to suspend uranium conversion.
IAEA Vote
IAEA inspectors witnessed the removal of seals at Natanz, South of Tehran, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
``Based on the information currently available, the removal of Agency seals at enrichment site of Natanz, and at two related storage and testing locations, Pars Trash and Farayand Technique, will be completed by 11 January 2006,'' the IAEA said.
The U.S. and the EU are concerned that Iran may be seeking to make weapons.
The IAEA board last September voted in favor of referring Iran to the Security Council at a later date, leaving more time for negotiations with the Islamic Republic. The U.S.-backed resolution, submitted by French, German and U.K. diplomats, found Iran in ``non-compliance'' with its nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty obligations.
Iran reacted to that decision by saying it would cancel the suspension of uranium enrichment if the resolution was not amended. Iran already has an enrichment facility in Natanz, which was sealed at IAEA request in 2003.
`Continue Talking'
McClellan declined to say whether the breaking of UN seals alone constituted a resumption of Iran's nuclear program that would spur Security Council action.
``We'll continue talking'' about ``the next step,'' he said. ``If the regime in Iran continues on the current course, there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council.''
In the Majlis, Iran's parliament, 221 members, or more than three quarters of legislators, signed a statement supporting today's decision, the state-run news agency IRNA reported. They called the suspension of nuclear research a ``major blow to the morale and character'' of Iran's young nuclear scientists.
Russia's Proposal
Russian Foreign Ministry officials discussed with their Iranian counterparts on Jan. 7-8 a proposal allowing Iran to enrich uranium in Russia. The Islamic Republic has already partly rejected the offer, insisting on the ``right'' to carry out enrichment on its own soil. A new round of talks is scheduled next month.
Russia is ``concerned'' about Iran's decision to resume nuclear research, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today, according to RIA Novosti news service.
The European Union, represented in talks with Iran by Britain, France and Germany, has offered closer trade ties as long as Iran's leaders abandon uranium enrichment and reprocessing needed for weapons. The next EU-Iran session is set for Jan. 18 in Vienna, the seat of the IAEA, a UN agency.
``The international community has an imperative to make agreements respected for the security of everyone,'' French President Jacques Chirac told ambassadors to France today in a New Year's address in Paris. Iran and North Korea ``would be committing a serious error in not taking the hand we are offering them.''
U.K. Reaction
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain is ``profoundly concerned'' about today's Iranian decision. ``This amounts to yet another breach of IAEA Board resolutions, as well as the Paris Agreement that Iran signed with the U.K., France and Germany in November 2004.''
IAEA's ElBaradei has called on Iran to cooperate with the UN watchdog, saying, ``I am running out of patience, the international community is running out of patience,'' the Financial Times reported Jan. 7.
The IAEA and ElBaradei, its director general, won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for their work to prevent the military use of nuclear energy.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net
Marc Wolfensberger in Tehran at mwolfens@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 10, 2006 11:59 EST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 11, 2006
Iranians Reopen Nuclear Centers
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
and NAZILA FATHI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - Iran broke open internationally monitored seals on at least three of its nuclear facilities on Tuesday, clearing the way for uranium enrichment activities that Europeans and Americans say are a crucial step toward making a nuclear weapon.
The Iranians said the step was only for research on enriching uranium, and outside experts said Iran was still years away from producing enough fuel for a bomb.
But the United States and its European allies condemned the action and stepped up a campaign to persuade the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, perhaps by the end of the month.
It was unclear whether Russia and China would support a move toward sanctions, even though both called on Iran as recently as this weekend not to resume enrichment. A European diplomat acknowledged that there was still an "obvious reluctance" by the two countries to "gang up on the Iranians."
A senior administration official noted, however, that a Foreign Ministry statement in Moscow declared Tuesday that Russia was "deeply disappointed by Iran's declared decision" and recalled that a Russian envoy had "insistently advised them not to take this step" in a visit to Tehran last weekend.
"For the Russians, this is an angry statement," said the administration official, who did not want to be identified while discussing tactics or strategy, as opposed to settled policy. The official added that American officials would confer with the other Europeans and the Russians in the next few days before deciding what action to take against Iran.
"We view this as a serious escalation on the part of Iran on the nuclear issue," said Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman. "What you see here is the international community coming out and sending a very clear message to Iran that their behavior is unacceptable."
German, French and British officials joined in assailing the Iranian action. Over the last year, the three nations persuaded the Bush administration to go along with their effort to negotiate with Iran to keep a freeze on activities that Iran says are peaceful but that many Western experts believe are part of a covert weapons program.
The negotiations involved European offers of economic incentives, including the sale of aircraft parts and talks leading to trade preferences. But Iran's action appears to have derailed any such discussions for now.
"The Iranians have behaved so remarkably badly, it's hard to believe that the international community will do anything other than put them in front of the ultimate court of international public opinion," a European diplomat said, referring to the Security Council. "That is where the Iranians are heading." The official did not want to be identified by name or country to preserve a united front with his European colleagues.
President Jacques Chirac of France criticized Iran's action as a grave error, and the new German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Iran was sending "very, very disastrous signals."
In Tehran, Iranian officials were quoted as saying the actions they were taking involved research activities permitted by the Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows signers to have peaceful nuclear programs as long as they agree to monitoring and do not do anything that could make weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has not charged that Iran is making a bomb, but Iran has concealed its activities from inspectors in a way that has aroused suspicions.
Iran voluntarily suspended some of those activities more than a year ago in an agreement with the three European nations in Paris. Last year, however, it proceeded with the conversion of raw uranium, or yellow cake, into a gas known as uranium hexaflouride, also called UF6.
On Tuesday, the seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency were removed at Natanz, Iran, where centrifuges for enrichment of uranium to a higher grade are stored. Iranian officials also removed seals at two related storage and testing locations known as Pars Trash, near Isfahan, and Farayand Technique. The international agency said the seals had covered centrifuge components, manufacturing equipment and two cylinders containing uranium hexaflouride.
Western diplomats said Iran appeared ready to enrich uranium with 164 or more centrifuges, the minimum amount they said was needed for combined use in a "cascade" that could produce highly enriched fuel. The centrifuges spin the gas into a concentrated form that can be used for fuel or weapons.
But other nuclear experts say enriching uranium in centrifuges is an extremely complex undertaking requiring thousands of centrifuges to make enough material for a nuclear bomb. A small "cascade" could help teach the Iranians how to get to that larger goal, some experts say.
While proclaiming its right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear energy program, Iran has maintained that all its actions are intended for research and not for producing nuclear fuel, even for its energy-related reactors.
"We make a difference between research on nuclear fuel technology and production of nuclear fuel," Muhammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organization, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
Last year, the West warned Iran not to convert raw uranium into uranium hexaflouride gas. But when Iran proceeded to do so, the West took no punitive action, instead drawing a new "red line" saying it would invite retaliation if it took the gas and enriched it in centrifuges.
"There's no question that Iran has miscalculated here," the administration official said. "They may have thought that since there have been long and protracted negotiation for two years, there would not be any credible reaction. But this is a big step across a big, bright red line."
American officials also said Iran had insulted Mohamed ElBaradei, the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, by removing the seals itself and not waiting for the agency to do it.
Dr. ElBaradei, who has cautiously said there was no evidence of an Iranian weapons program, has also continually called for Iran to disclose all its activities. On Tuesday, he expressed "serious concern" about Iran's action, which he said added to the problem of its "less than full and prompt transparency" in nuclear areas, an agency statement said.
Dr. ElBaradei called on Iran to return to its suspension of activities and to resume its dialogue "with all concerned parties," the agency said.
Two years ago, when the European nations sought to avert a confrontation between Iran and the West by offering incentives for Iran to abandon its nuclear program, many Bush administration officials were openly disdainful of the European effort.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice changed course and with President Bush in Europe enthusiastically endorsed the diplomatic efforts. This fall, Mr. Bush also endorsed a separate Russian offer to join with Iran in a Russian-Iranian uranium enrichment facility on Russian soil as an alternative to an Iranian program.
A top Russian envoy, Sergei Kisliak, went to Tehran last weekend to try to promote that offer. But Iran's actions have now served as an apparent rebuff to Russia.
A recurrent concern of the Bush administration relates to North Korea, which was referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions because of its nuclear weapons program. The Security Council has not acted, however. American diplomats say they believe that this time, with Russian and Chinese help, there can be a different result.
Steven R. Weisman reported from Washington for this article, and Nazila Fathi from Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
January 11, 2006
Iranians Reopen Nuclear Centers
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
and NAZILA FATHI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - Iran broke open internationally monitored seals on at least three of its nuclear facilities on Tuesday, clearing the way for uranium enrichment activities that Europeans and Americans say are a crucial step toward making a nuclear weapon.
The Iranians said the step was only for research on enriching uranium, and outside experts said Iran was still years away from producing enough fuel for a bomb.
But the United States and its European allies condemned the action and stepped up a campaign to persuade the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, perhaps by the end of the month.
It was unclear whether Russia and China would support a move toward sanctions, even though both called on Iran as recently as this weekend not to resume enrichment. A European diplomat acknowledged that there was still an "obvious reluctance" by the two countries to "gang up on the Iranians."
A senior administration official noted, however, that a Foreign Ministry statement in Moscow declared Tuesday that Russia was "deeply disappointed by Iran's declared decision" and recalled that a Russian envoy had "insistently advised them not to take this step" in a visit to Tehran last weekend.
"For the Russians, this is an angry statement," said the administration official, who did not want to be identified while discussing tactics or strategy, as opposed to settled policy. The official added that American officials would confer with the other Europeans and the Russians in the next few days before deciding what action to take against Iran.
"We view this as a serious escalation on the part of Iran on the nuclear issue," said Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman. "What you see here is the international community coming out and sending a very clear message to Iran that their behavior is unacceptable."
German, French and British officials joined in assailing the Iranian action. Over the last year, the three nations persuaded the Bush administration to go along with their effort to negotiate with Iran to keep a freeze on activities that Iran says are peaceful but that many Western experts believe are part of a covert weapons program.
The negotiations involved European offers of economic incentives, including the sale of aircraft parts and talks leading to trade preferences. But Iran's action appears to have derailed any such discussions for now.
"The Iranians have behaved so remarkably badly, it's hard to believe that the international community will do anything other than put them in front of the ultimate court of international public opinion," a European diplomat said, referring to the Security Council. "That is where the Iranians are heading." The official did not want to be identified by name or country to preserve a united front with his European colleagues.
President Jacques Chirac of France criticized Iran's action as a grave error, and the new German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Iran was sending "very, very disastrous signals."
In Tehran, Iranian officials were quoted as saying the actions they were taking involved research activities permitted by the Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows signers to have peaceful nuclear programs as long as they agree to monitoring and do not do anything that could make weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has not charged that Iran is making a bomb, but Iran has concealed its activities from inspectors in a way that has aroused suspicions.
Iran voluntarily suspended some of those activities more than a year ago in an agreement with the three European nations in Paris. Last year, however, it proceeded with the conversion of raw uranium, or yellow cake, into a gas known as uranium hexaflouride, also called UF6.
On Tuesday, the seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency were removed at Natanz, Iran, where centrifuges for enrichment of uranium to a higher grade are stored. Iranian officials also removed seals at two related storage and testing locations known as Pars Trash, near Isfahan, and Farayand Technique. The international agency said the seals had covered centrifuge components, manufacturing equipment and two cylinders containing uranium hexaflouride.
Western diplomats said Iran appeared ready to enrich uranium with 164 or more centrifuges, the minimum amount they said was needed for combined use in a "cascade" that could produce highly enriched fuel. The centrifuges spin the gas into a concentrated form that can be used for fuel or weapons.
But other nuclear experts say enriching uranium in centrifuges is an extremely complex undertaking requiring thousands of centrifuges to make enough material for a nuclear bomb. A small "cascade" could help teach the Iranians how to get to that larger goal, some experts say.
While proclaiming its right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear energy program, Iran has maintained that all its actions are intended for research and not for producing nuclear fuel, even for its energy-related reactors.
"We make a difference between research on nuclear fuel technology and production of nuclear fuel," Muhammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organization, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
Last year, the West warned Iran not to convert raw uranium into uranium hexaflouride gas. But when Iran proceeded to do so, the West took no punitive action, instead drawing a new "red line" saying it would invite retaliation if it took the gas and enriched it in centrifuges.
"There's no question that Iran has miscalculated here," the administration official said. "They may have thought that since there have been long and protracted negotiation for two years, there would not be any credible reaction. But this is a big step across a big, bright red line."
American officials also said Iran had insulted Mohamed ElBaradei, the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, by removing the seals itself and not waiting for the agency to do it.
Dr. ElBaradei, who has cautiously said there was no evidence of an Iranian weapons program, has also continually called for Iran to disclose all its activities. On Tuesday, he expressed "serious concern" about Iran's action, which he said added to the problem of its "less than full and prompt transparency" in nuclear areas, an agency statement said.
Dr. ElBaradei called on Iran to return to its suspension of activities and to resume its dialogue "with all concerned parties," the agency said.
Two years ago, when the European nations sought to avert a confrontation between Iran and the West by offering incentives for Iran to abandon its nuclear program, many Bush administration officials were openly disdainful of the European effort.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice changed course and with President Bush in Europe enthusiastically endorsed the diplomatic efforts. This fall, Mr. Bush also endorsed a separate Russian offer to join with Iran in a Russian-Iranian uranium enrichment facility on Russian soil as an alternative to an Iranian program.
A top Russian envoy, Sergei Kisliak, went to Tehran last weekend to try to promote that offer. But Iran's actions have now served as an apparent rebuff to Russia.
A recurrent concern of the Bush administration relates to North Korea, which was referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions because of its nuclear weapons program. The Security Council has not acted, however. American diplomats say they believe that this time, with Russian and Chinese help, there can be a different result.
Steven R. Weisman reported from Washington for this article, and Nazila Fathi from Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage...7789597,00.html
Iran risking nuclear escalation: US
By Peter Mackler in Washington
11jan06
THE US overnight warned Iran against a "serious escalation" in their nuclear row and brandished the threat of UN action after Tehran said it had resumed sensitive atomic research.
A senior US official said Washington was consulting with its allies and he raised the possibility of calling an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
But there was no immediate sign of any further concrete response to Iran's move to remove IAEA seals from at least one research centre and resume work that US officials fear could lead to a nuclear bomb.
The Islamic republic had agreed to suspend uranium enrichment more than two years ago pending negotiations with Britain, France and Germany on economic and other incentives to renounce any nuclear weapons ambitions.
The White House reacted strongly to the IAEA report that Iran had lifted the seals on its Natanz research facility and was planning to do so at two other connected sites.
"Any resumption of enrichment and reprocessing activities would be a further violation of Iran's agreements with the Europeans," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Such steps would be a serious escalation of the nuclear issue."
McClellan said the US administration was pursuing talks with Britain, France and Germany, the so-called EU-3.
But he added that if Iran breaches its international obligations, "there's no other choice but to refer the matter" to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for electricity only, had told his agency it wants to restart centrifuges at Natanz to enrich uranium on a "small scale."
Western countries reacted furiously.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called for a meeting with his French and German counterparts tomorrow and said referral of Iran to the UN Security Council would top the agenda.
A senior US State Department official also said "there is a prospect" of an emergency meeting of the Vienna-based IAEA, whose board of governors is not normally due to meet again until March 6.
"It's a bad move on their (the Iranians') part. It's a matter of serious concern," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gregory Schulte, the US ambassador to the IAEA, said earlier that Iran was "taking another deliberate step towards uranium enrichment, the process for creating nuclear bomb material."
"By cutting the seals, the Iranian leadership shows its disdain for international concern and its rejection of international diplomacy," Schulte said.
"The (Iranian) regime continues to choose confrontation over co-operation, a choice that deepens isolation of Iran and harms the interests of the Iranian people."
The US has long pushed for UN action against Iran, but last March came out in support of the EU-3 efforts to negotiate a solution to the nuclear standoff.
But Washington has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran in recent months and claims it has the votes within the IAEA to haul Tehran before the UN Security Council whenever it wants to.
While the Americans had initially drawn a line at Iranian production of enriched uranium, they have said that a history of deceit and dissembling by Tehran made research activities unacceptable as well.
"They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week.
Russia has offered to conduct Iran's enrichment work on its own soil as a confidence-building measure, but Tehran has yet to take up the offer.
It was an open question whether Russia and China, two permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power, would support punitive action against Tehran.
© Herald and Weekly Times
Iran risking nuclear escalation: US
By Peter Mackler in Washington
11jan06
THE US overnight warned Iran against a "serious escalation" in their nuclear row and brandished the threat of UN action after Tehran said it had resumed sensitive atomic research.
A senior US official said Washington was consulting with its allies and he raised the possibility of calling an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
But there was no immediate sign of any further concrete response to Iran's move to remove IAEA seals from at least one research centre and resume work that US officials fear could lead to a nuclear bomb.
The Islamic republic had agreed to suspend uranium enrichment more than two years ago pending negotiations with Britain, France and Germany on economic and other incentives to renounce any nuclear weapons ambitions.
The White House reacted strongly to the IAEA report that Iran had lifted the seals on its Natanz research facility and was planning to do so at two other connected sites.
"Any resumption of enrichment and reprocessing activities would be a further violation of Iran's agreements with the Europeans," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Such steps would be a serious escalation of the nuclear issue."
McClellan said the US administration was pursuing talks with Britain, France and Germany, the so-called EU-3.
But he added that if Iran breaches its international obligations, "there's no other choice but to refer the matter" to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for electricity only, had told his agency it wants to restart centrifuges at Natanz to enrich uranium on a "small scale."
Western countries reacted furiously.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called for a meeting with his French and German counterparts tomorrow and said referral of Iran to the UN Security Council would top the agenda.
A senior US State Department official also said "there is a prospect" of an emergency meeting of the Vienna-based IAEA, whose board of governors is not normally due to meet again until March 6.
"It's a bad move on their (the Iranians') part. It's a matter of serious concern," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gregory Schulte, the US ambassador to the IAEA, said earlier that Iran was "taking another deliberate step towards uranium enrichment, the process for creating nuclear bomb material."
"By cutting the seals, the Iranian leadership shows its disdain for international concern and its rejection of international diplomacy," Schulte said.
"The (Iranian) regime continues to choose confrontation over co-operation, a choice that deepens isolation of Iran and harms the interests of the Iranian people."
The US has long pushed for UN action against Iran, but last March came out in support of the EU-3 efforts to negotiate a solution to the nuclear standoff.
But Washington has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran in recent months and claims it has the votes within the IAEA to haul Tehran before the UN Security Council whenever it wants to.
While the Americans had initially drawn a line at Iranian production of enriched uranium, they have said that a history of deceit and dissembling by Tehran made research activities unacceptable as well.
"They shouldn't do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week.
Russia has offered to conduct Iran's enrichment work on its own soil as a confidence-building measure, but Tehran has yet to take up the offer.
It was an open question whether Russia and China, two permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power, would support punitive action against Tehran.
© Herald and Weekly Times
Iran plans 'small scale' nuclear fuel work: IAEA
Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:30 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, informed his agency's governing board on Tuesday that Iran intends to begin "small-scale" uranium enrichment work, contradicting previous statements by Tehran.
"Iran plans to install a small-scale gas ultracentrifuge cascade in its pilot fuel enrichment plant at Natanz," a Western diplomat said, reading from ElBaradei's report to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Citing the report, the diplomat said that during its research work on centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium for use in nuclear power plants or weapons -- Iran planned to feed a small amount of uranium hexafluoride into the centrifuges.
A senior Iranian official had earlier denied any suggestion that Iran was resuming the production of nuclear fuel at the Natanz facility in central Iran.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:30 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, informed his agency's governing board on Tuesday that Iran intends to begin "small-scale" uranium enrichment work, contradicting previous statements by Tehran.
"Iran plans to install a small-scale gas ultracentrifuge cascade in its pilot fuel enrichment plant at Natanz," a Western diplomat said, reading from ElBaradei's report to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Citing the report, the diplomat said that during its research work on centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium for use in nuclear power plants or weapons -- Iran planned to feed a small amount of uranium hexafluoride into the centrifuges.
A senior Iranian official had earlier denied any suggestion that Iran was resuming the production of nuclear fuel at the Natanz facility in central Iran.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Russia Joins US in Condemning Iran's Nuclear Work
By VOA News
11 January 2006
Russia says it shares with the United States a sense of "deep disappointment" over Iran's decision to resume nuclear fuel research.
Sergei Lavrov (file photo)
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the Iranian situation Wednesday, following discussions by telephone on Tuesday between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
European officials also have criticized Iran's announcement that it removed U.N. seals and resumed work at one of its nuclear sites. British, French and German officials are to meet this week about asking the the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog body, says Iran plans to produce limited amounts of nuclear fuel for research purposes. Iranian officials say their scientific work has resumed, but they have not yet ended a moratorium on nuclear-fuel production.
The United States and its European allies say Iran's ultimate goal is to build nuclear weapons - a charge that Tehran denies.
Some information for this report was provided by AP
By VOA News
11 January 2006
Russia says it shares with the United States a sense of "deep disappointment" over Iran's decision to resume nuclear fuel research.
Sergei Lavrov (file photo)
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the Iranian situation Wednesday, following discussions by telephone on Tuesday between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
European officials also have criticized Iran's announcement that it removed U.N. seals and resumed work at one of its nuclear sites. British, French and German officials are to meet this week about asking the the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog body, says Iran plans to produce limited amounts of nuclear fuel for research purposes. Iranian officials say their scientific work has resumed, but they have not yet ended a moratorium on nuclear-fuel production.
The United States and its European allies say Iran's ultimate goal is to build nuclear weapons - a charge that Tehran denies.
Some information for this report was provided by AP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 11, 2006
British Leader Calls On U.N. to Consider Iran Sanctions
By REUTERS
Filed at 10:54 a.m. ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Britain called on Wednesday for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran after it resumed nuclear fuel research, but Iran's hardline president said his country would pursue its course regardless.
Iran removed U.N. seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume ``research and development'' on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament he aimed to secure international agreement to haul Iran before the Security Council, which can impose punitive measures.
``Then .. we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all,'' he added.
Blair made no direct reference to military force, but his remarks seemed stronger than those of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said on Tuesday military action was not on Britain's agenda and that he believed it was not on anyone else's.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found no firm proof to the contrary.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the world outcry over Tehran's resumption of nuclear fuel activities.
``The Iranian nation will continue its way decisively and wisely to obtain and use nuclear technology for civilian ends and has no fear at all of the fuss created by the big powers,'' he said in a speech in the southern city of Bandar Abbas.
Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who still holds an influential position, said any sanctions would be futile.
``We will stand by our right to nuclear technology. They will regret creating any problems for us,'' he said in a sermon to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival, adding that diplomacy, not confrontation, remained the best way forward.
EU TO BREAK OFF TALKS
However, three top European Union powers were expected to call off moribund nuclear talks with Iran and to advocate sending the dispute to the Security Council when they meet in Berlin on Thursday, a diplomat from one of the EU trio said.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain, along with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, were due to meet at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) to discuss the crisis caused by Iran's move to reactivate a nuclear fuel program mothballed under a November 2004 deal with the European negotiators.
``Everybody agrees the point of no return has been reached,'' the EU3 diplomat said, referring to what he said was an informal consensus reached among the bloc's 25 member states.
European diplomats say they now expect the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors to convene in early February to discuss referring Iran to the Security Council.
They say a clear simple majority on the IAEA's 35-nation board favors such a move, but add that EU and U.S. officials will work to achieve as much consensus as possible.
Russia and China, which have major energy interests in Iran, have previously opposed moving the dispute to the Security Council, where they both wield veto powers.
However, Iran's latest action appears to have disconcerted Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the row with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone.
``Both sides...expressed deep disappointment about Tehran's decision to abandon the moratorium,'' a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
The Security Council's five permanent members, including China, recently sent letters to Iran urging it not to restart its nuclear fuel activities.
Iran's action rattled oil markets on Tuesday, helping push up the price of crude for a while.
Any embargo on Iranian oil exports would be a double-edged sword -- Iran is the world's fourth biggest crude oil exporter.
The United States already has a full embargo against Iran, but the EU could introduce trade restrictions.
The Security Council could impose sanctions ranging from travel curbs on government officials to a full trade embargo such as those previously imposed on Libya and Iraq.
The United States said the international community needed to press Iran to act responsibly with its nuclear ambitions.
``The thinking there is to create the pressures, environment, the incentives to be a responsible member of the community,'' U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told BBC radio.
Italy, which has enjoyed strong diplomatic and trade ties s with Iran, said it was deeply concerned by Tehran's action.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said Tehran appeared to want to challenge the outside world over its nuclear goals, but said it could not split the international community.
``We are entering a new phase in relations with Tehran, and the international community will find the most efficient way to tackle this. I hope that good sense prevails in Iran,'' he said.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd.
January 11, 2006
British Leader Calls On U.N. to Consider Iran Sanctions
By REUTERS
Filed at 10:54 a.m. ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Britain called on Wednesday for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran after it resumed nuclear fuel research, but Iran's hardline president said his country would pursue its course regardless.
Iran removed U.N. seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume ``research and development'' on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament he aimed to secure international agreement to haul Iran before the Security Council, which can impose punitive measures.
``Then .. we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all,'' he added.
Blair made no direct reference to military force, but his remarks seemed stronger than those of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said on Tuesday military action was not on Britain's agenda and that he believed it was not on anyone else's.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found no firm proof to the contrary.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the world outcry over Tehran's resumption of nuclear fuel activities.
``The Iranian nation will continue its way decisively and wisely to obtain and use nuclear technology for civilian ends and has no fear at all of the fuss created by the big powers,'' he said in a speech in the southern city of Bandar Abbas.
Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who still holds an influential position, said any sanctions would be futile.
``We will stand by our right to nuclear technology. They will regret creating any problems for us,'' he said in a sermon to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival, adding that diplomacy, not confrontation, remained the best way forward.
EU TO BREAK OFF TALKS
However, three top European Union powers were expected to call off moribund nuclear talks with Iran and to advocate sending the dispute to the Security Council when they meet in Berlin on Thursday, a diplomat from one of the EU trio said.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain, along with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, were due to meet at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) to discuss the crisis caused by Iran's move to reactivate a nuclear fuel program mothballed under a November 2004 deal with the European negotiators.
``Everybody agrees the point of no return has been reached,'' the EU3 diplomat said, referring to what he said was an informal consensus reached among the bloc's 25 member states.
European diplomats say they now expect the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors to convene in early February to discuss referring Iran to the Security Council.
They say a clear simple majority on the IAEA's 35-nation board favors such a move, but add that EU and U.S. officials will work to achieve as much consensus as possible.
Russia and China, which have major energy interests in Iran, have previously opposed moving the dispute to the Security Council, where they both wield veto powers.
However, Iran's latest action appears to have disconcerted Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the row with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone.
``Both sides...expressed deep disappointment about Tehran's decision to abandon the moratorium,'' a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
The Security Council's five permanent members, including China, recently sent letters to Iran urging it not to restart its nuclear fuel activities.
Iran's action rattled oil markets on Tuesday, helping push up the price of crude for a while.
Any embargo on Iranian oil exports would be a double-edged sword -- Iran is the world's fourth biggest crude oil exporter.
The United States already has a full embargo against Iran, but the EU could introduce trade restrictions.
The Security Council could impose sanctions ranging from travel curbs on government officials to a full trade embargo such as those previously imposed on Libya and Iraq.
The United States said the international community needed to press Iran to act responsibly with its nuclear ambitions.
``The thinking there is to create the pressures, environment, the incentives to be a responsible member of the community,'' U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told BBC radio.
Italy, which has enjoyed strong diplomatic and trade ties s with Iran, said it was deeply concerned by Tehran's action.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said Tehran appeared to want to challenge the outside world over its nuclear goals, but said it could not split the international community.
``We are entering a new phase in relations with Tehran, and the international community will find the most efficient way to tackle this. I hope that good sense prevails in Iran,'' he said.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd.
Iran crosses last red line; UN sanctions ahead?
The sudden resumption of its nuclear program is seen by some as a slap
in the face of Europeans. By Peter Ford
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0112/p01s04-woeu.html?s=hns
The sudden resumption of its nuclear program is seen by some as a slap
in the face of Europeans. By Peter Ford
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0112/p01s04-woeu.html?s=hns
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 11, 2006
U.S. Says No Choice but to Consider Sanctions on Iran
By REUTERS
Filed at 2:33 p.m. ET
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - The White House said Wednesday that Iran has made a "serious miscalculation" by clearing the way to resume uranium enrichment and that intensive diplomacy was under way with European allies and others about what to do now.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush on a brief trip to Kentucky, told reporters that if the European-led negotiations had run their course, then there was no other option but to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it was now "more likely than ever" that Iran would be hauled before the Security Council.
Iran removed U.N. seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume "research and development" on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia.
"I think that the Iranian regime has made another serious miscalculation by their latest actions, and we are engaged in some intensive diplomacy right now. We are talking with our European friends and others about how to move ahead and those discussions continue," McClellan said.
He said the international community had given Iran a chance to negotiate in good faith, but instead Tehran "is showing yet again that they are going to ignore the demands of the international community, and I think that's a serious miscalculation."
"We believe that if the negotiations have run their course and Iran is not going to negotiate in good faith, then there's no other option but to refer the matter to the Security Council," McClellan said. "If that happens then we would talk about what actions need to be taken at that time."
Asked by reporters about Washington's aims in seeking to get Iran referred to the Security Council, the State Department's McCormack said "we still seek to change Iranian behavior through diplomatic channels."
Washington has long said it maintains all options on the table in the stand-off with Iran.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found no firm proof to the contrary.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd. Home
January 11, 2006
U.S. Says No Choice but to Consider Sanctions on Iran
By REUTERS
Filed at 2:33 p.m. ET
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - The White House said Wednesday that Iran has made a "serious miscalculation" by clearing the way to resume uranium enrichment and that intensive diplomacy was under way with European allies and others about what to do now.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush on a brief trip to Kentucky, told reporters that if the European-led negotiations had run their course, then there was no other option but to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it was now "more likely than ever" that Iran would be hauled before the Security Council.
Iran removed U.N. seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume "research and development" on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia.
"I think that the Iranian regime has made another serious miscalculation by their latest actions, and we are engaged in some intensive diplomacy right now. We are talking with our European friends and others about how to move ahead and those discussions continue," McClellan said.
He said the international community had given Iran a chance to negotiate in good faith, but instead Tehran "is showing yet again that they are going to ignore the demands of the international community, and I think that's a serious miscalculation."
"We believe that if the negotiations have run their course and Iran is not going to negotiate in good faith, then there's no other option but to refer the matter to the Security Council," McClellan said. "If that happens then we would talk about what actions need to be taken at that time."
Asked by reporters about Washington's aims in seeking to get Iran referred to the Security Council, the State Department's McCormack said "we still seek to change Iranian behavior through diplomatic channels."
Washington has long said it maintains all options on the table in the stand-off with Iran.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found no firm proof to the contrary.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd. Home
IRAN NUKES
- Iran Nukes Represent The Utmost Political Risk For This Year
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Nukes_Re...k_For_2006.html
Washington (UPI) Jan 10, 2006 - At the risk of escalating the crisis into a major conflagration with the Western powers Iran has removed U.N. seals on its uranium enrichment equipment, announcing it will resume nuclear research Tuesday. Meanwhile a Washington lobby group calling for regime change in Tehran divulged that Iran now has 5,000 centrifuge machines for installation at the Natanz nuclear facility.
- World Powers Threaten Defiant Iran Over Nuclear Crisis
http://www.spacewar.com/news/World_Powers_...ear_Crisis.html
- Analysis: Israel 'Can Destroy' Iran Nukes
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israel_Can_De...ar_Arsenal.html
- Blair Threatens Iran With U.N. Action
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Blair_Threate..._UN_Action.html
- Iran Nuclear Row Coming To A Head Says US Official
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Nuclear_...S_Official.html
- Iran Nukes Represent The Utmost Political Risk For This Year
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Nukes_Re...k_For_2006.html
Washington (UPI) Jan 10, 2006 - At the risk of escalating the crisis into a major conflagration with the Western powers Iran has removed U.N. seals on its uranium enrichment equipment, announcing it will resume nuclear research Tuesday. Meanwhile a Washington lobby group calling for regime change in Tehran divulged that Iran now has 5,000 centrifuge machines for installation at the Natanz nuclear facility.
- World Powers Threaten Defiant Iran Over Nuclear Crisis
http://www.spacewar.com/news/World_Powers_...ear_Crisis.html
- Analysis: Israel 'Can Destroy' Iran Nukes
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Israel_Can_De...ar_Arsenal.html
- Blair Threatens Iran With U.N. Action
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Blair_Threate..._UN_Action.html
- Iran Nuclear Row Coming To A Head Says US Official
http://www.spacewar.com/news/Iran_Nuclear_...S_Official.html
January 12, 2006
A Test of Wills Between Iran and the West
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - One day after Iran moved to break the internationally monitored seals on its nuclear facilities, a contest of wills between Iran and its adversaries unfolded, with the Europeans threatening to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible punitive actions and Iran issuing defiant new warnings.
Signaling this strategy, Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with Fox News, said Wednesday that the United States would seek the adoption of "a resolution that could be enforced by sanctions, were they to fail to comply with it." Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain told the Parliament the same thing, saying that "we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all."
Among the possibilities being discussed, various officials said, were a ban on travel by Iranian diplomats, restrictions on new commercial contracts or sports contests and other small steps falling short of what would be the toughest sanction of all - either a ban on oil purchases or on the export of refined gasoline to Iran.
But it was unclear whether the Europeans could get Russia, China, India and other countries to join a consensus for sanctions, making it possible for the Security Council to act on them. Nor was it certain that Iran would change its behavior in response to new pressures.
"The issue cannot be solved by imposing sanctions or similar measures," said Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president. The West would regret any such attempts, he warned in a speech on Wednesday as Iran celebrated the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha.
"I believe the West has played this game too late and played into Iranian hands," said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. "At this stage, they are convinced that the more hardball they play, the more the West will collapse." Mr. Milani said that news reports from Iran suggested that its government had used the last few years to sign up oil deals with various countries to gain their political support, dispersed its nuclear activities to some 300 sites around the country and stockpiled food, medicine and other materials to survive any sanctions.
American and European officials say that two years of efforts to negotiate with Iran, including the discussion of incentives for ending its nuclear programs, has at least brought leading countries of the world closer to a willingness to apply coercion now that talks have failed.
They have indicated that the next phase of pressure is likely to take place a step at a time, perhaps starting with a referral of Iran's case by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council early next month.
"A lot of what can be done is simply related to Iran's status in the world," said Mitchell B. Reiss, a policy and planning director at the State Department in the first Bush term. "The Iranians are very sensitive to challenges to their own legitimacy, and there are a lot of things you can do before bringing down the hammer big time."
But others are less sure of such a course of action, and they fear that Iran can string out the process by appearing to cooperate at each phase, peeling off Russian and Chinese support with a show of reasonableness.
"I've been surprised that so many people are acting like referral to the Security Council is some important event that will bring about change in the government of Iran," said an administration official, asking not to be identified as questioning the Western strategy. "I don't buy it."
A second official, asked if the period of diplomacy had now ended, said: "No. Diplomacy just passes to a new phase, one of diplomatic judgment of Iran." Such a judgment, he said, will be easier because of the recent inflammatory comments from its new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, about wiping Israel off the map.
For the time being, there is no talk of military action against Iran, except hypothetically, in part because any kind of airstrike or covert attempt to sabotage its facilities would provoke retaliations in Iraq, Israel and elsewhere.
A few years ago, for example, Bush administration hawks spoke of the powerfully persuasive effect on Iran of 150,000 American troops in neighboring Iraq. Now, the United States is angrily calling on Iran not to support lethal attacks on American troops by insurgents. There remain some in the Bush administration who say that American officials could have made a greater attempt in the last year or so to reach out to the Tehran government. But there is no indication that Iran was interested.
The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was authorized to engage Iranians in discussions about cross-border infiltration of bombs and other devices used against Americans, but has been rebuffed.
Meanwhile, the United States has concentrated its efforts on trying to isolate Iran diplomatically, proclaiming success repeatedly but without proof that it has gotten anything more than lip service so far.
State Department officials say that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been concentrating this week on getting Russia on board the campaign to confront Iran. They say Russia has responded with surprisingly tough talk to Iran's rebuff of an offer to enrich uranium on Russian soil, but that Russia could still call for more delays.
China, administration and European officials say, is considered likely to accept sanctions if Russia does.
In its five years in office, the Bush administration has engaged in a long-running internal debate over how to deal with Iran. Hard-liners at the Pentagon and Mr. Cheney's office argued against having any diplomatic contacts with Tehran.
Some at the State Department say privately that more efforts might have yielded some results, and they got the administration to go along with the European efforts to offer economic benefits last year.
Iran has had two military plane crashes in the last month, for example, and these officials argue that the offer of spare parts for commercial aircraft might have done the trick.
Some conservatives in the administration have begun to play with the idea that the best that could be done is to delay Iran's nuclear bomb-making ability, and the United States should use the time to try to encourage political change within Iran.
A small effort has begun to provide assistance to dissident groups, for example. But a meeting to discuss further openings with Iran as a means to undermine the government was canceled last year after The Wall Street Journal disclosed the plans and hard-liners attacked them as too conciliatory.
Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran for this article.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
A Test of Wills Between Iran and the West
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - One day after Iran moved to break the internationally monitored seals on its nuclear facilities, a contest of wills between Iran and its adversaries unfolded, with the Europeans threatening to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible punitive actions and Iran issuing defiant new warnings.
Signaling this strategy, Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with Fox News, said Wednesday that the United States would seek the adoption of "a resolution that could be enforced by sanctions, were they to fail to comply with it." Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain told the Parliament the same thing, saying that "we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all."
Among the possibilities being discussed, various officials said, were a ban on travel by Iranian diplomats, restrictions on new commercial contracts or sports contests and other small steps falling short of what would be the toughest sanction of all - either a ban on oil purchases or on the export of refined gasoline to Iran.
But it was unclear whether the Europeans could get Russia, China, India and other countries to join a consensus for sanctions, making it possible for the Security Council to act on them. Nor was it certain that Iran would change its behavior in response to new pressures.
"The issue cannot be solved by imposing sanctions or similar measures," said Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president. The West would regret any such attempts, he warned in a speech on Wednesday as Iran celebrated the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha.
"I believe the West has played this game too late and played into Iranian hands," said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. "At this stage, they are convinced that the more hardball they play, the more the West will collapse." Mr. Milani said that news reports from Iran suggested that its government had used the last few years to sign up oil deals with various countries to gain their political support, dispersed its nuclear activities to some 300 sites around the country and stockpiled food, medicine and other materials to survive any sanctions.
American and European officials say that two years of efforts to negotiate with Iran, including the discussion of incentives for ending its nuclear programs, has at least brought leading countries of the world closer to a willingness to apply coercion now that talks have failed.
They have indicated that the next phase of pressure is likely to take place a step at a time, perhaps starting with a referral of Iran's case by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council early next month.
"A lot of what can be done is simply related to Iran's status in the world," said Mitchell B. Reiss, a policy and planning director at the State Department in the first Bush term. "The Iranians are very sensitive to challenges to their own legitimacy, and there are a lot of things you can do before bringing down the hammer big time."
But others are less sure of such a course of action, and they fear that Iran can string out the process by appearing to cooperate at each phase, peeling off Russian and Chinese support with a show of reasonableness.
"I've been surprised that so many people are acting like referral to the Security Council is some important event that will bring about change in the government of Iran," said an administration official, asking not to be identified as questioning the Western strategy. "I don't buy it."
A second official, asked if the period of diplomacy had now ended, said: "No. Diplomacy just passes to a new phase, one of diplomatic judgment of Iran." Such a judgment, he said, will be easier because of the recent inflammatory comments from its new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, about wiping Israel off the map.
For the time being, there is no talk of military action against Iran, except hypothetically, in part because any kind of airstrike or covert attempt to sabotage its facilities would provoke retaliations in Iraq, Israel and elsewhere.
A few years ago, for example, Bush administration hawks spoke of the powerfully persuasive effect on Iran of 150,000 American troops in neighboring Iraq. Now, the United States is angrily calling on Iran not to support lethal attacks on American troops by insurgents. There remain some in the Bush administration who say that American officials could have made a greater attempt in the last year or so to reach out to the Tehran government. But there is no indication that Iran was interested.
The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was authorized to engage Iranians in discussions about cross-border infiltration of bombs and other devices used against Americans, but has been rebuffed.
Meanwhile, the United States has concentrated its efforts on trying to isolate Iran diplomatically, proclaiming success repeatedly but without proof that it has gotten anything more than lip service so far.
State Department officials say that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been concentrating this week on getting Russia on board the campaign to confront Iran. They say Russia has responded with surprisingly tough talk to Iran's rebuff of an offer to enrich uranium on Russian soil, but that Russia could still call for more delays.
China, administration and European officials say, is considered likely to accept sanctions if Russia does.
In its five years in office, the Bush administration has engaged in a long-running internal debate over how to deal with Iran. Hard-liners at the Pentagon and Mr. Cheney's office argued against having any diplomatic contacts with Tehran.
Some at the State Department say privately that more efforts might have yielded some results, and they got the administration to go along with the European efforts to offer economic benefits last year.
Iran has had two military plane crashes in the last month, for example, and these officials argue that the offer of spare parts for commercial aircraft might have done the trick.
Some conservatives in the administration have begun to play with the idea that the best that could be done is to delay Iran's nuclear bomb-making ability, and the United States should use the time to try to encourage political change within Iran.
A small effort has begun to provide assistance to dissident groups, for example. But a meeting to discuss further openings with Iran as a means to undermine the government was canceled last year after The Wall Street Journal disclosed the plans and hard-liners attacked them as too conciliatory.
Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran for this article.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
Iran Nuclear Issue Moves Toward UN Los Angeles Times
Blair says Tehran should face the Security Council for restarting uranium research. Europeans are to hold an emergency meeting today. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons. The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations. Such action would be a departure from the multilateral negotiations that Britain, France and Germany have been conducting with Iran for the last two years. "We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world," the British leader told Parliament. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a move to the Security Council was "more likely than ever." But in the face of global disapproval, Iran's senior leaders vowed not to be dissuaded by any possible U.N. action in response to its decision Tuesday to break seals placed on its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz two years ago by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The Iranian nation will continue its way decisively and wisely to obtain and use nuclear technology for civilian ends and has no fear at all of the fuss created by the big powers," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Iran informed the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, that it was resuming the nuclear research, although it said it would continue to allow its activities to be monitored by IAEA personnel. The government insisted that its activities were meant only to further a civilian nuclear power program. Western countries suspect Iran of seeking to master the enrichment process so it can build nuclear weapons. They are particularly concerned because of the recent election of Ahmadinejad, who is vehemently anti-Western and anti-Israel. The Iranian leader has repeatedly questioned Israel's right to exist in the Middle East. IAEA officials were told Iran was preparing a pilot program to use centrifuge cascades to treat uranium gas in a process that could yield small amounts of enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be used both in nuclear weapons and power plants. Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries that have been conducting talks with Iran on the nuclear issue, planned an emergency meeting today in Berlin with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said referring Iran to the Security Council would be at the top of the agenda. The Bush administration was skeptical about the talks between Iran and the so-called EU-3, preferring a more confrontational approach, but reversed course last year to allow the European talks to play out with U.S. backing. Now that those talks have come to an apparent dead end, the Security Council seems the logical next step, U.S. and European officials said. "The decision by Iran is very serious indeed. I don't think there is any point in us hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do," said Blair, speaking during the prime minister's weekly question session in the House of Commons. "When taken in conjunction with their other comments about the state of Israel, they cause real and serious alarm right across the world." Blair said that he was discussing the issue closely with the U.S. and European allies and that referring Iran to the Security Council would be "entirely in line with what the [IAEA] itself decided some time ago." In the U.S., Vice President Dick Cheney spoke harshly about the Iranian regime in an interview on Fox News, saying the next step would be to seek Security Council action, a move he said was still "speculative" because no decision to go to the United Nations had been made. President Bush, speaking in Kentucky, went out of his way to emphasize that the U.S. aimed to use diplomatic, rather than military, means to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem. "Obviously, the best way to deal with these kinds of threats is diplomatically. We're doing so in Iran," Bush said. "The military option is always the last option." On Tuesday, the IAEA, in its strongest language to date, voiced "serious concern" about Iran's action. Responding to the criticism from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and all five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, Ahmadinejad was adamant during a speech in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, according to news agency reports. He called Iran's critics "a group of bullies." Western countries discovered two years ago that Iran had been concealing the acquisition of technology and research for nuclear enrichment for nearly two decades. Iran would have been referred to the Security Council at that time, but in a compromise it agreed to suspend research while negotiating with the European countries about a permanent end to its program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits. Those talks have not resulted in a solution, and since the election of hard-liner Ahmadinejad as president in June, Iran has been moving with more determination to restart its program to enrich uranium, which it says is within its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. At the foreign ministers' meeting today, the EU-3 could decide to declare the diplomatic efforts exhausted. That move would open the way for the IAEA governing board to hold a meeting to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible economic sanctions. Experts agree that options are limited. Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has shown a willingness to pursue its own path despite trade embargoes and diplomatic isolation. Iran tends to regard itself as the key regional power in southwest Asia as well as a global leader of the Islamic world, with a status comparable to that of neighbors such as Israel, Pakistan and India, which have acquired nuclear capabilities. Although Iran disavows any interest in nuclear weapons, its leaders say it has as much right as any other country to acquire civilian nuclear power. It has doggedly continued construction of its first civilian nuclear power plant at Bushehr, scheduled to go online late this year, despite a decade of U.S. and British pressure against it. To the argument often raised by Western officials that oil-rich Iran had no need for nuclear power, Iranian officials reply that it would be beneficial to the economy because it would free up more oil and gas resources for hard-currency sale abroad. Privately, many Iranians have told reporters that they see no reason their nation should not have nuclear weapons too, as a matter of pride and as a deterrent against hostile action from the West or its neighbors. Others worry that the nuclear issue will cause a rift with the rest of the world and postpone normalization of Iran's international relations and thus is not worth the risk.
World powers threaten defiant Iran over N-crisis IranMania News
Ministers to call for emergency talks on Iran's nuclear plan Independent
Washington Post - International Herald Tribune - BBC News - Malaysia Star - all 2,092 related »
Blair says Tehran should face the Security Council for restarting uranium research. Europeans are to hold an emergency meeting today. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons. The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations. Such action would be a departure from the multilateral negotiations that Britain, France and Germany have been conducting with Iran for the last two years. "We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world," the British leader told Parliament. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a move to the Security Council was "more likely than ever." But in the face of global disapproval, Iran's senior leaders vowed not to be dissuaded by any possible U.N. action in response to its decision Tuesday to break seals placed on its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz two years ago by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The Iranian nation will continue its way decisively and wisely to obtain and use nuclear technology for civilian ends and has no fear at all of the fuss created by the big powers," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Iran informed the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, that it was resuming the nuclear research, although it said it would continue to allow its activities to be monitored by IAEA personnel. The government insisted that its activities were meant only to further a civilian nuclear power program. Western countries suspect Iran of seeking to master the enrichment process so it can build nuclear weapons. They are particularly concerned because of the recent election of Ahmadinejad, who is vehemently anti-Western and anti-Israel. The Iranian leader has repeatedly questioned Israel's right to exist in the Middle East. IAEA officials were told Iran was preparing a pilot program to use centrifuge cascades to treat uranium gas in a process that could yield small amounts of enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be used both in nuclear weapons and power plants. Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries that have been conducting talks with Iran on the nuclear issue, planned an emergency meeting today in Berlin with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said referring Iran to the Security Council would be at the top of the agenda. The Bush administration was skeptical about the talks between Iran and the so-called EU-3, preferring a more confrontational approach, but reversed course last year to allow the European talks to play out with U.S. backing. Now that those talks have come to an apparent dead end, the Security Council seems the logical next step, U.S. and European officials said. "The decision by Iran is very serious indeed. I don't think there is any point in us hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do," said Blair, speaking during the prime minister's weekly question session in the House of Commons. "When taken in conjunction with their other comments about the state of Israel, they cause real and serious alarm right across the world." Blair said that he was discussing the issue closely with the U.S. and European allies and that referring Iran to the Security Council would be "entirely in line with what the [IAEA] itself decided some time ago." In the U.S., Vice President Dick Cheney spoke harshly about the Iranian regime in an interview on Fox News, saying the next step would be to seek Security Council action, a move he said was still "speculative" because no decision to go to the United Nations had been made. President Bush, speaking in Kentucky, went out of his way to emphasize that the U.S. aimed to use diplomatic, rather than military, means to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem. "Obviously, the best way to deal with these kinds of threats is diplomatically. We're doing so in Iran," Bush said. "The military option is always the last option." On Tuesday, the IAEA, in its strongest language to date, voiced "serious concern" about Iran's action. Responding to the criticism from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and all five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, Ahmadinejad was adamant during a speech in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, according to news agency reports. He called Iran's critics "a group of bullies." Western countries discovered two years ago that Iran had been concealing the acquisition of technology and research for nuclear enrichment for nearly two decades. Iran would have been referred to the Security Council at that time, but in a compromise it agreed to suspend research while negotiating with the European countries about a permanent end to its program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits. Those talks have not resulted in a solution, and since the election of hard-liner Ahmadinejad as president in June, Iran has been moving with more determination to restart its program to enrich uranium, which it says is within its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. At the foreign ministers' meeting today, the EU-3 could decide to declare the diplomatic efforts exhausted. That move would open the way for the IAEA governing board to hold a meeting to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible economic sanctions. Experts agree that options are limited. Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has shown a willingness to pursue its own path despite trade embargoes and diplomatic isolation. Iran tends to regard itself as the key regional power in southwest Asia as well as a global leader of the Islamic world, with a status comparable to that of neighbors such as Israel, Pakistan and India, which have acquired nuclear capabilities. Although Iran disavows any interest in nuclear weapons, its leaders say it has as much right as any other country to acquire civilian nuclear power. It has doggedly continued construction of its first civilian nuclear power plant at Bushehr, scheduled to go online late this year, despite a decade of U.S. and British pressure against it. To the argument often raised by Western officials that oil-rich Iran had no need for nuclear power, Iranian officials reply that it would be beneficial to the economy because it would free up more oil and gas resources for hard-currency sale abroad. Privately, many Iranians have told reporters that they see no reason their nation should not have nuclear weapons too, as a matter of pride and as a deterrent against hostile action from the West or its neighbors. Others worry that the nuclear issue will cause a rift with the rest of the world and postpone normalization of Iran's international relations and thus is not worth the risk.
World powers threaten defiant Iran over N-crisis IranMania News
Ministers to call for emergency talks on Iran's nuclear plan Independent
Washington Post - International Herald Tribune - BBC News - Malaysia Star - all 2,092 related »
Russia Hardens Tone on Iran, Says Won’t Black US Efforts MOSNEWS
Russian officials have hardened their criticism of Iran’s decision to resume sensitive nuclear research but analysts said the comments did not signal a major change in Moscow’s position on the Iran nuclear standoff, the AFX news agency reports. Iran’s decision to resume nuclear research “personally disappoints me and gives some cause for alarm,” Russian news agencies quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying.The minister declined to speculate on whether the growing confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program would lead to action by the UN Security Council, but said things were not moving in a positive direction. “As a permanent UN Security Council member, Russia reserves the right to act according to the situation. But whatever the case may be, the situation is not developing in the most favorable way.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / Photo: AFP
Ivanov, who also holds the post of deputy prime minister, spoke as foreign ministers from the three main EU countries leading negotiations with Iran — the UK, France and Germany — prepared to meet Thursday in Berlin to discuss how to proceed on the crisis. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said it was “deeply disappointed” by Iran’s decision and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Tehran’s move a “cause for concern”. That was in sharp contrast to earlier announcements that have supported Iran’s right to a civilian atomic energy program. But Russian analysts said the apparent escalation in official rhetoric on Iran did not signal any major policy shift from Russia, which has argued against referring Tehran to the UN Security Council over the country’s controversial nuclear program. “It’s the first time that such a level of preoccupation is expressed but in my view it’s not a real public condemnation... It remains to be seen whether Russian policy will really change or if it’s only in words,” said Yevgeny Volk, director of the Heritage Foundation in Moscow. “There are too many financial interests of influential groups in the Russian elite linked to sales to Iran,” he continued. Russia has provided Iran with nuclear technology and is building Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr at a total cost estimated by observers at $1.2 billion. Iran on Tuesday announced the end of a two-year suspension of nuclear fuel research, escalating the long-running standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council. The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran’s resumption of sensitive nuclear work. Vice President Cheney and British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested Wednesday that Iran now faces the possibility of UN economic sanctions if it does not halt nuclear enrichment research it began Tuesday. According to three senior diplomats who were briefed on the call, Lavrov told Rice that Russia would abstain, rather than vote against U.S. efforts to move the issue from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Security Council. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed to reporters that Rice had spoken with Lavrov and other foreign ministers but did not divulge details. Russia’s pledge was good only for when a vote takes place inside the IAEA. U.S. officials said they remain uncertain as to how Moscow, a traditional ally of Iran’s, would react if the issue gets to the Security Council, where Moscow is one of five countries with veto power. Still, Bush administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity saw the Russian decision as a victory and said they would spend the next several weeks lobbying China for a similar commitment. “We spent much of our time working on the Russians, but we’re now moving the focus to China,” said one administration official who would only discuss the backroom diplomacy on the condition of anonymity. The White House is hoping the IAEA board will refer Iran’s case to the Security Council before President Bush delivers the State of the Union address at the end of the month, according to two senior administration officials. Four years ago, in his annual address, Bush referred to Iran as one of three “axis of evil” countries, along with Iraq and North Korea. But his administration has been criticized by friends and opponents for failing to come up with a strategy to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel `can destroy` Iran nukes Monsters and Critics.com
Iran defies Western nations over nuclear plans CBC News
CTV.ca - Los Angeles Times - Scotsman - Malaysia Star - all 2,096 related »
Russian officials have hardened their criticism of Iran’s decision to resume sensitive nuclear research but analysts said the comments did not signal a major change in Moscow’s position on the Iran nuclear standoff, the AFX news agency reports. Iran’s decision to resume nuclear research “personally disappoints me and gives some cause for alarm,” Russian news agencies quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying.The minister declined to speculate on whether the growing confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program would lead to action by the UN Security Council, but said things were not moving in a positive direction. “As a permanent UN Security Council member, Russia reserves the right to act according to the situation. But whatever the case may be, the situation is not developing in the most favorable way.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / Photo: AFP
Ivanov, who also holds the post of deputy prime minister, spoke as foreign ministers from the three main EU countries leading negotiations with Iran — the UK, France and Germany — prepared to meet Thursday in Berlin to discuss how to proceed on the crisis. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said it was “deeply disappointed” by Iran’s decision and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Tehran’s move a “cause for concern”. That was in sharp contrast to earlier announcements that have supported Iran’s right to a civilian atomic energy program. But Russian analysts said the apparent escalation in official rhetoric on Iran did not signal any major policy shift from Russia, which has argued against referring Tehran to the UN Security Council over the country’s controversial nuclear program. “It’s the first time that such a level of preoccupation is expressed but in my view it’s not a real public condemnation... It remains to be seen whether Russian policy will really change or if it’s only in words,” said Yevgeny Volk, director of the Heritage Foundation in Moscow. “There are too many financial interests of influential groups in the Russian elite linked to sales to Iran,” he continued. Russia has provided Iran with nuclear technology and is building Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr at a total cost estimated by observers at $1.2 billion. Iran on Tuesday announced the end of a two-year suspension of nuclear fuel research, escalating the long-running standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council. The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran’s resumption of sensitive nuclear work. Vice President Cheney and British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested Wednesday that Iran now faces the possibility of UN economic sanctions if it does not halt nuclear enrichment research it began Tuesday. According to three senior diplomats who were briefed on the call, Lavrov told Rice that Russia would abstain, rather than vote against U.S. efforts to move the issue from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Security Council. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed to reporters that Rice had spoken with Lavrov and other foreign ministers but did not divulge details. Russia’s pledge was good only for when a vote takes place inside the IAEA. U.S. officials said they remain uncertain as to how Moscow, a traditional ally of Iran’s, would react if the issue gets to the Security Council, where Moscow is one of five countries with veto power. Still, Bush administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity saw the Russian decision as a victory and said they would spend the next several weeks lobbying China for a similar commitment. “We spent much of our time working on the Russians, but we’re now moving the focus to China,” said one administration official who would only discuss the backroom diplomacy on the condition of anonymity. The White House is hoping the IAEA board will refer Iran’s case to the Security Council before President Bush delivers the State of the Union address at the end of the month, according to two senior administration officials. Four years ago, in his annual address, Bush referred to Iran as one of three “axis of evil” countries, along with Iraq and North Korea. But his administration has been criticized by friends and opponents for failing to come up with a strategy to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel `can destroy` Iran nukes Monsters and Critics.com
Iran defies Western nations over nuclear plans CBC News
CTV.ca - Los Angeles Times - Scotsman - Malaysia Star - all 2,096 related »
The Bush Who Cried Wolf
Robert Dreyfuss
January 12, 2006
Robert Dreyfuss is the author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books, 2005). Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone.He can be reached through his website: www.robertdreyfuss.com.
The deteriorating international crisis over Iran is a direct result of the Bush’s administration’s ham-handed and mendacious Iraq policy.
Under normal circumstances—that is, under any previous U.S. administration—the battle over Iran’s pugnacious effort in pursuit of nuclear technology would be amenable to a diplomatic solution. But, by insisting on a national security strategy of pre-emptive war, by illegally and unilaterally invading Iraq on false pretenses, and by hinting that the White House would tolerate an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear plants, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have made a successful diplomatic resolution of the Iran crisis nearly impossible.
Speaking yesterday at the Council for National Policy, Larry Wilkerson—the former top aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell who caused a stir last fall when he accused Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld of operating a “cabal” —said that it is likely that Pentagon officials are polishing contingency plans for a strike against Iran. Iran, said Wilkerson, is the “principal winner” from the war in Iraq. As a result of the power of the Shiite religious forces in Iraq, he said, the Iranians “own the south” of Iraq. Wilkerson insisted that the United States ought to “talk to the people who really matter in Iran”—i.e., to the ayatollahs. But he said that U.S. policy has failed so utterly that the door to negotiations with Iran is virtually closed. “When you close the door to diplomacy, you have no other option but to rely on military power,” he said. “I hope to hell we don’t have to use it.”
Without diplomatic tools, the looming showdown with Iran is potentially even more dangerous than the Iraq war. Iran is a far larger and more complex country, with the capability of retaliating against a U.S./Israeli attack by fomenting civil war in Iraq, by creating regional chaos in the Gulf, and by mobilizing its significant international terrorist capability against Western targets.
As it did in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration—along with Israel—is content to exaggerate the threat from Iran. The ayatollahs appear to be at least five years or more away from a serious nuclear capacity, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Iran’s recent decision to restart one part of its nuclear research is indeed a serious threat to diplomatic talks aimed at resolving the matter peacefully. But the issue is nowhere near an end-game stage. There is plenty of time, years in fact, for a back-and-forth effort to secure Iran's compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
By crying wolf over Iraq, through claiming that Saddam Hussein’s regime had an active nuclear arms program, the United States lacks credibility when it now asserts that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. And by its illegal, unilateral invasion of Iraq, without allowing the U.N. and the IAEA to proceed with inspections there, the United States has made other countries extremely wary of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council, out of fear that it might give the United States or Israel a pretext to attack Iran unilaterally.
But the international community’s justified fear that the United States is controlled by a war party seeking to attack Iran makes other states’ diplomacy even harder. Normally, the five U.N. Security Council powers would take up the matter with some urgency, adopt a resolution demanding Iran compliance, and threaten political and economic sanctions against Iran for non-compliance. But Moscow, Beijing and Paris remember what happened in Iraq. That matter was taken to the UNSC, a resolution passed—and then Washington declared unilaterally that Iraq had violated it, and went to war. So the world’s capitals may be forgiven for being reluctant to drag Iran into the UNSC in 2006.
The fact that John Bolton, the belligerent, war-mongering neoconservative who serves as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., takes over as president of the Security Council in February doesn’t help.
Bolton, Cheney and their allies are pushing for a showdown in the UNSC, even though it is highly unlikely that either Russia or China would support anti-Iran sanctions. India, the Arab League and other countries would strongly oppose such measures. And even Western Europe, furious over Iran for its latest effrontery, doesn’t view sanctions on Iran as a happy outcome. Their resistance to anti-Iran measures comes despite a string of outrageous provocations from Iranian President Ahmadinejad, from demanding that Israel be “wiped off the map” to pooh-poohing the Holocaust to haughtily restarting Iran's nuclear research.
It is impossible to deny that Iran is a dangerous, out-of-control regime—yes, a “rogue” regime. But, had the Bush administration maintained a consistent policy of seeking a dialogue with Iran, had the neocons refrained from demanding regime change and military action, had President Bush not referred to Iran as part of a mythical “axis of evil,” and had the United States not immensely strengthened Iran’s position by handing it Iraq on a silver platter, diplomacy would stand a better chance. A package deal, giving Iran political acceptance and economic incentives, combined with a regulated nuclear technology regime, in exchange for Iran’s backing down from its hardline stance, could likely have been reached over time. It may still, but it seems highly unlikely now.
So we are left with persistent reports that both the United States and Israel are planning to strike Iran, and soon. Not only would such an attack result in a vastly wider conflict in Iran, Iraq and the Gulf, but it would also probably push oil prices well over $100 a barrel, making $5-a-gallon gas a reality. Perhaps, because the international community wants to avoid such a catastrophe, and because the United States is exerting enormous pressure on Russia, China and other world powers, first the IAEA and then the UNSC might vote to sanction Iran. If so, Iran will certainly not back down. And as a result, the United States will have the pretext it seeks to go to war once again.
Some Democrats—and even a fair number of moderate and libertarian Republicans—expect the November 2006 elections to take place against the backdrop of a failed occupation of Iraq. Instead, those same elections might take place in the midst of yet another crisis manufactured by the Bush administration.
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Robert Dreyfuss
January 12, 2006
Robert Dreyfuss is the author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books, 2005). Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone.He can be reached through his website: www.robertdreyfuss.com.
The deteriorating international crisis over Iran is a direct result of the Bush’s administration’s ham-handed and mendacious Iraq policy.
Under normal circumstances—that is, under any previous U.S. administration—the battle over Iran’s pugnacious effort in pursuit of nuclear technology would be amenable to a diplomatic solution. But, by insisting on a national security strategy of pre-emptive war, by illegally and unilaterally invading Iraq on false pretenses, and by hinting that the White House would tolerate an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear plants, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have made a successful diplomatic resolution of the Iran crisis nearly impossible.
Speaking yesterday at the Council for National Policy, Larry Wilkerson—the former top aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell who caused a stir last fall when he accused Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld of operating a “cabal” —said that it is likely that Pentagon officials are polishing contingency plans for a strike against Iran. Iran, said Wilkerson, is the “principal winner” from the war in Iraq. As a result of the power of the Shiite religious forces in Iraq, he said, the Iranians “own the south” of Iraq. Wilkerson insisted that the United States ought to “talk to the people who really matter in Iran”—i.e., to the ayatollahs. But he said that U.S. policy has failed so utterly that the door to negotiations with Iran is virtually closed. “When you close the door to diplomacy, you have no other option but to rely on military power,” he said. “I hope to hell we don’t have to use it.”
Without diplomatic tools, the looming showdown with Iran is potentially even more dangerous than the Iraq war. Iran is a far larger and more complex country, with the capability of retaliating against a U.S./Israeli attack by fomenting civil war in Iraq, by creating regional chaos in the Gulf, and by mobilizing its significant international terrorist capability against Western targets.
As it did in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration—along with Israel—is content to exaggerate the threat from Iran. The ayatollahs appear to be at least five years or more away from a serious nuclear capacity, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Iran’s recent decision to restart one part of its nuclear research is indeed a serious threat to diplomatic talks aimed at resolving the matter peacefully. But the issue is nowhere near an end-game stage. There is plenty of time, years in fact, for a back-and-forth effort to secure Iran's compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
By crying wolf over Iraq, through claiming that Saddam Hussein’s regime had an active nuclear arms program, the United States lacks credibility when it now asserts that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. And by its illegal, unilateral invasion of Iraq, without allowing the U.N. and the IAEA to proceed with inspections there, the United States has made other countries extremely wary of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council, out of fear that it might give the United States or Israel a pretext to attack Iran unilaterally.
But the international community’s justified fear that the United States is controlled by a war party seeking to attack Iran makes other states’ diplomacy even harder. Normally, the five U.N. Security Council powers would take up the matter with some urgency, adopt a resolution demanding Iran compliance, and threaten political and economic sanctions against Iran for non-compliance. But Moscow, Beijing and Paris remember what happened in Iraq. That matter was taken to the UNSC, a resolution passed—and then Washington declared unilaterally that Iraq had violated it, and went to war. So the world’s capitals may be forgiven for being reluctant to drag Iran into the UNSC in 2006.
The fact that John Bolton, the belligerent, war-mongering neoconservative who serves as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., takes over as president of the Security Council in February doesn’t help.
Bolton, Cheney and their allies are pushing for a showdown in the UNSC, even though it is highly unlikely that either Russia or China would support anti-Iran sanctions. India, the Arab League and other countries would strongly oppose such measures. And even Western Europe, furious over Iran for its latest effrontery, doesn’t view sanctions on Iran as a happy outcome. Their resistance to anti-Iran measures comes despite a string of outrageous provocations from Iranian President Ahmadinejad, from demanding that Israel be “wiped off the map” to pooh-poohing the Holocaust to haughtily restarting Iran's nuclear research.
It is impossible to deny that Iran is a dangerous, out-of-control regime—yes, a “rogue” regime. But, had the Bush administration maintained a consistent policy of seeking a dialogue with Iran, had the neocons refrained from demanding regime change and military action, had President Bush not referred to Iran as part of a mythical “axis of evil,” and had the United States not immensely strengthened Iran’s position by handing it Iraq on a silver platter, diplomacy would stand a better chance. A package deal, giving Iran political acceptance and economic incentives, combined with a regulated nuclear technology regime, in exchange for Iran’s backing down from its hardline stance, could likely have been reached over time. It may still, but it seems highly unlikely now.
So we are left with persistent reports that both the United States and Israel are planning to strike Iran, and soon. Not only would such an attack result in a vastly wider conflict in Iran, Iraq and the Gulf, but it would also probably push oil prices well over $100 a barrel, making $5-a-gallon gas a reality. Perhaps, because the international community wants to avoid such a catastrophe, and because the United States is exerting enormous pressure on Russia, China and other world powers, first the IAEA and then the UNSC might vote to sanction Iran. If so, Iran will certainly not back down. And as a result, the United States will have the pretext it seeks to go to war once again.
Some Democrats—and even a fair number of moderate and libertarian Republicans—expect the November 2006 elections to take place against the backdrop of a failed occupation of Iraq. Instead, those same elections might take place in the midst of yet another crisis manufactured by the Bush administration.
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Russia Won't Block U.S. on Iran
(Dafna Linzer, Washington Post)
Thursday, January 12
The Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, American and European officials said yesterday.
The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran's resumption of sensitive nuclear work.
According to three senior diplomats who were briefed on the call, Lavrov told Rice that Russia would abstain, rather than vote against U.S. efforts to move the issue from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Security Council. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed to reporters that Rice had spoken with Lavrov and other foreign ministers but did not divulge details.
Iran Nuclear Issue Moves Toward U.N.
(John Daniszewski, Los Angeles Times)
Thursday, January 12
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons.
The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations. Such action would be a departure from the multilateral negotiations that Britain, France and Germany have been conducting with Iran for the last two years.
"We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world," the British leader told Parliament.
Iran's Nuclear Decision Starts Shock Wave
(Carla Anne Robbins and David Crawford, Wall Street Journal)
Wednesday, January 11
After breaking the seals on its once-secret nuclear facility at Natanz, Iran has now set the stage for a long-threatened showdown with Europe and the U.S.
The move brings Tehran an important step closer to producing nuclear fuel either for power plants or, as some U.S. and European officials fear, nuclear weapons. It also poses a critical test of Europe's decision to try negotiation with Iran first, rather than confrontation, to wean the country of its nuclear ambitions -- and a test of the Bush administration's wary support of that effort.
European and American officials said yesterday that they expect their governments in the next few days to call for an emergency session of the International Atomic Energy Agency board, and then demand a referral of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council.
Security Council Must Curb Iran
(George Perkovich, International Herald Tribune - opinion)
Wednesday, January 11
I went to college with a guy who walked into the local police station one night and asked the cop behind the desk to arrest him. The cop asked why, and the guy said he was hearing voices and afraid he was going to do something really bad. The cop said he couldn't arrest the guy, because he hadn't broken a law. So the guy went outside, picked up a big rock and heaved it through the window.
Iran under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is behaving so provocatively that it is asking the global community to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. The enforcers of nuclear nonproliferation rules are determined to look the other way. This is dangerous for the world and for Iran. It's time for the UN Security Council to do its job.
Investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported in November 2003 that Iran had been developing an undeclared uranium enrichment program for 18 years, had covertly imported nuclear material and equipment, carried out 113 unreported experiments to produce uranium metal, separated plutonium and concealed many other aspects of its nuclear activities.
(Dafna Linzer, Washington Post)
Thursday, January 12
The Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, American and European officials said yesterday.
The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran's resumption of sensitive nuclear work.
According to three senior diplomats who were briefed on the call, Lavrov told Rice that Russia would abstain, rather than vote against U.S. efforts to move the issue from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Security Council. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed to reporters that Rice had spoken with Lavrov and other foreign ministers but did not divulge details.
Iran Nuclear Issue Moves Toward U.N.
(John Daniszewski, Los Angeles Times)
Thursday, January 12
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Iran should be brought before the U.N. Security Council for defying the international community and resuming research on enriching uranium, a move some Western leaders fear is a step toward the construction of nuclear weapons.
The statement came as the United States and its chief European allies seemed to be moving toward agreement to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the United Nations. Such action would be a departure from the multilateral negotiations that Britain, France and Germany have been conducting with Iran for the last two years.
"We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world," the British leader told Parliament.
Iran's Nuclear Decision Starts Shock Wave
(Carla Anne Robbins and David Crawford, Wall Street Journal)
Wednesday, January 11
After breaking the seals on its once-secret nuclear facility at Natanz, Iran has now set the stage for a long-threatened showdown with Europe and the U.S.
The move brings Tehran an important step closer to producing nuclear fuel either for power plants or, as some U.S. and European officials fear, nuclear weapons. It also poses a critical test of Europe's decision to try negotiation with Iran first, rather than confrontation, to wean the country of its nuclear ambitions -- and a test of the Bush administration's wary support of that effort.
European and American officials said yesterday that they expect their governments in the next few days to call for an emergency session of the International Atomic Energy Agency board, and then demand a referral of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council.
Security Council Must Curb Iran
(George Perkovich, International Herald Tribune - opinion)
Wednesday, January 11
I went to college with a guy who walked into the local police station one night and asked the cop behind the desk to arrest him. The cop asked why, and the guy said he was hearing voices and afraid he was going to do something really bad. The cop said he couldn't arrest the guy, because he hadn't broken a law. So the guy went outside, picked up a big rock and heaved it through the window.
Iran under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is behaving so provocatively that it is asking the global community to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. The enforcers of nuclear nonproliferation rules are determined to look the other way. This is dangerous for the world and for Iran. It's time for the UN Security Council to do its job.
Investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported in November 2003 that Iran had been developing an undeclared uranium enrichment program for 18 years, had covertly imported nuclear material and equipment, carried out 113 unreported experiments to produce uranium metal, separated plutonium and concealed many other aspects of its nuclear activities.
Europeans Want U.N. to Act on Iran's Nuclear Activities
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
BERLIN, Jan. 12 - Saying that negotiations had reached a dead end, France, Germany and Britain announced today that they wanted the United Nations Security Council to look into Iran's nuclear development activities, adding new pressure on Iran to reverse its decision to do research that could develop the technology to create nuclear weapons.
"From our point of view, the time has come for the U.N. Security Council to become involved," the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said at a news conference after meeting here with his French and British counterparts and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. They were reacting to Iran's decision to resume experiments at a nuclear enrichment plant in Natanz.
In Moscow, the Russia foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the Kremlin was putting a heavy premium on Iran's compliance with international regulations on nuclear development.
Mr. Lavrov said that Russia, the three European Union countries, the United States and China would meet in London next week to discuss the situation surrounding Iranian nuclear development.
"Iran has removed the seals from a uranium enrichment plant and therefore urgent consultations are needed," Mr. Lavrov said, according to the Interfax News Agency.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice predicted that Iran would be referred to the Security Council, saying that "a very important threshold has been crossed."
Iran, Ms. Rice said, was now in "dangerous defiance of the entire international community."
Asked whether Russia and China would, within the Security Council, support a strong approach to Iran, she noted that both countries had warned Iran not to restart nuclear research, and once it said it would resume experiments, had made their views known to Tehran.
Iranian officials expressed anger at the Europeans even before they announced their plans to turn to the Security Council. "Colonial taboos" will not keep Iran from developing its nuclear abilities, Iran's former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, told the state-run radio. Mr. Rafsanjani, who now heads the powerful Expediency Council, also said that the standoff with the West "has reached its climax," according to The Associated Press.
The foreign ministers meeting in Berlin also called for a later session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which has carried out inspections of Iran's activities over the last two years and has the authority to refer the Iranian matter to the Security Council.
The decision of the three European countries marks a new phase in the diplomatic effort, begun in 2003 by Britain, France and Germany, to persuade Iran to give up an effort that the United States and Europe believe is aimed at making Iran a nuclear weapons power.
Iran says that its nuclear activities are aimed only at generating electricity, but this claim is disputed by the Americans and many Europeans, who cite some 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity by Iran and, since that activity was discovered, an unwillingness to provide I.A.E.A. inspectors with much of the information they have asked for.
The talks between the European Union and Iran have gone through several phases, some of them hopeful, as when Iran signed an additional protocol to the nonproliferation treaty, which greatly increased the inspectors' right to probe undisclosed sites where nuclear activity is suspected. But in recent months, the negotiations have foundered on Iran's insistence that it has the right to develop nuclear fuel on its own soil.
In August, violating an agreement with the Europeans to suspend all nuclear activity as long as negotiations were continuing, Iran resumed converting uranium at a plant in Isfahan, leading the Europeans to suspend the negotiations.
In the past few weeks, the Iranians rejected a Russian proposal by which Iranian uranium would be enriched in Russia and re-exported to Iran. The Europeans had hoped the idea would bring new momentum to the negotiations.
Then, this week, Iran broke I.A.E.A. seals on a research plant in Natanz, where experts believe they have conducted experiments in the past on uranium enrichment. Under that process, uranium that has been converted into a gas is purified into a material that can generate electricity or, at a higher level of purification, build a bomb.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Iran, is in a pivotal position, being both a member of the Security Council with veto power and a country that has lucrative energy deals with Iran that would presumably be at risk if the Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Iran.
"What is most important for us in this situation is not our bilateral relations, our investments in the Iranian economy or our economic profit from cooperation with Iran," Mr. Lavrov said, in Moscow. "The highest priority for us in this situation is the prevention of the violation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime."
He added, "Until we make sure that we have averted this threat, we cannot look calmly at what is going on."
Earlier today, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported that the Russians committed themselves, in conversations with Secretary of State Rice, to abstain on a Security Council referral by the I.A.E.A. and not to veto it.
Mr. Rice said today that she thought it was quite possible the Iranian government had miscalculated the depths of international condemnation. "I would hope that now, seeing the very powerful reaction of the international community," she said, "that Iran would take a step back and look at the isolation that it is about to experience."
If not, the secretary said, it should be abundantly clear to a country whose president has made threats about destroying Israel that any thoughts of aggression would face the firmest of reactions.
"There are many deterrents to Iran trying to carry out any kind of activity against its neighbors or against others in the region," Ms. Rice said. "And I think that they're probably not confused on that point."
Last fall, the I.A.E.A. board of governors formally found that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. But even then the Europeans, with the consent of the United States, delayed asking the organization to send the matter to the Security Council, hoping either that Iran would reverse course or else that a move to increase pressure on Iran could gain greater international support.
"It's a very gradual approach, in order to send the clearest message possible to Iran," said a European diplomat privy to the discussions here. "We need to have as much support as possible from the international community, including such key players as China and Russia and important non-aligned countries, like Brazil, South Africa and India.
"An approach that has the support of all countries is the best one to tell the Iranians that the path that they have chosen is the wrong one," the diplomat said.
Diplomats said the next step would be a series of intense consultations, beginning next week with the meeting in London and soon extended to include some of the non-aligned countries, leading to a meeting of the I.A.E.A. in early February.
Once the matter is before the Security Council, the United States will undoubtedly press for economic sanctions against Iran. But European diplomats have said that a more moderate approach is also possible, beginning perhaps with a resolution calling on Iran to do what it has failed to do until now: provide full access to its nuclear plants to I.A.E.A. inspectors, and also to make a full accounting of the work it has done until now, including the work it carried out during the 18 years when its program was clandestine.
The Europeans have long been wary of moving quickly to sanctions, on the ground that they might have the effect of hurting ordinary Iranians without stopping Iranian nuclear development.
In addition, sanctions would send the cost of crude oil even higher, impos
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
BERLIN, Jan. 12 - Saying that negotiations had reached a dead end, France, Germany and Britain announced today that they wanted the United Nations Security Council to look into Iran's nuclear development activities, adding new pressure on Iran to reverse its decision to do research that could develop the technology to create nuclear weapons.
"From our point of view, the time has come for the U.N. Security Council to become involved," the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said at a news conference after meeting here with his French and British counterparts and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. They were reacting to Iran's decision to resume experiments at a nuclear enrichment plant in Natanz.
In Moscow, the Russia foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the Kremlin was putting a heavy premium on Iran's compliance with international regulations on nuclear development.
Mr. Lavrov said that Russia, the three European Union countries, the United States and China would meet in London next week to discuss the situation surrounding Iranian nuclear development.
"Iran has removed the seals from a uranium enrichment plant and therefore urgent consultations are needed," Mr. Lavrov said, according to the Interfax News Agency.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice predicted that Iran would be referred to the Security Council, saying that "a very important threshold has been crossed."
Iran, Ms. Rice said, was now in "dangerous defiance of the entire international community."
Asked whether Russia and China would, within the Security Council, support a strong approach to Iran, she noted that both countries had warned Iran not to restart nuclear research, and once it said it would resume experiments, had made their views known to Tehran.
Iranian officials expressed anger at the Europeans even before they announced their plans to turn to the Security Council. "Colonial taboos" will not keep Iran from developing its nuclear abilities, Iran's former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, told the state-run radio. Mr. Rafsanjani, who now heads the powerful Expediency Council, also said that the standoff with the West "has reached its climax," according to The Associated Press.
The foreign ministers meeting in Berlin also called for a later session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which has carried out inspections of Iran's activities over the last two years and has the authority to refer the Iranian matter to the Security Council.
The decision of the three European countries marks a new phase in the diplomatic effort, begun in 2003 by Britain, France and Germany, to persuade Iran to give up an effort that the United States and Europe believe is aimed at making Iran a nuclear weapons power.
Iran says that its nuclear activities are aimed only at generating electricity, but this claim is disputed by the Americans and many Europeans, who cite some 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity by Iran and, since that activity was discovered, an unwillingness to provide I.A.E.A. inspectors with much of the information they have asked for.
The talks between the European Union and Iran have gone through several phases, some of them hopeful, as when Iran signed an additional protocol to the nonproliferation treaty, which greatly increased the inspectors' right to probe undisclosed sites where nuclear activity is suspected. But in recent months, the negotiations have foundered on Iran's insistence that it has the right to develop nuclear fuel on its own soil.
In August, violating an agreement with the Europeans to suspend all nuclear activity as long as negotiations were continuing, Iran resumed converting uranium at a plant in Isfahan, leading the Europeans to suspend the negotiations.
In the past few weeks, the Iranians rejected a Russian proposal by which Iranian uranium would be enriched in Russia and re-exported to Iran. The Europeans had hoped the idea would bring new momentum to the negotiations.
Then, this week, Iran broke I.A.E.A. seals on a research plant in Natanz, where experts believe they have conducted experiments in the past on uranium enrichment. Under that process, uranium that has been converted into a gas is purified into a material that can generate electricity or, at a higher level of purification, build a bomb.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Iran, is in a pivotal position, being both a member of the Security Council with veto power and a country that has lucrative energy deals with Iran that would presumably be at risk if the Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Iran.
"What is most important for us in this situation is not our bilateral relations, our investments in the Iranian economy or our economic profit from cooperation with Iran," Mr. Lavrov said, in Moscow. "The highest priority for us in this situation is the prevention of the violation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime."
He added, "Until we make sure that we have averted this threat, we cannot look calmly at what is going on."
Earlier today, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported that the Russians committed themselves, in conversations with Secretary of State Rice, to abstain on a Security Council referral by the I.A.E.A. and not to veto it.
Mr. Rice said today that she thought it was quite possible the Iranian government had miscalculated the depths of international condemnation. "I would hope that now, seeing the very powerful reaction of the international community," she said, "that Iran would take a step back and look at the isolation that it is about to experience."
If not, the secretary said, it should be abundantly clear to a country whose president has made threats about destroying Israel that any thoughts of aggression would face the firmest of reactions.
"There are many deterrents to Iran trying to carry out any kind of activity against its neighbors or against others in the region," Ms. Rice said. "And I think that they're probably not confused on that point."
Last fall, the I.A.E.A. board of governors formally found that Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. But even then the Europeans, with the consent of the United States, delayed asking the organization to send the matter to the Security Council, hoping either that Iran would reverse course or else that a move to increase pressure on Iran could gain greater international support.
"It's a very gradual approach, in order to send the clearest message possible to Iran," said a European diplomat privy to the discussions here. "We need to have as much support as possible from the international community, including such key players as China and Russia and important non-aligned countries, like Brazil, South Africa and India.
"An approach that has the support of all countries is the best one to tell the Iranians that the path that they have chosen is the wrong one," the diplomat said.
Diplomats said the next step would be a series of intense consultations, beginning next week with the meeting in London and soon extended to include some of the non-aligned countries, leading to a meeting of the I.A.E.A. in early February.
Once the matter is before the Security Council, the United States will undoubtedly press for economic sanctions against Iran. But European diplomats have said that a more moderate approach is also possible, beginning perhaps with a resolution calling on Iran to do what it has failed to do until now: provide full access to its nuclear plants to I.A.E.A. inspectors, and also to make a full accounting of the work it has done until now, including the work it carried out during the 18 years when its program was clandestine.
The Europeans have long been wary of moving quickly to sanctions, on the ground that they might have the effect of hurting ordinary Iranians without stopping Iranian nuclear development.
In addition, sanctions would send the cost of crude oil even higher, impos