http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews....IRAN-MCCAIN.xml


McCain warns Russia, China on Iran
Fri Apr 28, 2006 3:54pm ET

BUSSELS (Reuters) - A leading U.S. senator warned Russia and China on Friday of damage to their relationship with the United States if they refused to go along with sanctions against Iran.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona told a Brussels conference that Iran's nuclear program posed the greatest security threat to the world alongside terrorism.

The U.N. Security Council should impose sanctions including an investment ban, a travel ban and asset freezes on government leaders and nuclear scientists, McCain said.

Asked what consequences there would be if Moscow and Beijing blocked such a move, he told reporters: "Clearly it's going to affect many areas of cooperation between our two countries.

"There will be a reaction in the U.S. Congress."

McCain, a potential White House contender in 2008, said he could not be specific that the areas affected could include trade.

The world's nuclear watchdog said on Friday Iran had flouted a U.N. Security Council call to suspend uranium enrichment and was speeding up its program instead, spurring Western powers to urge tougher U.N. action.

President Bush said he wanted peaceful persuasion to prevail. Iran's president has vowed to spurn any U.N. resolution to stop its professed quest for fuel for atomic power stations -- a front for bomb-making in Western eyes.

McCain said the United States must not rule out military action against Iran as a last resort, saying: There's only one thing worse than military action and that's a nuclear-armed Iran." Continued...

McCain did not rule out the possibility of direct U.S. talks with Tehran or Washington's involvement in multilateral negotiations with Iran.

He said Bush had made clear he would explore every possible option and that could include "six-party talks, four-party talks, two-party talks."

McCain added he was not trying to tell the administration what to do.

He said that military action would be very complicated but the United States could not risk a nuclear Iran exterminating Israel.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Lemmeseenow...

China has 1.3 Billion people, 800 billion US Dollars, the world's most modern factories (making everything from DVD players to cars). China needs oil.

Russia has obsolete factories, rusting in the heartland of a former empire. Russia has oil but needs help extracting it. China has lots of engineers.

Iran has oil, but needs modern consumer goods. Iran has a lot of engineers.

What, other than a lot of hot air, has McCain got?

Ahmadinejad says Iran's nuclear programme irreversible Monsters and Critics.com
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday termed Iran's decision to pursue its nuclear programmes as irreversible. 'The decision by Iran to pursue nuclear technology and produce nuclear fuel in line with all international commitments is legal and irreversible,' Ahmadinejad said on state television in a first reaction to Friday's report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. 'We will not accept any discrimination, this (uranium enrichment) is our Red Line which we will not allow to be trespassed by anybody,' he added. He termed the current phase as a 'test' for international bodies such as the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency and called on the UN not to let its international credit being darkened by superpowers. 'The UN can ask us to remove whatever remaining ambiguities but not deprive us from the whole (nuclear) technology,' Ahmadinejad said. Ahmadinejad called on the West to respect the will and right of the Iranian nation and allow the Iran case being returned to the IAEA. The deputy of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said earlier Saturday that Iran will present the IAEA within the next three weeks a new plan for settling the nuclear dispute, Mohammad Saeidi said in an interview with the news network Khabar that the main condition for starting the new plan would however be maintaining the Iranian nuclear case within the IAEA and not the United Nations Security Council. Saeidi said that within the plan Iran would also resume voluntary implementation of the IAEA Additional Protocol and renewed snap IAEA inspections of Iran's nuclear sites but continue nuclear enrichment for research purposes. Saeidi had said on Friday night that the eight-page report from IAEA chief ElBaradei contained 'no negative aspects' and once again showed that the IAEA still had the potential to deal with the Iranian nuclear case and that involvement of the UN Security Council was the 'totally wrong way.' The Iranian official claimed that ElBaradei would also welcome the Iranian case being evaluated within the IAEA and not the Security Council. 'The report was of course not very satisfactory and could have been better but our new plan could be the most suitable way to settle the dispute in a diplomatic way - under the condition however that some countries stop their stubborn approach,' Saeidi said. He termed the Security Council demand from Iran to stop the enrichment process as illegal and contrary to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and therefore not able to be implemented. He stressed that also the differences over the P-1 and P-2 devices and the nuclear pollution mentioned in ElBaradei's report have been settled with the IAEA by almost 80 per cent. Saeidi however noted that the remaining differences are related to issues going beyond Iranian borders, referring to Pakistan from where Iran had purchased the devices. 'We are currently using only P-1 devices in our uranium enrichment process but we have already told the IAEA that it would be inevitable to use the most progressive devices to accelerate the enrichment process,' the Iranian official said. He added that the research phase of the enrichment process in the Natanz plant in central Iran was continuing within a 164 centrifuge-cascade and at a 3.6 per cent level but Iran planned to expand the cascades to 3000 centrifuges within one year. 'This would enable us the start of the initial phase of industrial enrichment,' Saeidi said while stressing that the Natanz plant has just recently been inspected again by the IAEA.
Iran moves to prevent sanctions by allowing nuclear inspections Irish Examiner
Iran nuclear face-off nears Seattle Times
CBC News - Winston-Salem Journal - BBC News - ABC News - all 1,904 related »