Iran 'ready to give up enrichment'

From correspondents in Washington
25may06
http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,19250729%255E1702,00.html

IRAN is ready to give up uranium enrichment on its territory for several years as part of a deal to allay Western fears over its nuclear program, the chief UN nuclear watchdog said today.

But Mohamed ElBaradei, who met in Vienna last week with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said the question of Tehran's sensitive atomic research activities was still under discussion.

Mr ElBaradei was speaking to reporters in Washington after conferring with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Western efforts to rein in Iran's suspected bid to develop a nuclear bomb.

Iran has publicly insisted on its right to enrich uranium on its soil. Yet Mr ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), suggested Tehran's position was more flexible.

"The Iranians, as far as I know, agreed in principle that for a number of years (uranium) enrichment should be part of an international consortium outside of Iran," he said.

He said the Iranians told him that once negotiations resumed on their nuclear program, they were ready to apply the "additional protocol" to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty aimed at tightening inspections.

"There is still this issue of Iran doing R and D (research and development) with regards to enrichment and that's an issue still being discussed," Mr ElBaradei said.

Mr ElBaradei, who sat down in Vienna last week with senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, said he briefed Rice on Tehran's position "which is rather different than the US point of view".

The IAEA chief spoke as senior officials of six world powers met in London to hammer out a new carrot-and-stick approach to persuade Iran to abandon any attempt to make nuclear arms.

The strategy would combine technology, economic and other incentives for Iran with the threat of an arms embargo and other sanctions if the Islamic republic defied a UN injunction to halt enrichment.

Mr ElBaradei has called for more direct US involvement in the discussions with Iran, which so far have been led by US allies Britain, France and Germany, but said it was up to Washington what role it chooses to take.

He did, however, reiterate his call for the Americans to take part in an effort to provide Iran with security guarantees as part of an eventual deal.

"At a certain point, if the negotiations were to move in the right direction, particularly when the discussion of security issues were to start, I would hope that the US will be able to join that," Mr ElBaradei said.

Iran Accuses U.S. of 'Hatching Plots'

May 25, 2006
The Wall Street Journal
News Roundup

link to original article

The White House brushed aside the idea of direct talks with Iran, repeating that the country has to stop enriching uranium before any other "opportunities" arise. The comments came as President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met, discussing Iran among other issues.

"We still believe that Iran has to take that fundamental step when it comes to enriching and reprocessing uranium -- they've got to suspend all activities," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "Until they do that, there is going to be no change in the administration's posture and the president's posture when it comes to one-on-one negotiations."

Earlier Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government has repeatedly announced its willingness to hold talks "unconditionally."

Officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and China -- plus Germany are meeting Wednesday to discuss possible sanctions against Iran if it doesn't abandon its enrichment activities.

Mr. Snow said the U.S. doesn't want to splinter the coalition by having "side conversations" with Tehran.

"We think that Iran needs to be very serious about suspending all enrichment and reprocessing uranium. They have to agree to do it. They have to do it in a verifiable and credible manner and a permanent manner," Mr. Snow said. "When that happens ... there may be some opportunities, but the first precondition right now -- and we've been working with our allies on this -- is to make sure that Iran does nothing in terms of advancing its ability to build nuclear weapons."

Tehran Test-Fires Missile

Meanwhile, Iran test-fired a long-range missile, Israeli defense officials said Wednesday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to reporters, said the missile was a Shihab-3 with a range of 900 miles, the same type of missile that has already been test-fired several times.

Mr. Olmert mentioned Iranian missiles of that range in a news conference in Washington after meeting Mr. Bush on Tuesday, noting that it would give Iran the ability to strike any point in Europe as well as Israel. Mr. Olmert said it isn't too late to stop the Iranian program. "This is a moment of truth," he said.

Iran has said it is enriching uranium, a key part of producing nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

At the joint news conference, Mr. Bush said Iran had turned down an offer from the West to supply it with fuel for nuclear power reactors, but Iran insisted on enriching its own uranium, raising concerns that its goal was to manufacture nuclear weapons. (See related article.)

Messrs. Bush and Olmert both said that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. Mr. Bush said that diplomatic means must be exhausted, implying that a military option has not been ruled out.

Mr. Olmert noted that Iran has called for the destruction of Israel, and Israel considers Iran a serious threat.

Iran Accuses U.S. of 'Hatching Plots'

In Tehran on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. and its allies of "hatching plots" to provoke ethnic tensions and destabilize Iran, as the Islamic republic braces for more confrontation with the West over its nuclear program.

"They must know that they will not be able to provoke divisions and differences, through desperate attempts, among the dear Iranian nation," Mr. Ahmadinejad said. His call for national unity came a day after Iran closed a state-owned newspaper and detained its chief editor and cartoonist for publishing a cartoon that sparked riots by ethnic Azeris in northwestern Iran.

It was the first closure of a newspaper since Mr. Ahmadinejad came to office last year -- and the heavy response, along with public apologies by Iranian officials, suggested the government worries the U.S. may try to stir up trouble among Iran's ethnic minorities.

Hundreds of Azeris marched on Monday in the northwestern city of Tabriz, protesting the cartoon. Some broke windows of the governor's office, and police had to use tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Azeris, a Turkic ethnic group, are Iran's largest minority, making up about a quarter of Iran's 70 million people, dominated by ethnic Persians. Azeris speak a Turkic language shared by their brethren in neighboring Azerbaijan.

They were angered by a slur in a cartoon run May 12 in a state-owned Iranian newspaper that showed a cockroach speaking Azeri and suggested Azeris are stupid. The cartoon showed people from different walks of life -- including an athlete and a tradesman -- trying to teach the cockroach and he always answers, in Azeri, "What do you mean?" There was no explanation why the protests broke out more than a week after the cartoon.

Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com

Rice Hints U.N. May Step in on Iran

May 25, 2006
The Associated Press
Anne Gearan

link to original article

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said talks Wednesday on perks and penalties meant to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear activities that the West fears could produce a bomb produced ``good progress,'' suggesting the United Nations could act soon if Tehran remains defiant.

Meanwhile, the possibility of direct talks between Iran and the United States appeared distant despite back channel overtures from Iran and additional pressure on Washington from its negotiating partners and others.

Diplomats from the United States and other veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council met in London on Wednesday to review a package of incentives and threats that European nations could present to Iran. The deal is not final, but Rice indicated it is close.

``The London meeting had good progress,'' Rice told reporters. ``We did not expect them to finalize all matters and they are still working on some matters.''

The foreign ministers of the six nations must give final approval to any package. Rice said ministers may meet very soon, but she offered no details.

She spoke following a meeting with the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei told reporters the United States alone must decide if it wants to sit down for direct talks with Tehran, something the Bush administration has rejected as premature at best.

White House press secretary Tony Snow ruled out direct talks at least until Iran ends all uranium enrichment, which Iran has refused to do, and allows international inspections.

``When that happens, all right, then there may be some opportunities,'' Snow said. But he would not elaborate. ``I'm going no further,'' he said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Iran has been showing interest in holding talks with the United States through intermediaries, but the U.S. has not replied.

ElBaradei met with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani several days ago, and said he described to Rice ``the Iranian point of view, which is rather different from the U.S. point of view.''

ElBaradei is among a long list of diplomats, former diplomats and leaders who have said that U.S.-Iranian talks could defuse the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

``If negotiations were to move in the right direction, particularly when the discussions of security were to start, I would hope the U.S. would be able to join them,'' ElBaradei told reporters after his State Department meeting.

The Security Council hit an impasse soon after taking up Iran's disputed nuclear program in March. Russia and China have opposed calls by the United States, Britain and France for a resolution that could bring sanctions and that is enforceable by military action.

Diplomats told the AP before the meeting that a compromise would be considered that would drop the automatic threat of military action but still pack the threat of sanctions if Iran remains defiant.

Russia and China have opposed calls by America, Britain and France for a resolution enforceable by military action.

If Iran remains defiant, the proposal called for a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions under Chapter VII, Article 41 of the U.N. Charter. But it avoided any reference to Article 42 - which is the trigger for possible military action to enforce a resolution.

And it calls for new consultations among the five permanent members on any further steps against Iran. That is meant to dispel past complaints by the Russians and Chinese that once the screws on Iran are tightened, it would automatically start a process leading to military involvement.

Iranian Nuclear Weapons 'Inevitable'

May 25, 2006
Telegraph
Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor

link to original article

It is all but impossible to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, a leading British think-tank said yesterday, as the world's powers struggled to find a common strategy to face the threat.

Senior officials from the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China closeted themselves at a secret location in London to negotiate a package of "incentives" for Iran to halt its nuclear programme.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) suggested that neither diplomacy nor military action to destroy the nuclear facilities was likely to succeed.

"There is a consensus emerging that an Iranian nuclear capability is both inevitable, and certainly bad," said the IISS director, John Chipman, presenting an assessment of the international military balance.

He said America's Arab allies in the Gulf feel "the only thing worse than a nuclear-armed Iran is a US military strike against the country, especially if it were still left with a nuclear option".

Bombing Iran might provoke retaliation against coalition forces in Iraq, attacks by Hizbollah on Israel and attempts to choke the flow of oil through the Gulf.

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said officials were discussing incentives designed to persuade Iran to halt enrichment. This is believed to include the offer of a European-built light water nuclear power reactor.

The US has pushed for economic and political sanctions to be included among the punishments. The IISS said the package is unlikely to sway Iran as it rejected a similar deal last autumn. Teheran has repeatedly ruled out any deal that stops it from enriching uranium.

White House Blocks Talks With Iran

May 25, 2006
The Guardian
Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill

link to original article

The White House yesterday ruled out previously authorised direct talks between Tehran and the US ambassador in Baghdad, which were to have focused on the situation in Iraq. The move marks a hardening of the Bush administration's position, despite pressure from the international community to enter into direct dialogue with Iran. A White House official said that although the US envoy had originally been granted a mandate for talks with Iran, "we have decided not to pursue it."

Western diplomats hoped that talks on Iraq could have widened into a discussion of Iran's alleged nuclear arms programme. Iran has been asking in recent weeks for direct talks with Washington on the nuclear issue and the Bush administration had come under pressure from Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and countries such as Germany to hold direct talks.
Washington's decision not to pursue the talks with Iran on Iraq, which would have been conducted by the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, came as the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China concluded a meeting in London last night to discuss a new offer to Iran. The Foreign Office reported progress on agreeing on a combination of sticks and carrots to try to entice Iran into suspending its uranium-enrichment programme, which is seen by the west as a step towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

The progress at the meeting contrasted with a bad-tempered discussion on May 8 between the foreign ministers of the six countries in New York.

The decision not to pursue direct talks has exposed rifts in the Bush administration on how to deal with Iran. Mr Khalilzad had told reporters on Sunday that the formation of the Iraqi government had cleared the way for direct negotiations with Iranian officials. "We have a lot of issues to discuss with them with regard to our concerns and what we envision for Iraq and are prepared to listen to their concerns," he told the Associated Press.

However, Frederick Jones, a National Security Council spokesman, said yesterday there were no longer any plans for talks. "We will assess the situation and see when talks with the Iranians about the situation in Iraq might be useful," he said, noting that the US had talked to Iran about Afghanistan and drug-trafficking. "If it makes sense in Iraq, we'll do it. But we'll assess it based on what makes sense."

The US has had no formal contact with the Iranian government since students in Tehran took 52 Americans hostage in 1979.

The tough White House line appeared to take Mr Khalilzad's office by surprise. A US official in Baghdad said senior administration officials, including the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, had previously said that Mr Khalilzad's talks with the Iranians could proceed once a government in Baghdad was sworn in.

There were also reports of rifts on how to respond to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to George Bush. The Washington Post reported that some intelligence analysts saw the letter as an important diplomatic opening and US government experts had "exerted mounting pressure" on the White House to respond.

However, Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, ruled out any such response yesterday. "Iran, in responding to pressure, is trying to change the subject and we won't let them change the subject," he said. He said the precondition for bilateral talks would be that Iran cease enriching uranium and did "nothing to build up its capacity to make nuclear weapons".

In the London meeting, senior officials discussed the detail of an offer to construct a light-water nuclear reactor for Iran, which is seen as less of a threat than its uranium-enrichment programme. But the package also includes a threat to punish Iran with sanctions if it refuses to suspend uranium-enrichment.

These sanctions would include a ban on arms sales, no transfer of nuclear technology, no visas for Iranian leaders and officials, and freezing their assets.

There would also be an embargo on shipping refined oil products to Iran. Although Iran is a leading producer of crude oil, it is short of petrol and other oil derivatives.

Western diplomats are braced for rejection by the Iranians. The US, Britain and France would then return to the UN security council to table a resolution setting a deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme or face sanctions.

Storm warning Olmert addresses Congress on Iran

By from Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: May 25 2006

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b867e250-eb8a-11da-823e-0000779e2340.html

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, addresses a joint session of the US Congress where he spoke of a "dark and gathering storm casting its shadow over the world", comparing Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions with slavery and the Soviet gulags.

Referring to calls by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the Iranian president, for Israel to be wiped off the map, Mr Olmert described Iran as an "existential threat".

Mr Olmert did not refer to the talks over Iran's nuclear programme taking place in both London and at the United Nations, but diplomats suggested Israel would support Europe's proposed incentives for Iran in exchange for suspension of its nuclear fuel programme.

The talks in London broke up without reaching any agreement. Iran has insisted on its right to nuclear technology while officials from the UN Security Council had yet to narrow divisions over how to induce Tehran to halt uranium enrichment

Olmert, Bush agree on Iran deadline

Ynet learns that Bush told Olmert US time limit for action to stop Iran's nuclear program fits Israel's own timetable, but American diplomats make it clear diplomacy will be given chance
Yitzhak Benhorin

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3254922,00.html

(WASHINGTON) US President George W. Bush agreed that plans for American intervention to halt Iran's nuclear program are congruent with a timetable discussed with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during talks in Washington.

 According to Israeli intelligence assessments Iran will acquire the necessary nuclear technology to build a nuclear weapon within a year, Olmert said during the talks.

The prime minister said Israel fears diplomatic foot-dragging at the United Nations, where the United States has faced Russian and Chinese opposition to push for tough sanctions against Iran should it continue uranium enrichment in defiance of the international community.

 "I am very, very, very satisfied," Olmert told Israeli reports after talks with Bush.

 Bush told Olmert he will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, but US officials have cast doubt over Washington's capability to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology.

 Under paragraph 7 of the United Nations charter, the US will ask the Security Council to impose economic and military sanctions on Iran should it refuse to halt uranium enrichment activities.

 Should Russia use its veto power to block a US-backed UN resolution for imposing sanctions on Iran, Washington will circumvent the Security Council by luring allied countries to impose an economic and military embargo on Tehran.

 The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Iranian officials are using intermediaries to convey to Washington their readiness to talk directly to US officials.

 Meanwhile, officials from France, Britain and Germany will hold talks with US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns to discuss a compromise EU draft resolution against Iran.

 The International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that Iran signaled its readiness to halt uranium enrichment activities in compliance with a European deal to supply Tehran with a light-water nuclear reactor in return for its compliance with international demands.

Iran to launch a new suicide bombers garrison on Thursday

 

Tehran, Iran, May 24 – Iran will launch a new suicide-bombers garrison on Thursday, according to the head of a group affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a government-orchestrated campaign to recruit suicide bombers, told the state-run news agency Mehr on Tuesday that the group planned to officially announce the existence of the new garrison in a ceremony in Tehran’s largest cemetery on Thursday afternoon.

The new garrison will be named after Nader Mahdavi, an IRGC naval commander who died in a suicide attack on an American naval vessel in 1987, Samadi said.

The report said that more that 55,000 “volunteers for martyrdom-seeking operations” had been registered so far by the organization, which also calls itself “Estesh’hadioun”, or martyrdom-seekers.

In February, the group launched a new recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Tehran to fight against “Global Blasphemy”.

The group was set up by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 2004. Those who join have three choices: To carry out suicide attacks against “the infidels occupying Iraq”, against Israel, or against Salman Rushdie.

 

No Change on Iran Talks, White House Says

May 24, 2006
The Associated Press
Nedra Pickler

link to original article

WASHINGTON -- The United States will not negotiate directly with Iran on its nuclear program, President Bush's spokesman said Wednesday, although he left open the door for talks if Tehran proves it has permanently stopped all nuclear weapons activities.

"Until they do that, there is going to be no change in the administration's posture (or) in the president's posture when it comes to one-on-one negotiations," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "We will continue to use appropriate international forums and work with and through our allies when it comes to dealing with the government in Iran."

Snow repeated the administration's demand that Iran must suspend all uranium enrichment and processing in a verifiable, credible and permanent manner.

"When that happens, all right, then there may be some opportunities," Snow said. But he would not elaborate on what those opportunities might be. "I'm going no further," he said.

Iran and the United States have refused to hold bilateral exchanges since soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The only publicly acknowledged discussions between the two countries came in early 2003, as the United States was building up military forces in the Persian Gulf ahead of the Iraq war.

The U.S. ambassador in Iraq has said he has been authorized to hold discussions with Iran specifically about the situation in Iraq, rather than broader subjects like the nuclear program. Negotiations with Tehran on nuclear issues are being handled through U.S. allies in Europe.

Iran insists it is only interested in nuclear technology to generate electricity, but the international community increasingly fears it plans to build a nuclear bomb.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Iran has made requests for direct talks with the Bush administration on the nuclear program. Snow said he didn't know if those reports are true, but he said it's clear Iran's leaders are trying to "negotiate through the press."

"It's very clear the pressure has begun to pay off," Snow said. "They want to change the subject, and we're not going to let them."

Iran Requests Direct Talks on Nuclear Program

May 23, 2006
The Washington Post
Karl Vick and Dafna Linzer

link to original article

TEHRAN -- Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats.

The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran's political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing a taboo against contact with Washington that has both defined and confined Tehran's public foreign policy for more than a quarter-century, they said.

Though the Tehran government in the past has routinely jailed its citizens on charges of contact with the country it calls the "Great Satan," Ahmadinejad's May 8 letter was implicitly endorsed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and lavished with praise by perhaps the most conservative ayatollah in the theocratic government.

"You know, two months ago nobody would believe that Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad together would be trying to get George W. Bush to begin negotiations," said Saeed Laylaz, a former government official and prominent analyst in Tehran. "This is a sign of changing strategy. They realize the situation is dangerous and they should not waste time, that they should reach out."

Laylaz and several diplomats said senior Iranian officials have asked a multitude of intermediaries to pass word to Washington making clear their appetite for direct talks. He said Ali Larijani, chairman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, passed that message to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrived in Washington Tuesday for talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

Iranian officials made similar requests through Indonesia, Kuwait and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Laylaz said. American intelligence analysts also say Larijani's urgent requests for meetings with senior officials in France and Germany appear to be part of a bid for dialogue with Washington.

"They've been desperate to do it," said a European diplomat in Tehran.

U.S. intelligence analysts have assessed the letter as a major overture, an appraisal shared by analysts and foreign diplomats resident in Iran. Bush administration officials, however, have dismissed the proposed opening as a tactical move.

The administration repeatedly has rejected talks, saying Iran must negotiate with the three European powers that have led nuclear diplomacy since the Iranian nuclear program became public in 2002. Within hours of receiving Ahmadinejad's letter, Rice dismissed it as containing nothing new.

But U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said government experts have exerted mounting pressure on the Bush administration to reply to the letter, seconding public urgings from commentators and former officials. "The content was wacky and, from an American point of view, offensive. But why should we cede the high moral ground, and why shouldn't we at least respond to the Iranian people?" said an official who has been pushing for a public response.

Analysts, including American specialists on Iran, emphasized that the contents of the letter are less significant than its return address. No other Iranian president had attempted direct contact with his U.S. counterpart since the countries broke off diplomatic relations after student militants overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Iranian analysts said Ahmadinejad's familiar list of grievances on Iraq, Israel and terrorism was designed largely for domestic consumption. CIA analysts and experts on Iran within the government said it also could be interpreted as an attempt to articulate points for possible discussion with Washington.

"There is no question in my mind that there has been for some time a desire on the part of the senior Iranian leadership to engage in a dialogue with the United States," said Paul Pillar, who was the senior Middle East intelligence analyst with the CIA until last fall.

"Much stranger first steps have led to dialogues than this letter. And as weird as the letter may be, if the Iranians want to begin discussions based on the theme of righteousness, that's something we should not be afraid to engage on," Pillar said. "We have pretty strong arguments about justice and righteousness of our own, so we should not shy away from that."

Inside Iran, the letter effectively widened an opening toward the United States that began in March, with Larijani's unusually public acceptance of an American invitation to direct talks on the situation in neighboring Iraq. That acceptance provoked sharp criticism from hard-liners until it was publicly endorsed by Khamenei.

By contrast, Ahmadinejad's letter sparked lavish praise from perhaps the most conservative cleric in Iran's government, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who chairs the Guardian Council, which oversees Iran's electoral process. Delivering the Friday sermon on May 12 in Tehran, Jannati called it "an extraordinary letter" and "an inspiration by God."

"The taboo is gone, for the first time when someone like Jannati endorses the message," said an Iranian political analyst who said he could not to be quoted by name because his employer had not authorized him to speak publicly.

Earlier attempts at outreach to Washington have been thwarted by conservatives. "The tradition is the hard-liners need American hostility," the analyst said. The most serious attempt was by Ahmadinejad's predecessor, reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami.

"When Khatami tried to do it, the leader rejected it," said the European diplomat. "But I guess they're worried enough. People don't want sanctions. Domestically, it's a good move."

Indeed, by last week, a prominent member of Iran's conservative parliament made headlines proposing talks with members of Congress.

"The taboo of the discussion is gone, but I don't think they've formed a consensus about normalization of relations," said a Western diplomat in Tehran. "But 'let's talk to the Americans' -- that was very controversial until recently."

The change appears rooted at least partly in Iran's political scene, now dominated entirely by conservatives. Pillar pointed out that with reformists driven from government, conservatives no longer fear that political credit for renewing contact with Washington will accrue to a rival domestic force. The Iranian public strongly favors restoring ties.

Laylaz also saw a second reason: Iran's nuclear program, which recently crossed a key threshold by enriching uranium.

"Now we have something to negotiate," Laylaz said. "The nuclear program of the regime has been successful, because five years ago nobody wanted to hear our voice."

Ordinary Iranians appear to approve of Ahmadinejad's overture. His letter remains at the top of the presidential Web site, http://www.president.ir .

"We have not had any relations for so many years, and Iran was always accused of being unwilling to talk," Masood Mohammadi, 23, said as he left Friday prayers last week. "Now Iran has taken the first step, and I hope the U.S. president replies in kind."

Linzer reported from Washington.

Iran Ready for Nuclear Talks with West without Preconditions

May 24, 2006
Agence France Presse
Michael Adler

link to original article

Iran has told UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei it wants nuclear talks with the West but without preconditions such as giving up uranium enrichment, diplomats said. ElBaradei was in Washington Wednesday for talks with US officials, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after having met in Vienna last week with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

"Larijani just said, we want to talk, but as equals, with no preconditions," said a diplomat close to the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

A second diplomat with knowledge of Tehran's position said Iran "will not negotiate under pressure or threats" and that it must be able to keep running a 164-centrifuge pilot plant to enrich uranium.

The enriched uranium makes fuel for nuclear power reactors but it can also be the raw material for atom bombs.

Both diplomats said Larijani was referring to talks with the United States, which has refused to speak directly with Iran, and the European Union, which broke off formal negotiations in August last year.

The White House on Wednesday vowed there would be no direct negotiations with Iran unless it suspends its uranium enrichment program.

But another diplomat close to the IAEA said the West should not see Iran's keeping small-scale enrichment as a deal-breaker.

Britain, France and Germany, the so-called EU-3 leading talks with Iran, were meeting Wednesday in London with China, Russia and the United States on an EU package of trade, security and technology incentives to convince Tehran to stop enriching uranium.

Diplomats said Iran was ready to give up industrial-scale enrichment, which would involve tens of thousands of centrifuges and could make enough enriched uranium in one year for many bombs, as part of a deal.

But Iran insists on keeping the small-scale work it has already started, and which experts say is not an immediate proliferation threat.

Another diplomat with knowledge of the enrichment question said Iran had in any case "already figured out how to do enrichment. That's done. The only thing they would learn from doing more enrichment is quality control," so that fewer centrifuges would break down.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted Wednesday that the Islamic republic had mastered "the entire nuclear fuel cycle from start to finish, thanks to young Iranian scientists."

Nuclear expert David Albright, head of a private think tank in Washington, said however that the Iranians "are making progress but by no means have they mastered the fuel cycle."

"They don't know how to run centrifuges reliably . . . It is not clear they know how to (in the final step) make (the actual) fuel for power reactors," Albright said.

"So it's more huffing and puffing" from the Iranian president, Albright said.

The United States fears that even one centrifuge spinning is too much since it allows Iran to acquire the know-how for enrichment, considered the "break-out capacity" for making nuclear weapons.

Diplomats close to the IAEA said the US approach was flawed.

Tehran has sharply cut down the scope of IAEA inspections since the agency's board of governors took Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

"If we allow them to run some centrifuges (and back off from Security Council reprisals), then the IAEA will be allowed to monitor what is going on" and so be able to catch Iran if it tries to use this technology for weapons work, said the diplomat with knowledge of Iran's enrichment program.

Despite the West's hard line on Iran since 2003, the Islamic Republic had moved ahead to first making the uranium gas that is the feedstock for enrichment and now running a 164-centrifuge cascade, the diplomat said.

"What is happening is that every time you delay making a deal, the stakes get higher," the diplomat said.

Iran Test-fires Long-range Missile

May 23, 2006
The Jerusalem Post
JPOST.com

link to original article

Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region, Israel Radio reported. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington to discuss the Iranian threat.

Military officials said it was not clear if this most recent test indicated an advance in the capabilities of the Shihab 3. They said the test was likely timed to coincide with the Washington summit and with comments made by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah during celebrations in Beirut marking the 6th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

"What deters the enemy from launching an aggression is the resistance's continuous readiness to respond," Nasrallah told scores of supporters. "Northern Israel today is within the range of the resistance's rockets. The ports, bases, factories and everything is within that range."

The Shihab test was only "partly successful," according to news reports. The nature of the difficulties was not clear. The Iranians have been working to extend the Shihab 3's current maximum range of 1,300 kilometers. A year ago, they successfully tested a solid fuel motor for the missile.

In December, Israel's defense against an Iranian ballistic missile strike, the Arrow 2 missile system, succeeded in intercepting an incoming rocket simulating an Iranian Shihab 3 at an altitude higher than in the previous 13 exercises.

Maj. Elyakim, commander of the Arrow missile battery at Palmahim, told The Jerusalem Post last month that the missile crews were always on high alert, but that they were recently instructed to "raise their level of awareness" because of developments on the Iranian front.

The Arrow missile, he said, could intercept and destroy any Iranian missile fired at Israel, including ones carrying non-conventional warheads. Experts believe that if Iran is attacked by Israel or the US, Teheran would respond by firing long-range ballistic missiles at Israel.

Olmert Urges Action to Head off Nuclear Iran

May 24, 2006
Reuters
Jeffrey Heller

link to original article

WASHINGTON -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday Iran's nuclear ambitions posed "the test of our time" and urged swift international action to meet what he termed a threat to the existence of the Jewish state. "A nuclear Iran means a terrorist state could achieve the primary mission for which terrorists live and die: the mass destruction of innocent human life," Olmert said in a warmly received address to both chambers of Congress.

"This challenge, which I believe is the test of our time, is one the West cannot afford to fail," he said, estimating that Iran "stands on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons".

Olmert, on his first U.S. visit since taking office after Ariel Sharon's incapacitating stroke in January, said Iran had declared the United States its enemy and noted that its president had called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

"For us, this is an existential threat. A threat to which we cannot consent. But its not Israel's threat alone. It is a threat to all those committed to stability in the Middle East and the well-being of the world at large," he said.

"History will judge our generation by the actions we take now ... the international community will be measured not by its intentions but by its results," he said, cautioning that "another dark and gathering storm" was casting its shadow over the world.

Iran insists it wants only to produce energy for civilian use, but Western powers argue it is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for producing the highly enriched uranium needed for atomic bombs.

World powers met in London on Wednesday to discuss a package of incentives and threats aimed at defusing the Iranian crisis. It was unclear whether the talks would resolve serious differences between Washington and Moscow over U.S. demands Iran face sanctions.

BUSH PLEDGE

At White House talks with Olmert on Tuesday, President George W. Bush pledged to come to Israel's aid if it is attacked, comments Israeli commentators said also represented a subtle warning not to take military action against Iran.

Israel, the only nuclear power in the Middle East, destroyed Iraq's atomic reactor in an air strike in 1981.

Olmert, in a briefing to reporters, said he and Bush saw eye-to-eye on the Iranian issue. Israel has said frequently it would take a back seat to international efforts to press Iran to halt uranium enrichment work.

In his speech to Congress, Olmert again offered to hold talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying: "I extend my hand in peace."

But Olmert repeated he would put into motion his unilateral plan to redraw the Jewish settlement map in the occupied West Bank if Israel could not find a peace partner now that the militant Hamas group was in charge of the Palestinian government.

"The Palestinian Authority is ruled by Hamas, an organization committed to vehement anti-Semitism, the glorification of terror and the total destruction of Israel. As long as these are their guiding principles, they can never be a partner," Olmert said.

Bush, at a news conference with Olmert on Tuesday, described the prime minister's go-it-alone proposals as "bold ideas" in a surprise boost for the plan condemned by the Palestinians a means of denying them a viable state.

Under the "realignment" blueprint, still on the drawing board, Israel would remove isolated settlements in the West Bank while bolstering major enclaves and setting a border by 2010 if peacemaking remains frozen.

Exposing the Myth of Lasting Iranian-Turkish Amity

May 23, 2006
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Soner Cagaptay and Duden Yegenoglu

link to original article

With Iran's nuclearization a hot button issue, analysts are asking how Turkey, the only NATO country bordering Iran, would respond if the United States imposed sanctions on Tehran or chose a military option to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. There is one answer that American policymakers will hear in Ankara: Turkey should not confront Iran because Turkey and Iran have been good neighbors since the 1639 Treaty of Kasri Sirin (also called the Treaty of Zuhab). Turkish policymakers assert that the two countries have neither fought nor changed their mutual border since that date.

The "Myth of Kasri Sirin" suggests four centuries of amicable ties between Turkey and Iran. Nothing could be further from the truth. Turkey and Iran have repeatedly fought since 1639, and since the 1979 Islamic Revolution Iran has supported terror groups inside Turkey to undermine governments there.

First, some history: The Ottoman and Iranian empires have fought many wars since Kasri Sirin. A full-scale war broke out in 1733 when the Persians attempted to take Baghdad from the Turks. The Persian siege of Baghdad and the accompanying battles ended in 1746 with the Treaty of Kurdan, signed between the new Zand Dynasty of Persia and the Ottoman Empire.

Soon after, in 1775, the Zand Dynasty attacked the Ottoman Empire again and captured Basra. The invasion lasted until 1821, at which time another war started between the Ottoman Empire and the new Qajar Dynasty of Persia. The war ended in 1823, with the First Treaty of Erzurum.

Rivalry over Muhammarah region (Iran's modern-day Khorramshar) deepened the conflict between the two empires by adding a new dimension to the conflict. Persians and Ottoman Iraqi governors clashed over its control, bringing the two empires to the brink of war in 1840. The British intervened, establishing a boundary commission composed of Iranian, Turkish, British, and Russian diplomats. As a result, the Persian and Ottoman empires signed the Second Treaty of Erzurum, reconfiguring the Iranian-Ottoman border.

Troubles between the two countries extended well beyond the Ottoman era. Fighting also took place across the Turkish-Iranian border during Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's rule in Turkey. In 1930, when some Kurds launched a rebellion around Mount Greater Agri (Ararat) in Turkey, Kurdish bands armed by Armenian nationalists entered Turkey across the Iranian border to support the rebellion.

This was no small skirmish. Turkey used airplanes in a counterattack and mobilized 15,000 troops to suppress the incursion. In the end, the Turkish Army was able to put down the border infiltration, though with great difficulty, and only after losing several planes. In 1931, Ankara asked Iran for a border rectification that put Mount Lesser Agri, the base of the 1930 incursions, inside Turkey.

Volatility along the border became an issue again when the terrorist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) launched a campaign against Turkey in 1984. Iran's theocratic regime, diametrically opposed to Turkey's secular, pro-Western society, saw the PKK as a useful tool to wreak havoc in Turkey. Accordingly, Tehran allowed PKK bases such as Haj Umran, Dar Khala, Benchul, Mandali, and Sirabad in its territory. Ali Koknar, an expert on terrorism, writes that in 1995 the PKK "maintained about 1,200 of its members at around 50 locations in Iran." Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, the PKK crossed from these bases into Turkey, attacking the Turkish military as well as killing civilians.

Iran has supported not only the PKK but also Islamist terrorist cells. Since the 1979 revolution, Iranian-backed cells have killed a number of secular Turkish intellectuals and journalists considered offensive, including theologian Bahriye Ucok, a female Islamist modernizer, and journalist Cetin Emec.

Interestingly, Iran's policy of war by proxy, the use of the PKK and Islamist terrorists to undermine Turkey's secular system, has recently come to a strategic halt. Since the beginning of the Iraq war, Tehran has been feeling an increase in American-imposed isolation. To break this policy, Iran has launched a policy of courting Ankara. Iran now aims to win the Turks' hearts. In this regard, Tehran is taking advantage of American inaction against the PKK's Qandil terror enclave in northern Iraq -- a fact that is planting seeds of resentment in Turkey toward Washington -- by launching attacks against Qandil and the very PKK camps Iran allowed in the 1990s.

While these steps are helping Tehran build a positive image in Turkey, the fact is that Tehran is far from the benevolent neighbor the "Myth of Kasri Sirin" implies. Turkey and Iran have fought many times since 1639, repeatedly changing their mutual border, including as recently as 1931. Lately, Tehran has fought war by proxy against Ankara. Yet, like all other myths, the "Myth of Kasri Sirin" satisfies a real need: So long as the U.S. ignores Turkey's battle against the PKK in Iraq, the future holds out the possibility that Ankara may be closer to Tehran than to Washington.

Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an Ertegun professor at Princeton University, and chair of the Turkey Program at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. Duden Yegenoglu is a research assistant at the Washington Institute. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter presenting contending views of Arab or Middle Eastern affairs.

Iran's President: U.S. Will Fail to Provoke Ethnic Differences

May 24, 2006
The Associated Press
USA Today

link to original article

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's president accused the United States and its allies on Wednesday of "hatching plots" to provoke ethnic tensions and destabilize Iran, a day after the government closed a state-run newspaper for publishing a cartoon that sparked riots by ethnic Azeris.

"They (the U.S. and its allies) must know that they will not be able to provoke divisions and differences, through desperate attempts, among the dear Iranian nation," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state-run television.

Iran closed the state-run Farsi language newspaper Iran and detained its chief editor and cartoonist on Tuesday for publishing a cartoon that showed a cockroach speaking Azeri and suggested Azeris are stupid.

It was the first closure of a newspaper since Ahmadinejad came to office last year — and the heavy response, along with public apologies by Iranian officials, suggested the government is concerned the United States may try to stir up trouble among Iran's ethnic minorities.

"Today, they (the U.S. and its allies) are hatching plots. They want to provoke differences, divisions, disappointment ... to prevent the Iranian nation from achieving all of its rights," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in Khorramshahr in southwestern Iran.

Other Iranian officials were also quick to stress the nation's unity in the standoff with Washington, which accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

"It is clear that the evil hands of foreigners are making efforts to provoke tribal, ethnic, and religious differences under the present circumstances," State Public Prosecutor Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi was quoted Tuesday as saying by state-run media.

Hundreds of Azeris marched on Monday in the northwestern city of Tabriz to protest the cartoon. Some broke windows at the governor's office, and police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. The violence was also reported by an independent news agency, ILNA.

Azeris, a Turkic ethnic group, are Iran's largest minority, making up about a quarter of Iran's 70 million people, dominated by ethnic Persians. Azeris speak a Turkic language shared by their brethren in neighboring Azerbaijan.

Scornful Ahmadinejad Boasts 'Start-To-Finish' Nuclear Mastery

May 24, 2006
Radio Free Europe
RFE/RL

link to original article

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said today that Iran has mastered the entire nuclear fuel, "from start to finish." The Iranian president was speaking during commemorations of the 1982 recapture of Khorramshahr from Iraqi forces in the western Khuzestan Province.

His comments come amid reports of increased activity behind the scenes in the standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear program. "The Washington Post" quoted anonymous U.S. officials and foreign diplomats on May 23 suggesting that Tehran is seeking direct talks with Washington on the nuclear issue.

The paper claimed Iranian officials have sought to enlist International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Muhammad el-Baradei and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as well as Indonesian and Kuwaiti officials, to express their interest in dialogue with the United States.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck was quoted by Reuters as saying there would be no immediate comment on the report in "The Washington Post."

The newspaper quoted a Tehran-based analyst and former Iranian government official, Saeed Laylaz, as claiming a "changing strategy" on Iran's part that includes "reach[ing] out" on the nuclear issue, according to Reuters.

Purported Foreign Threat

In Khozestan Province, Ahmadinejad cautioned foreign countries against attacking his country, saying they would receive a "historic slap" if they did so.

He also claimed the United States and its allies are "hatching plots" to spark ethnic violence in a strategy aimed at destabilizing Iran.

A recent stir over a cartoon in the state-controlled daily "Iran" that offended ethnic Azeris has resulted in protests in Iran's northwest -- including a number of arrests -- and the first closure of a newspaper since Ahmadinejad came to power in August, according to AP.

"Today, [the U.S. and its allies] are hatching plots," Ahmadinejad was quoted by AP as saying. "They want to provoke differences, divisions, disappointment...to prevent the Iranian nation from achieving all of its rights."

Iranian officials have consistently defended their nuclear program, which they claim is purely peaceful, by saying the country is merely exercising its sovereign and lawful rights.

Iran threatens 'historical slap'

24/05/2006

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/24/uiran.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/24/ixnews.html

The Iranian president has warned that his nation's enemies will receive a "historical slap in the face" in return for any show of aggression towards the Islamic state.

Addressing a rally in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran was entitled to develop a full range of nuclear technology.

And he warned: "Any kind of aggression or thoughts of assaults will receive a historical slap in the face by the youth of Khorramshahr and the Iranian nation."

His comments came ahead of a UN Security Council meeting aimed at resolving the worsening diplomatic crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear activities.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to make nuclear bombs under cover of a civilian programme - a charge the Islamic state denies.

Senior officials from China, Russia, the United States, France, Germany and Britain were meeting in London to discuss ways to put a stop to Iran's uranium enrichment programme.

But Mr Ahmadinejad told the rally: "Using nuclear energy is Iran's right."

He hailed Iran's recent achievement - in defiance of UN demands - of enriching uranium to the level required by nuclear power stations, saying: "Iran possesses the nuclear fuel cycle from zero to 100."

But he warned: "The enemies who could not stop the Iranian nation of reaching nuclear technology by means of political pressure, conspiracies and using the tool of international organisations are now plotting against us."

No Security Council Agreement on Iran

 

http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7B17AB2F42-ACBF-4945-9B50-CC40D9389828%7D&language=EN

London, May 24 (Prensa Latina) The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Germany, failed in their attempt to reach consensus on new proposals to make Iran withdraw from its nuclear activities with a peaceful purpose.

The members, China, France, Great Britain, Russian and the US, will now inform their governments of the proposals on the table and meet again to try to come to some accord.

The document elaborated by the troika (Germany, Great Britain and France) is part of the pressure, together with those by the US, to restrain Iran from processing enriched uranium.

It includes incentives and threats, such as the imposition of new sanctions if Iran does not accept their proposal, according to media outlets in London.

However, the Iranian government is sticking to its right to develop nuclear technology with a peaceful purpose, chiefly to produce electricity.

It has repeatedly maintained its program abides by the International Atomic Energy Agency requirements, and that entity is the only entitled to determine if Iran complies with them.

The European troika wanted Russia and China to foster their proposal, but these two nations condemned sanctions against Iran, and the use of the force to make it withdraw its program.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi has once more ratified his nation´s willingness to unconditionally discuss the issue, and made it clear that Iran neither wants nor needs to build atomic weapons.

Report: 54 Baha'is arrested in Iran

 

May 24, 2006

The Washington Times-UPI

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060524-044024-5436r.htm

 

Iranian officials have released 54 Baha'is arrested in the city of Shiraz last week, the Baha'i International Community said Wednesday.
      In a statement, Baha'i officials said those arrested were teaching classes as part of a UNICEF community service activity conducted by an Iranian non-governmental organization. The statement said those arrested carried a letter of permission from the Islamic Council of Shiraz.
      The day after the arrests, a judge told family members the detainees would be freed soon. It appeared on Wednesday that all of the non-Baha'is and one Baha'i minor had been released without posting bail.
      The arrests coincided with raids on six Baha'i homes during which notebooks, computers, books and other documents were confiscated. In the last 14 months, 72 Baha'is across Iran have been arrested, said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations.
      "These new arrests in Shiraz, coming after more than a year of 'revolving door' detentions, bring the total number of Baha'is who have been arrested without cause to more than 125 since the beginning of 2005," she said.
      Dugal accused the Iranian government of carrying out "religious persecution" intended to keep the Baha'i community "in a state of terror."