Nuclear Crisis

[Rasputin]

Rights groups often complain that Tehran imprisons pro-reform writers, journalists and intellectuals without due legal process. Iran denies holding political prisoners and routinely dismisses charges of torture in its jails.

Foreign companies operating in Iran should help improve the lives of ordinary people there by contributing part of their profits to good causes, Ebadi said, adding that French companies had invested 20 billion euros (13.5 billion pounds) in Iran in 15 years.

"In return for the profits they make there, I expect them to give their support to the Iranian people, she said, giving the example of landmines left by the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

"Companies could dedicate even a tiny part of their profits to demining or at least mine detection programmes. They could also allocate 1 percent of their profits to renovating the many schools that are in bad condition," she added.

[Rasputin]

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said on Saturday nations with nuclear capabilities should spend money to stop exploitation of women instead of making bombs.

The lawyer, in India to promote women's rights, said governments often said they lacked the funds to improve women's lives, but added that they had no financial constraints when it came to manufacturing nuclear bombs.

"I think no country needs bombs -- not India, Pakistan, Iran, America or Israel," Ebadi said through a translator at a news conference in New Delhi.

Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said poverty was the main reason why women became sex workers and that no one would sell their body for the pleasure of others unless they were in dire financial need.

She said that although prostitution was illegal in many countries, authorities often favoured the client rather than trying to understand the plight of the woman.

Ebadi said in an interview with a French newspaper on Friday that the world's focus on Tehran's nuclear programme was overshadowing human rights abuses there.

[Rasputin]

Iran's Nuclear Challenge Topic of Panel Talk

Three scholars will talk about international nuclear politics during a presentation titled "Iran in World Politics: Domestic and International Perspectives." The panel is one of the UC Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs' ongoing programs about the Middle East moderated by Zeev Maoz, UC Davis professor of political science and an authority on Middle East security. Sammy Salama, senior research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, will talk about "Iran's Nuclear Program: Motivations, Directions, and Targets." He will be followed by Afshin Marashi, assistant professor of history at California State University, Sacramento, whose topic is "Nuclear Nationalism: Iranian Politics in Historical Perspective." The panel will conclude with "The Iranian Challenge and U.S. Options" by Miroslav Nincic, a UC Davis professor of political science. The free talk takes place noon to 1:30 p.m. in the IGA Reading Room, 360 Shields Library.

[Rasputin]

Tehran to let IAEA take more materials samples

TEHRAN (Reuters)Iran said on Tuesday it would let the U.N. nuclear watchdog take further environmental samples of materials related to an academic center and which Washington fears are part of a covert program to develop atomic weapons.


The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it has questions about Iran's nuclear program and wants answers before it can declare Tehran's aims are peaceful. The West accuses Iran of wanting to make atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council in April, the IAEA said it took samples from some equipment acquired by the academic center. The IAEA believes the equipment was earlier used at the Lavizan-Shian site, which was razed in 2004 before agency inspectors could examine it.

A former physics center at Lavizan-Shian acquired some dual-use machinery useable for uranium enrichment, including vacuum pumps, which had tested positive for traces of highly enriched uranium (HEU) this year. In larger quantities, HEU can be used in bombs.

"Iran has accepted the agency's request to take further samples from the center," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

He did not give the location of the academic center.

Iran has admitted that Lavizan-Shian, northeast of Tehran, was once a military research and development site but denied conducting any nuclear weapons research there or anywhere else in the country.

Tehran is not required to allow the IAEA into sites where there is no clear sign of nuclear activities. But it says that by permitting such inspections, it wants to show Tehran's nuclear plans are peaceful.

The Islamic state has been referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to heed a demand to halt uranium enrichment work, a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or material for warheads.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants nuclear technology to generate electricity.

[Rasputin]

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini in reaction to the latest remarks of Mohammed ElBaradei said, "Tehran has never had hidden nuclear activities and has declared all its activities and nuclear facilities that have been necessary in accordance with NPT."
Mohammed ElBaradei, Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has recently said that IAEA investigations have faced with questions without answers concerning Tehran's sensitive actions."
According to the report of Foreign Ministry Media Department on Wednesday, Hosseini added, " Statements and reports of agency's inspectors concerning Iran's nuclear activities and program have been so transparent that would present a clear outlook for the agency and international observers."
He added, in the last three years more than 2,000 pages of declaration concerning Iran's nuclear activities has been dispatched to the IAEA. On Natanz installation, Hosseini said, Iran declared it before the due time in accordance with NPT safeguards.

Concerning undeclared activities, Hosseini said, as Mr. ElBaradei has said the process needs time and it is not only for Iran.

The spokesman concluded according to the repeated confirmations of Mr. ElBaradei all declared activities of Iran to the IAEA have been examined carefully and there has been no deviation on them.

[Rasputin]

Six nations working on Iran nuclear issue differ on how to proceed on

POL-UN-IRAN-TEXT
Six nations working on Iran nuclear issue differ on how to proceed on

sanctions UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 (KUNA) -- While the US is losing patience with Russia which still resists a new weaker draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for ignoring a Security Council deadline three months ago to halt its uranium enrichment activities, the UK is still willing to give it some more time.

In an attempt to allay the Russian concerns, the EU3: UK, France and Germany, issued a weaker draft resolution earlier this week narrowing the sanctions to only items that would help Iran enrich its uranium.

The original draft had a broad spectrum of sanctions. The new weaker draft is still being discussed in capitals.

British envoy Emyr Jones Parry was asked by reporters when he expected discussion to resume here on the new draft.

"I don't expect that to come back here for at least ten days. There is work in progress. Different bits of language are being discussed. It is premature - but there is a new text - being discussed between capitals. That process needs to be riper before they should come back here. There are series of discussions at different levels and in different configurations and they will continue," he said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, however, sounded fed up with Russia's refusal to sign on to the list of council sanctions Washington would like to see enacted against Iran and may soon be ready to force the issue by calling for a council vote, The New York Times newspaper reported today.

"Unity is not an end in itself. I'm all for maintaining unity, but I'm also all for action," the newspaper quoted Rice as telling reporters in Jordan yesterday in answer to a question about whether the US was willing to sacrifice a tough sanctions resolution on Iran in order to keep Russia on board.

Diplomats speculate that nothing will happen anytime soon. The US has been patient with Iran because it is hopeful the ongoing mediations by countries in the region and elsewhere with Tehran to help with the Iraq crisis will bear fruit. "Iran is aware of that and is playing on it," they said.

[donsaeid]

[Rasputin]

Arab States Stress Peaceful Solution to Iran's Nuclear Case

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Kuwait's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Hamad Saturday said that the Arab states share the common view that Iran's nuclear standoff with the West should be settled through peaceful ways.





The Kuwaiti minister's remarks came as he spoke to reporters after the 6+2 Group -- foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf Cooperative Council plus Egypt and Jordan -- held its 3rd consultative session.

The Arab states have reached the consensus that violence to settle Iran's nuclear dispute should be avoided and a peaceful solution to the case reached, he added.

He said the 6+2 Group in its session discussed Iran's nuclear program and developments in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon, adding that Iran's nuclear case has a direct impact on regional states.

Al-Sabah urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to boost cooperation with the 5+1 Group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States plus Germany -- to resolve Iran's nuclear case peacefully.

Regional states are not interested in escalation of tension and stress security and stability for the region, the Kuwaiti minister said.

He noted that the 6+2 Group had called for implementation of the peace process in the Middle East region based on an international plan known as the "Roadmap." The group also stressed preservation of Iraq's territorial integrity and restoration of security and stability in the country, he said.

He added that foreign ministers of the eight Arab states urged Lebanon to remain committed to UN Resolution 1701 while highlighting the importance of providing help to the Lebanese people and defense of national unity.

[Rasputin]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday six-party talks on Iran's nuclear program would take place on Tuesday, swiftly reversing an earlier statement that the talks had been delayed.

Lavrov's rapid volte-face appeared to be a further sign of the difficulties which international powers are having in finding common positions in response to Iran's defiance of the United Nations.

Lavrov said the talks were back on when he landed in Moscow after a trip to Jordan for a conference also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign ministers from Britain and Germany.

"As a result of .. efforts including those undertaken by Russia the meeting of political directors of the six on Iran will take place on Tuesday," Interfax quoted him as saying.

"We assume that the goal of the document won't be striving to punish Iran," Lavrov said, referring to draft sanctions against Iran being discussed in the U.N. security council.

Lavrov had initially said the talks had been delayed because of differences with Western partners.

The United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany are trying to narrow their differences on Iran.

Russia and the Western partners have clashed repeatedly over a security council resolution with Russia making every effort to avoid any strong sanctions, which it believes would push Tehran into corner and make things worse.

French Foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei made clear that the Tuesday meeting was not finalized.

"A meeting of the political directors of the six on Iran is being considered for the start of next week. Contacts are continuing to define the date and the location," he said.

The United States and the European drafters of the document -- Britain, France and Germany -- want the 15-member security council to impose sanctions on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs after it refused to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, as demanded in an August 31 council resolution.

But Russia, backed by China, has chopped off close to half of the original European text.

The West believes Iran's uranium enrichment work is a cover for bomb-making. Tehran says it is for generating electricity.

A new European proposal, drawn up by France, would ban exports to Iran only of the most dangerous items that could be used to make a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile, according to diplomats familiar with the text.

[Rasputin]

FM spokesman: Iran's nuclear issue to be resolved within IAEA

Mullahs' Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini here on Sunday reiterated that Tehran has repeatedly announced that its nuclear issue can be resolved through peaceful negotiations within the confines of the IAEA.

Talking to reporters during his weekly press briefing, he said the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been flexible toward cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and believes that the remaining issues will be resolved through the process of bilateral cooperation.

On recent visit to Tehran of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Hosseini said no message from US authorities was delivered to Iranian officials by President Talabani.

As to current visit of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Iran, he said Iran and Turkey share identical concerns over critical situation in Iraq. The latest developments in Iraq will be discussed during meetings between Iranian officials and the visiting Turkish delegation.

Hosseini further announced that Premier Erdogan will meet with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

On Holocaust confab to be held in Tehran, he said an international conference dubbed 'Holocaust: World Prospect' will be held by the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) from December 11-12.

[donsaeid]

[mike435]

by the way brittian is rearming itself with nulkes again

[donsaeid]

yeah! updating their arsenal!

[Rasputin]

PARIS (Reuters) - The six major powers are in a position to agree on the text of a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, France's foreign minister said a day before they meet to discuss it in Paris.

"I think that we can now reach an agreement on the text," Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters on Monday.

"We are in agreement with Russia to adopt sanctions against the Iranian program of proliferation," he said after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Brussels.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told an online news briefing that political directors from foreign ministries of the six would "discuss the Iranian nuclear issue" in Paris on Tuesday.

He said the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, would also take part.

The six parties involved are U.N. Security Council permanent members Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States, plus Germany.

They are trying to agree how to deal with Iran's failure to heed U.N. demands that it should stop uranium enrichment. The West suspects Iran is building a bomb but Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

But negotiations over a Security Council resolution have been deadlocked for months, with most opposition coming from Moscow which balked at imposing rigid sanctions over Tehran's refusal to meet the August 31 U.N. deadline to abandon the enrichment or face tough U.N. measures.

China has also opposed punishing Iran with sanctions.

The United States in particular was becoming impatient with Russia over its refusal to sign up to a tough sanctions resolution.

[Rasputin]

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that imposing wide-ranging sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program would be "irresponsible."


"Our Western partners wanted to impose broad sanctions. We believe that to impose these kind of sanctions is irresponsible. We will achieve the opposite results," he said at a meeting in Brussels.