Reuters: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said on Tuesday he was awaiting a reaction to a letter he sent President Bush, although U.S. officials have called it a diversion in a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear plans.
Iran president says awaits reaction to US letter
Major powers fail to agree on Iran strategy
Reuters: Foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran after Tehran sought to influence the negotiations with a stunning last-minute diplomatic maneuver, officials said.
Beckett: no-one intends to attack Iran
Daily Telegraph: Margaret Beckett has echoed her Foreign Office predecessor Jack Straw’s firm stance on Iran, insisting that no-one intends to take military action against the state.
China urges Iran to cooperate with IAEA: Xinhua
Reuters: China’s foreign minister urged Iran to cooperate with the global nuclear watchdog and also said the deepening dispute over Iran’s atomic activities should be defused by negotiations, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
Missile may have come from Iran
Daily Telegraph: The Army now believes that the Lynx helicopter shot down over central Basra at the weekend was most probably hit by a surface-to-air missile, obtained possibly from neighbouring Iran, after missile casings were discovered on the third floor of a nearby building, security sources in the city said yesterday.
Tehran’s ‘peace offensive’
Washington Times – Editorial: During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its allies would periodically launch “peace offensives” in an effort to rehabilitate their image and win concessions from the West. In essence, they would talk about peaceful coexistence and make conciliatory-sounding gestures, without substantively changing their policies.
Straw move ‘not linked to stance on Iran’
The Guardian: Britain has no intention of joining a nuclear attack on or invasion of Iran and it is absurd for the media to claim Jack Straw was sacked as foreign secretary because he ruled out military action, the prime minister said yesterday.
Iran letter faults US, makes no nuclear proposals
Reuters: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written President Bush a rambling 18-page treatise detailing alleged American foreign policy misdeeds and defending scientific research as “one of the basic rights of nations.”
How to deter Tehran
New York Sun: As the Iranian regime barrels forward, openly calling for the destruction of Israel and overtly breaking the nuclear non-proliferation rules, two distinctly undesirable prospects confront the West.
Rice: Iran letter doesn’t resolve standoff
AP: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed a letter that Iran’s president sent to President Bush on Monday, saying the first direct communication from an Iranian leader in 27 years does not help resolve the standoff over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
