New York Times: Iran on Tuesday rejected calls by European leaders to halt its renewed nuclear activities, but indicated a willingness to continue negotiations over its program, perhaps by offering a proposal of its own. “There is no reason to suspend this activity,” Sirus Naser, Iran’s chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters after an emergency meeting here of the agency’s governing board on the matter.
Iran Rejects Halt in Atom Activity, but Is Likely to Continue Talks
Rumsfeld Says Weapons From Iran Found in Iraq
Washington Post: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons have been found in Iraq that were “clearly, unambiguously” from Iran and that the weapons would ultimately become a problem for Tehran.
Bush Suspicious of Iran’s Nuke Ambitions
AP: President Bush said Tuesday that he’s deeply suspicious about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but that the country’s new leader has indicated a willingness to negotiate. Bush said he got word Tuesday that the newly elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said he is willing to work with other nations amid concerns that his country is developing nuclear weapons.
Bomb cache found in Iraq believed to be from Iranian Revolutionary Guard: official
AFP: US intelligence believes that a cache of manufactured bombs seized in Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country from Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an intelligence official said Tuesday. “We believe they came from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iranian opposition calls for UN action on nuclear standoff
AFP: An exiled Iranian opposition group Tuesday called on the United Nations nuclear watchdog to take Iran’s resuming uranium enrichment work before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. The head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Radjavi, addressed the group’s appeal to the governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meeting in
emergency session in Vienna.
Halt uranium conversion “without delay”, Russia tells Iran
AFP: Russia called Tuesday on Iran to halt work on uranium conversion “without delay.”
“The wise decision would be to stop work that has begun on uranium conversion without delay,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Iran vows to ‘resist’ pressure on nuclear programme
AFP: Iran will “resist” mounting international pressure over its nuclear programme and is not worried about threats of UN Security Council intervention, a top minister said on Monday. “Should we accept humiliation, the sanctions, see ourselves
be punished, or should we resist? I think that we should
resist,” Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani told journalists.
Iran dissident Ganji stops hunger strike-judiciary
Reuters: Jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji has broken his eight-week-old hunger strike after calls by family and friends concerned about his deteriorating health, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. “Thankfully his condition is better than before … He has recently broken his hunger strike,” he said.
IAEA board meets after Iran restarts nuclear work
Reuters: The governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday after Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion plant, fanning Western fears it may be seeking nuclear weapons.
U.S. Says Iran Thumbs Nose at Nuke Talks
AP: Iran is “thumbing its nose” at a proposed international deal on its nuclear ambitions, the State Department said Monday, but the Bush administration seemed in no hurry to invoke punitive economic sanctions. Iran resumed uranium conversion activities at its Isfahan nuclear facility, a step that Europeans and the United States have warned in the past would prompt them to seek United Nations sanctions.
