Washington Post: The Bush administration is now seeking guarantees from Europe that allies will back punitive measures against Iran if diplomatic talks do not result in agreement by the Islamic republic to permanently abandon any ambitions of developing a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. and European officials.
U.S. Wants Guarantees on Iran Effort
Iran shows no sign of interest in nuclear talks: Rice
AFP: Iran has shown “no indication” it is interested in a European-brokered deal to renounce its suspected nuclear arms ambitions, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. Speaking to reporters after talks with Danish Foreign Minister Stig Moeller, Rice backed the initiative by France, Germany and Britain to offer Tehran incentives if it will give up its suspected nuclear program.
Realism on Iran
Boston Blobe – Editorial: PRESIDENT BUSH should travel more. After recent discussions in Europe with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Bush told his foreign policy advisers to come up with incentives that the French, Germans, and British could offer to Iran if its clerical regime were to renounce, verifiably, its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
U.S. concerned over Iran meddling in Iraq
UPI: The White House accused Iran Thursday of trying to
shape Iraq’s transitional government and said such actions needed to stop. Spokesman Scott McClellan did not detail how that influence was being exerted. “We have had increasing concerns about Iran trying to influence the shape of the transitional government,” he said. “This must be an Iraqi process free from outside interference, especially from those
in the neighborhood.”
White House: Iran nuclear tunnels another worrying sign
AP: The White House says it’s another worrying sign — word from a U-N nuclear agency that Iran is building tunnels to shield its nuclear facilities. Diplomats in Vienna, where the agency’s headquartered, report the tunnels would protect key elements of Iran’s program from air attacks by America or Israel. Press Secretary Scott McClellan says the report raises fresh concerns about Iran’s “behavior” and “intentions.”
Iran Starts Building New Nuclear Plant – Diplomats
Reuters: Iran has started building a research reactor that could eventually produce enough plutonium for one bomb per year, ignoring calls to scrap the project, diplomats close to the United Nations said on Thursday.
Diplomats: Iran building tunnels for arms
AP: Fearing airstrikes, Iran is using reenforced materials and tunneling deep underground to store nuclear components – measures meant to make the facility resistant to “bunker busters” and other special weaponry, diplomats said Thursday. The diplomats spoke as a 35-nation meeting of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency ended more than three days of deliberations focusing on Iran and North Korea, which are both accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
A journalist banned from working for two years, a daily suspended and nine journalists summoned
Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders condemned government hounding of the press after an independent journalist was given a six-month suspended sentence, a daily newspaper was suspended and nine journalists summoned. A high court in Tehran on 1st March upheld a suspended jail term imposed in March 2004 against Mohammad Hassan Alipour, editor of the daily Aban, along with a two-year ban from working.
Iran refuses to go beyond nuclear treaty obligations
AFP: Iran refuses to go beyond its treaty obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to prove the peaceful aims of its nuclear energy programme, a senior official said Thursday. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei “has no right to demand anything that goes beyond international rules”, said Hossein Mussavian, spokesman for Iran’s nuclear negotiating team.
Iran pouring foundation for heavy-water nuclear reactor – diplomats
AFP: Iran is pouring the concrete foundation for a heavy-water nuclear reactor which can make weapons-grade plutonium and which the UN atomic agency had asked it not to build, diplomats said Thursday. The work at a 40-megawatt reactor at Arak, southwest of Tehran, began in September, just after the UN atomic agency had asked Iran to refrain from building the reactor as a “confidence-building measure” that it does not …
