Knight Ridder Newspapers: CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq – Iraq has an oasis where fountains gurgle over pebbles and flowers blossom in lush gardens. The hospital is spotless and fully stocked, schools offer violin lessons and drivers obey traffic laws. The electricity is always on, and the water is always
clean in this serene, self-sufficient compound.
Future uncertain for Iranian dissidents living in Iraq
U.S.: Iran needs to allay enrichment fears
UPI: The U.S. State Department Friday called on Iran to assure the international community its uranium enrichment program would not be used to make weapons.
“They have to answer the concerns of the international community and to date, they have not done that,” deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
U.S. seeks info on Khan supplies to Iran
UPI: The United States has asked Pakistan to provide a detailed list of nuclear equipment a renegade Pakistani scientist is believed to have provided to Iran, diplomatic sources told United Press International.
The sources said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also discussed this issue with Pakistani leaders when she visited Islamabad earlier this week.
Ukraine says missiles smuggled to Iran
Reuters: Ukraine says cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads have been “smuggled” out of the country to Iran, but denies a report they were exported with official sanction. The country’s new liberal government, swept to power in January on pledges to stamp out high-level corruption and forge closer ties with the West, said it would tighten controls on the export of technology with military use.
As Evidence Grows Of Iran’s Program, U.S. Hits Quandary
Wall Street Journal: For two years, U.S. experts and international inspectors have pored over satellite photos, radioactive samples and tips from sometimes-unreliable sources trying to solve the Iran nuclear puzzle. Then, last year, U.S. officials received what they now consider the best evidence yet that Iran is pursuing an ambitious nuclear-weapons program. An intelligence source, solicited with German help, provided the U.S. tens of thousands of pages of Farsi-language computer files, diagrams and test data from Iran’s missile program.
Ukraine admits exporting missiles to Iran and China
Financial Times: Ukraine has admitted that it exported 12 cruise missiles to Iran and six to China amid mounting pressure from other countries to explain how the sales occurred. Svyatoslav Piskun, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, told the FT that 18 X-55 cruise missiles, also known as Kh-55s or AS-15s, were exported in 2001.
Helicopter crash kills two in Iran
UPI: An internal security forces helicopter crashed in southern Iran Friday, killing two and injuring four.
The Iranian News Agency, IRNA, said the helicopter crashed
on the outskirts of the city of Kharambid in southern Iran.
Iran, Syria Undermine Efforts in Iraq, CIA Says
Reuters: The director of the CIA accused Iran on Thursday of meddling in Iraq and said Syria was not working hard enough to stop militants entering the country to undermine Baghdad’s efforts at stability. “I think it’s fair to say that just about everybody who’s been watching understands that Iran has been meddling in the affairs of Iraq,” CIA Director Porter Goss told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in a presentation on …
Iran says will never return UK naval boats
Reuters: Iran will never return three British naval boats it seized last year on its border with Iraq, a senior military official has been quoted as saying. Britain has demanded Tehran hand over the boats which were captured last June along with eight British serviceman in the narrow Shatt al-Arab waterway which divides southwestern Iran from Iraq. The men were freed after three days.
Expert on Iran: Subvert regime
Miami Herald: A Middle East security expert who served in the Reagan administration said Wednesday that the United States needs to work with an Iranian opposition group that’s now on the national list of terror organizations.
Raymond Tanter, who cofounded the newly formed Iran Policy Committee think tank, advocated what he called “forceful diplomacy” to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
