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Diplomacy sidelined as US targets Iran

Simon Tisdall
Tuesday August 10, 2004
The Guardian

The US charge sheet against Iran is lengthening almost by the day, presaging destabilising confrontations this autumn and maybe a pre-election October surprise.
The Bush administration is piling on the pressure over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme. It maintains Tehran's decision to resume building uranium centrifuges wrecked a long-running EU-led dialogue and is proof of bad faith.

The US will ask a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on September 13 to declare Iran in breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a prelude to seeking punitive UN sanctions.

Iran's insistence that it seeks nuclear power, not weapons, is scoffed at in Washington. John Bolton, the hawkish US under-secretary of state for arms control, says there is no doubt what Tehran is up to. He has hinted at using military force should the UN fail to act. "The US and its allies must be willing to deploy more robust techniques" to halt nuclear proliferation, including "the disruption of procurement networks, sanctions and other means". No option was ruled out, he said last year.

Last month in Tokyo, Mr Bolton upped the ante again, accusing Iran of collaborating with North Korea on ballistic missiles.

Israel, Washington's ally, has also been stoking the fire. It is suggested there that if the west fails to act against Iran in timely fashion, Israel could strike pre-emptively as it did against Iraq's nuclear facilities in 1981, although whether it has the capability to launch effective strikes is uncertain.

The US has been pushing other countries to impose de facto punishment on Iran. Japan has been asked to cancel its $2bn (£1.086bn) investment in the Azadegan oilfield and Washington has urged Russia to halt the construction of a civilian reactor.

Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, said at the weekend there was a new international willingness to confront Tehran, but declined to rule out unilateral action if others did not go along.

That will fuel speculation in Tehran and elsewhere that the Bush administration may resort to force, with or without Israel, ahead of November's election. Options include "surgical strikes" or covert action by special forces.

Such a move would be a high-risk gamble for George Bush. After the WMD fiasco, there would inevitably be questions about the accuracy of US intelligence. In the past Iran has vowed to retaliate. Although it is unclear how it might do so, the mood in Tehran has hardened since the conservatives won fiddled elections last winter.

"I think we've finally got the world community to a place, the IAEA to a place, that it is worried and suspicious," Ms Rice said in one of a string of interviews with CNN, Fox News and NBC television. She vowed to aim some "very tough resolutions" at Iran this autumn. "Iran will either be isolated or it will submit," she said.

Officials in London say she exaggerated the degree of unanimity on what to do next. Britain, France and Germany are the EU troika which has pursued a policy of "critical engagement" with Iran, despite US misgivings.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, has invested considerably in resolving the issue, travelling to Tehran on several occasions. A diplomatic collapse would be a blow.

"There has been no such decision at all," a Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday of US efforts to take the dispute to the security council. "The dialogue [with Iran] is ongoing and the government still believes that negotiation is the way forward at this stage." But Britain is in danger of being dragged down a path of confrontation that it does not want to travel.

Nuclear weapons are not Washington's only worry. The US charges include Iran's perceived meddling in Iraq, where the blame for the surge in Shia unrest is laid partly at Tehran's door. It also takes exception to Iran's ambiguous attitude to al-Qaida and Tehran's backing for anti-Israeli groups such as Hizbullah. The recent Kean report on 9/11 detailed unofficial links between some of the al-Qaida hijackers and Iran.

Investigations into other terrorist attacks since 9/11, including this year's Madrid bombings and failed plots in Paris and London, point to an Iran connection, though the extent of any government involvement is obscure.

While the Bush administration is set on a tougher line there is no consensus even in Washington on what to do.

A report by the independent Council on Foreign Relations says since Iran is not likely to implode any time soon, the US should start talking.

"Iran is experiencing a gradual process of internal change," the report says. "The urgency of US concerns about Iran and the region mandate that the US deal with the current regime [through] a compartmentalised process of dialogue, confidence building and incremental engagement."

That suggestion was mocked by a Wall Street Journal editorial as "appeasement". Hawks say the nuclear issue is too urgent to brook further delay. And therein lies the rub. Bringing Iran in from the cold is a time-consuming business. But the Bush administration, as usual, is in a hurry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1279824,00.html

Bush Stresses Demands on Iran

August 09, 2004
The Associated Press
AP

President George W. Bush vowed today to keep pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, but he tempered his tough words with talk of diplomacy, countering Democrats who say he takes a go-it-alone approach on the world stage.

"Iran must comply with the demands of the free world, and that’s where we sit right now," Bush said at an "Ask the President" campaign event in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Annandale, Va.

"My attitude is that we’ve got to keep pressure on the government and help others keep pressure on the government - so there’s going to be universal condemnation of illegal weapons activities," the president added.

Bush stressed U.S. efforts to work with other nations to make sure the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency asks Iran "hard questions" about its weapons activities. "Foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain have gone in as a group to send a message on behalf of the free world," he said.

Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, had said yesterday that the world finally is "worried and suspicious" over the Iranians’ intentions and is determined not to let Tehran produce a nuclear weapon.

In appearances on two nationally broadcast interview shows, Rice said the United States would act alone to end the program if the administration could not win international support.

For its part, Iran said today that the international community has no reason to be suspicious about its nuclear ambitions, despite allegations by the United States that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

"Iran has not violated any of its commitments to international treaties in its nuclear program," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Kharrazi announced a week ago that his country had resumed building nuclear centrifuges. He said at the time that his country was retaliating for the West’s failure to force the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to close its file on possible Iranian violations of nuclear nonproliferation rules.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Aug/20040809News011.asp

Rice: World Must Stop Iran's Nuclear Intentions [Excerpt]

August 09, 2004
The Associated Press

For 3 1/2 years, the Bush administration has insisted to a largely disbelieving world that Iran was developing a dangerous nuclear capability. The administration is contending now that its doggedness is paying off.

The world finally is "worried and suspicious" over the Iranians' intentions and is determined not to let Tehran produce a nuclear weapon, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

In appearances on two television talk shows, Rice would not say whether the United States would act alone to end the program if the administration could not win international support.

Iran said Monday the international community has no reason to be suspicious about its nuclear ambitions, despite allegations by the United States that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

"Iran has not violated any of its commitments to international treaties in its nuclear program," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Kharrazi announced a week ago that his country had resumed building nuclear centrifuges. He said Iran was retaliating for the West's failure to force the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to close its file on possible Iranian violations of nuclear nonproliferation rules.

Kharrazi said at the time that Iran was not resuming enrichment of uranium, which requires a centrifuge. But, he said, it had restarted manufacturing the device because Britain, Germany and France had not stopped the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

"The United States was the first to say that Iran was a threat in this way, to try and convince the international community that Iran was trying, under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, to actually bring about a nuclear weapons program," Rice said on CNN's Late Edition.

"I think we've finally now got the world community to a place, and the (IAEA) to a place, that it is worried and suspicious of the Iranian activities," she said. "Iran is facing for the first time real resistance to trying to take these steps."

Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union address, included Iran with North Korea and Iraq in an "axis of evil" dedicated to developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Since then, North Korea has publicly resumed its nuclear development program. In Iraq, invading U.S.-led forces have found no such programs after President Saddam Hussein was deposed.

Iran announced in June that it would resume its centrifuge program. Afterward, the U.S. official whose job is to slow the global atomic arms race, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, told Congress that Iraq was jabbing "a thumb in the eye of the international community."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-08-09-rice_x.htm

Iranian Police Warns Women Not to Dress Up Like "Models"

August 09, 2004
Agence France Presse
TurkishPress.com

TEHRAN -- The chief of Iran's police has told women not to dress up like "models", amid fresh signs Monday of a mounting crackdown on skimpy dressers still defying the Islamic republic's dress code.

"In accordance with the law, the police are confronting people who appear in public in an indecent and inappropriate way, and who are regarded by the law enforcement officials as models," police chief Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the official news agency IRNA.

"This is social deviancy and cannot be solved by normal police operations," Ghalibaf added.

Noting that many arrests have taken place in the past two months, he said one of the initiatives in dealing with poorly-veiled women and girls was to invite their parents to meetings organised by the police.

His comments coincided with state television beginning to dedicate a part of its main news programme to "what is fashion?" -- a series of interviews with residents, clerics and "experts" aimed at defining what can and cannot be worn.

For the past several months police have been carrying out a series of operations across the capital Tehran, rounding up large numbers of young women sporting flimsy headscarves, three-quarter length trousers and shape-revealing coats.

Witnesses said the detainees -- picked up in parks, fast food restaurants or from sidewalks -- have been briefly hauled into police stations and subjected to lessons on morality before being freed.

Women ignoring the Islamic dress code can be jailed for up to two months or fined between 50,000 and 500,000 rials (six and 60 dollars).

Pre-summer crackdowns are common at the outset of the hot summer months, but the latest sweep appears to be more determined and is seen as a reflection of the recent shift to the right within the regime.

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=24064

If Iran is not checked, nuclear terror is next

International Herald Tribune - By Brenda Shaffer
Aug 9, 2004

America needs a plan

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts The keystone of any plan to prevent nuclear terrorism would be to curb the advancing programs of states that aspire to possess nuclear weapons. As was shown by the black-market nuclear network run by Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan, state programs provide a springboard for others who want to develop nuclear capabilities.

Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush have both committed themselves to preventing nuclear terrorism, but neither has presented a useful policy plan for dealing with such states, especially when, like Iran, they maintain strong cooperation with terrorist elements.

Bush provided four years of tough-sounding, comic book "axis of evil" rhetoric on Iran but no action to halt its nuclear program. Kerry has offered nothing beyond engagement, a policy that Europe has tried without success. In creating a plan for preventing a nuclear Iran, the next U.S. president should bear in mind the following:

First, multilateralism is important but not sufficient. Last autumn, Washington bowed to European wishes to engage Iran through cooperative measures, hoping that it would abandon its nuclear program. The British, German and French foreign ministers signed an agreement with Tehran under which they would prevent Iran from being referred to the United Nations Security Council - where it would face sanctions for its many violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - if Tehran halted uranium enrichment, adopted the treaty's Additional Protocol, and disclosed completely the extent of its nuclear program.

The result: Tehran's failure to declare all of its nuclear activities continued into this year, its Parliament failed to ratify the Additional Protocol, Iran is gearing up to resume uranium enrichment, and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency faced obstructions several times. Concerned voices in Europe realize that Tehran simply gained a year to advance its program. Some key Europeans are now seeking an effective plan that would rescue their policy of engagement. The United States should lead with concrete policy options.

The next American president should also acknowledge that the United States needs accurate intelligence on the extent and location of Iran's nuclear program, including the layout of facilities. The U.S. intelligence community has blundered several times in assessing countries' capacities for producing weapons of mass destruction - overestimation, in Iraq, underestimation in Libya and Iran. U.S. intelligence agencies must receive adequate resources if they are to determine the extent of the Iranian nuclear program and the potential opportunities for terrorists that it provides.

In addition, centralized control over fissile materials must be maintained during any potential chaos in Iran, and this issue should be addressed by a contingency plan. The Iranians have acknowledged the existence of many installations holding fissile materials - most of which are in highly populated areas. The Iranian public and foreign governments acknowledge that they really don't know just who in Iran controls these facilities.

Iran's president and the Iranian Foreign Ministry, for instance, are not among the inner circle with access to full information on the facilities or knowledge of their command and control structure. It is not clear how this inner circle would act when facing any threat to their power: Some may consider selling off nuclear materials to ensure their future or advance their agendas.

The shoes of the nuclear blackmarketeer Abdul Qadeer Khan should remain empty. The United States and its allies should focus on the personal responsibility of Iranian proliferators. Individuals who are engaged in advancing the Iranian program should be personally deterred and prevented from sharing information or materials with terrorist elements.

The United States should also continue to engage Russia and promote Moscow's positive role in limiting Iran. Because Russia has extensive nuclear cooperation with Iran and is its strategic partner in several other areas, it has considerable leverage over Tehran. Since spring 2003, Moscow has made important efforts toward checking Iran's capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Washington should support these efforts and make sure that they continue, especially upholding the caveat that Russia will not fuel the Bushehr reactor without sufficient safeguards and agreements in place to guarantee the timely return of the reactor's spent fuel to Russia.

Preventing nuclear terrorism will be the defining national security issue of the next administration, and restraining Iran is key. Whoever wins the U.S. presidential election in November must have a solid policy plan.

Brenda Shaffer is a fellow at the International Security Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7545.shtml

The US Presidential Candidates on Iran

Voice of America - Report Section
Aug 9, 2004

Recent developments in Iran have led some political observers to suggest that country may present the main foreign policy challenge for whoever wins the U.S. presidential election in November 2004. The incumbent, President George W. Bush, and his challenger, Senator John Kerry, both have expressed concern over Iran’s plans to develop nuclear weapons, but as VOA’s Serena Parker reports, each man has different views on how the Iran problem should be tackled.

The U.S. State Department has long included Iran on its list of nations that sponsor terrorism. More recently, the commission investigating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 reported that eight of the 19 hijackers traveled through Iran from Afghanistan without having their passports stamped, something Tehran does not deny.

President Bush says although the Central Intelligence Agency has not discovered any links between Iran and the attacks of September 11, U.S. intelligence agencies will continue to investigate. “As to direct connections to September 11 we’re digging into the facts to determine if there was one,” he says.

The President added that he has long expressed concern about Iran, a country he has accused, along with Iraq and North Korea, of belonging to an “axis of evil.” Mr. Bush said Iran’s government denies basic human rights to its own people while sponsoring terrorism attacks in other parts of the world.

“I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States, there are some things they must do,” he says. “For example, they are harboring Al Qaeda leadership there, and I have indicated that they must be turned over to their respective countries. Secondly, they’ve got a nuclear weapons program that they need to dismantle, and we’re working with other countries to encourage them to do so. And thirdly, they’ve got to stop funding terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create great dangers in parts of the world.”

Although President Bush has clearly and repeatedly expressed his concerns about Iran, some analysts say his administration has yet to formulate a coherent policy towards the ruling mullahs. However, Michael Ledeen, resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, believes that will change if President Bush is re-elected in November.

“They’ve left clues and hints suggesting that they might be much more vigorous toward Iran,” he says. “They’re clearly very angry at the games that Iran has played with their nuclear program. And they’ve given every reason to think that they might even consider doing something dramatic.”

Michael Ledeen says there are two kinds of “dramatic” initiatives President Bush – or any American government – might consider. One would be military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mr. Ledeen says the other would be to dramatically increase support for the democratic opposition in Iran and do what was done for Solidarity in Poland and the anti-Milosevic movement in Yugoslavia.

The Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, has also indicated concern about the Iranian atomic program and the country’s links to terrorism.

“Iran presents an obvious and especially difficult challenge,” he says. “Our relations there are burdened by a generation of distrust, by the threat of nuclear proliferation and by reports of al Qaeda forces in that country, including the leadership responsible for the May 13, 2003 bombings in Saudi Arabia.”

Senator Kerry says if he is elected President, his administration’s approach to Iran will be different from that of President Bush. “The Bush administration stubbornly refuses to conduct a realistic, non-confrontational policy with Iran, even where it may be possible, as we witnessed most recently in the British-French-German initiative,” he says. “As president, I will be prepared early on to explore areas of mutual interest with Iran, just as I was prepared to normalize relations with Vietnam a decade ago. Iran has long expressed an interest in cooperating against the Afghan drug trade. That is one starting point.”

Last year, Britain, France and Germany announced they had brokered an agreement with Tehran under which Iran agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment operations and allow inspectors from the U-N’s nuclear watchdog into the country. In spite of that, Iran has failed to fully cooperate and recently announced that it had resumed construction of centrifuges that are capable of producing material for a nuclear bomb.

President Bush and Senator Kerry are adamant that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable, but neither man has yet to explain to the American public what his Administration would do if international pressure fails and Iran continues to develop its nuclear weapons program.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7550.shtml

Iran theatre director turned prison boss wins praise

August 10, 2004, 05:18

Putting a former theatre director in charge of a detention centre for hardened young criminals might seem a bold decision. For Iran, where prison directors tend to have military backgrounds and human rights activists say abuse of detainees is rife, it is nothing short of revolutionary.

But the once run-down and violent Tehran Juvenile Correction and Rehabilitation Centre has undergone a sea-change since Mansour Moqarehabed took charge six years ago, winning praise from international observers and local rights groups. Blending unorthodox methods - one involves taking a depressed inmate for a night out in the city - with an emphasis on trust and participation, Moqarehabed has even won over sceptical colleagues accustomed to a more robust approach.

"There was some resistance from the staff here at first and they used to say it had become the kids' kingdom and that I was too kind to them," he told said during a visit to the centre in northwestern Tehran. "(But) the judiciary wanted these changes to happen. That's why they appointed someone with a theatrical background and not a military background."

Grave problems still exist in Iran's prisons system. A June Human Rights Watch report called "Like the Dead in their Coffins" detailed many cases of torture and abuse of students and journalists by their jailors. Last month, one inmate had to have his hands amputated after being bound to a ceiling fan in a prison in southwestern Iran.

Antidote to bad publicity
Iran's hardline judiciary has latched on to the juvenile centre as a potential antidote to the negative publicity. President Mohammad Khatami recently paid a high-profile visit, international delegations are regularly given a tour and now, for the first time with Reuters' visit, the foreign media have been allowed in to have a look.

Inside the sprawling complex - currently home to about 210 boys and 30 girls housed in a separate wing - there is a relaxed, but orderly atmosphere. Security appeared low key with just a handful of uniformed guards and no barred windows. The boys were busy with a range of activities from playing soccer to learning job skills such as hairdressing or computing.

In one workshop a group of boys took a carpentry class, wielding saws and chisels even though many had history of violent crimes, including stabbings and murder. "I want to trust them and they have to trust us," said Moqarehabed, placing his arm around a boy who was holding a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other. "When the children see that we like them, they like us in return," agreed Madieh Firouzie, who runs the smaller section for girls, most of whom were picked up for prostitution. "When they see that we respect them they never forget it."

Rights worker Mahbubeh Khonsariyeh, who teaches the children "life skills" such as how to avoid arguments, said the centre had revolutionised the handling of juvenile criminals. "The centre has been very successful in developing these children. If only society would be as receptive to them," said Khonsariyeh, a member of the Association for the Defence of Children's Rights run by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Curtains and flower boxes
Attention has been paid to small details in an effort to make the centre less intimidating for its young inmates. Spotless dormitories have been painted a soothing sky blue and have curtains and flower boxes where there used to be bars.

"Putting children in prison encourages a sense of hostility and revenge," said Moqarehabed. "Here the children don't feel like inmates, they feel more relaxed and integrated." To encourage integration and participation the centre has its own council and mayor elected by the youngsters. Current Mayor Saman Ganji was an angry, 15-year-old convicted murderer when he arrived. Now 17 and just weeks from completing a reduced three-year sentence he smiled shyly when asked if he was ready to leave.

"This place has helped me a lot in getting over my previous situation ... I'll be sad to leave but I want to return to my life outside," he said. Inside Ganji has kept up with his schooling and earned diplomas in computing and electronics. He recently represented the centre at a youth forum with Khatami and personally invited him to pay a visit.

Students also run their own magazine "Our House". A recent issue contained advice on how to remain calm and an interview with a repentant drug dealer. Troublemakers are disciplined, but often in unconventional ways. One boy who was caught smashing windows using a catapult was ordered to make 20 more of the handheld weapons.

"Then I took him and a group of boys into the mountains and we all smashed bottles using the catapults," Moqarehabed said, mimicking the catapult's action. After a few hours of fun the boys wanted to go back to the centre. "They soon grew tired of smashing windows after that." - Reuters

http://www.sabcnews.com/world/the_middle_east/0,2172,85406,00.html

Iran Arming Militia, Says Iraqi Official

August 10, 2004
The Associated Press
Abdul Hussein al-Obeidi

NAJAF, Iraq -- With fighting raging for a fifth day in Najaf, Iraq's interim defense minister yesterday accused Iran of sending weapons to Shi'ite insurgents in the city.

Meanwhile, radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr vowed, that he would continue the battle "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."

The uprising by Sheik al-Sadr's militia began to affect Iraq's crucial oil industry, as pumping to the southern port of Basra was halted by threats to infrastructure, an official with the South Oil Co. said.

Clashes also intensified in Basra, where a British soldier was killed and several others wounded in fighting near Sheik al-Sadr's office, the British Defense Ministry said. Iraqi police reported three militants killed and more than 10 wounded.

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, who previously had described Iran as Iraq's "first enemy," made the comments about his country's eastern neighbor during an interview broadcast on the Arab-language television network Al Arabiya.

"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border," Mr. Shaalan said.

Asked whether Iran was still considered the "top enemy" of Iraq, he answered ambiguously.

"From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one who is considered the top enemy," he said.

"For the first time, the Iraqis see the bodies of children, the body parts of children, the bodies of women and the body parts of women on the street. Yes. This is the truth."

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said last week that 80 men who fought U.S. forces at a sprawling cemetery in Najaf were Iranian. "There is Iranian support to al-Sadr's group, and this is no secret," he said on Friday.

Iran has denied interfering in Iraq. It says it does not allow fighters to cross into Iraq, but it does not rule out that such people might cross the long border illegally.

Mahdi's Army, Sheik al-Sadr's militia, has been battling U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in Najaf since Thursday.

U.S. forces yesterday tried once more to drive the militiamen from the cemetery, and an American tank rattled up to within 400 yards of the revered Imam Ali shrine, which fighters reportedly have been using as a base.

Meanwhile, Sunni Muslim militants attacked targets around Baghdad. A suicide car bombing aimed at a deputy governor killed six persons, and a roadside bomb hit a bus, killing four passengers.

The U.S. military also said a U.S. Marine was killed in action on Sunday in the western province of Anbar. The death brought to at least 927 the number of American troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the war.

An insurgent group warned in a videotaped message that it would conduct attacks on government offices in Baghdad, telling employees to stay away. Sheik al-Sadr's militants kidnapped a top Baghdad police official and demanded that their comrades in detention be set free.

In Nasariyah, 190 miles south of Baghdad, militants raided the local office of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party, set it on fire and warned party members to leave the city. There were no injuries in the Sunday night attack, said police Capt. Haydar Abboud.

Sheik al-Sadr's vow to keep fighting was a defiant challenge to Mr. Allawi, who called on the Shi'ite militants to stop fighting during a visit to Najaf on Sunday.

"I will continue fighting," the firebrand cleric told reporters in Najaf. "I will remain in Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."

"Resistance will continue and increase day by day," he said. "Our demand is for the American occupation to get out of Iraq. We want an independent, democratic, free country."

Fighting remained centered on the vast cemetery near the Imam Ali shrine. The U.S. military said Mahdi's Army gunmen were staging attacks from the cemetery and then running to take refuge in the shrine compound, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam.

Mr. al-Zurufi gave U.S. forces approval to enter the shrine, a senior U.S. military official said yesterday.

"We have elected at this point not to conduct operations there, although we are prepared to do so at a moment's notice," the official said.

Such an offensive would almost certainly outrage the nation's Shi'ite majority and exacerbate the crisis.

The military official estimated that 360 insurgents had been killed between Thursday and Sunday — a figure the militants dispute. Five U.S. troops have been killed, and Najaf police chief Brig. Ghalib al-Jazaari said about 20 policemen had died.

Hospital officials said four persons, including three policemen, were killed yesterday and 19 others injured. In addition, 13 previously unidentified bodies had been brought to the hospital.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040810-123446-3839r.htm

Iranian Nuclear Demands Stun Europeans

August 10, 2004
The Billings Gazette
The Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria -- Iran is demanding Europe's leading powers back its right to nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons, dismaying the Europeans and strengthening Washington's push for U.N. sanctions, a European Union official and diplomats said Monday.

Declining to respond to a list of demands presented by Iran last week, the Europeans are urging the Iranian government to instead make good on a pledge to clear up suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.

But diplomats said Iran's demands undermine the effort by France, Germany and Britain to avoid a confrontation. They had hoped to persuade Tehran to give up technology that can produce nuclear arms, but now are closer to the Bush administration's view that Iran should be referred to the U.N. Security Council for violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the diplomats said.

The Iranian list, presented during talks in Paris, includes demands that the three European powers:

* Support Iran's insistence its nuclear program have access to "advanced technology, including those with dual use," which is equipment and know-how that has both peaceful and weapons applications. "Remove impediments" - sales restrictions imposed by nuclear supplier nations - preventing Iran access to such technology.

* Give assurances they will stick by any commitment to Iran even if faced with "legal (or) political ... limitations," an apparent allusion to potential Security Council sanctions.

* Agree to sell Iran conventional weapons.

* Commit to push "rigorously and systematically" for a non-nuclear Middle East and to "provide security assurances" against a nuclear attack on Iran, both allusions to Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms and which destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in a 1981 airstrike to prevent it from making atomic arms.

France, Germany and Britain last year had held out the prospect of supplying Iran with some "dual use" nuclear technology, but only in the distant future and only if all suspicions about the Iranian program were laid to rest.

With Iran still under investigation, the demands stunned senior French, German and British negotiators, said a European Union official familiar with the Paris meeting.

Ignoring the list, the Europeans instead urged Iran to act on its leaders' pledge to clear up suspicions about their nuclear ambitions by Sept. 13, when the International Atomic Energy Agency meets to review Iran's nuclear program, the official said.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/08/10/build/world/60-iran-nuclear.inc