U.S. Slams United Nations Watchdog, Suspects Iran Still Lying

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story ^ | Friday, November 21, 2003 | Louis Charbonneau

[freetradenotfree]

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Friday of weakening its credibility by not taking a tougher stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Washington says Iran has a secret program to develop atomic bombs and was enraged when an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report concluded there was "no evidence" of this.

[Brian Allen]

<< We are in the nascent stages of WW III, I firmly believe, and there is simply no possible way Iran and N. Korea can be allowed to build/retain nuclear weaponry. >>

It's WW IV [And overlapped WW III, which we won against the Soviet Union] -- and has been onging since 1979 when the traitor Jimmah KKKarrtah failed to react to Iran's murderous mullah's act of war against America's Sovereign Territory. [In the form of Our Nation's Teheran Embassy]

Iran's seventh-century death-cult savages haven't yet caught on that we're on to them.

But America's first President and Armed Forces Commander-In-Chief in a long while, George Walker Bush, has.

[MeekOneGOP]

[autoresponder]

[freetradenotfree]

U.S. drops hard line on Iran nukes
Reuters ^ | Sat 22 November, 2003 | Louis Charbonneau


Posted on 11/22/2003 8:30 AM PST by freetradenotfree


U.S. drops hard line on Iran nukes

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States has dropped its demand the U.N. atomic watchdog declare Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), despite its belief it wants to build an atom bomb, Western diplomats say.

After two days of talks, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-member Board of Governors on Friday adjourned until Wednesday to allow a chance for diplomats to revise a French, German and British draft resolution condemning Iran's 18-year concealment of sensitive parts of its nuclear programme.

However, Western diplomats said informal talks continued on Saturday between Washington and the capitals of the European Union's three biggest states to toughen up the EU trio's proposal, two versions of which U.S. negotiators have rejected as too weak.

"Talks are definitely ongoing, though much of the discussion is taking place in the capitals," a Western diplomat said.

Diplomats close to the talks said U.S. officials had abandoned their demand that the resolution contain an explicit reference to Iran's past "non-compliance" with its NPT obligations and that Tehran be reported to the U.N. Security Council, which could choose to impose economic sanctions.

"I think the U.S. will accept a resolution without an explicit reference to non-compliance," another diplomat said.

Diplomats told Reuters that U.S. negotiators had abandoned early last week their demand that Iran be reported to the Council when it became apparent only four other board members -- Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- would support this.

In exchange, diplomats close to the talks told Reuters that the United States, which is convinced Iran wants nuclear weapons, were now helping Britain, France and Germany revise the resolution to include a timetable to keep pressure on Iran to cooperate.

The United States has harshly criticised the IAEA for saying in a recent report on Iran that it had "no evidence" to suggest Tehran had a secret weapons programme.

U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, told the board on Friday the phrase "no evidence" was "highly unfortunate" in the light of revelations about Iran's cover-up and secret experiments with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment. He said the IAEA should have used the words "no proof" instead.

Brill said the IAEA's wording had provoked "expressions of disbelief that the institution charged with... scrutinising nuclear proliferation risks was dismissing important facts."

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reacted strongly, calling the U.S. statement "disingenuous".