US accuses Iran of trying to intimidate UN nuclear watchdog
SpaceDaily
WASHINGTON (AFP) May 27, 2004
The United States on Thursday accused Iran of trying to intimidate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by threatening to enrich more uranium unless the UN nuclear watchdog gives it a clean bill of health.
"We don't think it's appropriate to try to intimidate the atomic energy agency or its board into overlooking many failures of Iran to meet its nonproliferation commitments," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
His comments came in response to remarks by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami who said the Islamic republic could resume uranium enrichment if the IAEA gives in to US pressure to censure it for allegedly hiding a nuclear weapons program.
"We can at any time reverse our voluntary decisions," Khatami said in Tehran earlier Thursday, referring to agreements to suspend enrichment and ratify the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The United States charges Iran with hiding a program to build the bomb and has called for the IAEA, which has been investigating the Iranian program since February 2003, to refer the country to the UN Security Council for possible international sanctions.
Iran categorically denies those allegations, saying its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.
Boucher said the IAEA board of governors, which is due to meet next month on Iran's case and a new report from its director general, should consider the facts carefully and not be swayed by pressure from Tehran.
He noted that the agency had already found Iran to have violated its commitments under the NPT and made it difficult for IAEA experts to inspect nuclear facilities.
"Tehran has repeatedly failed to declare significant and troubling aspects of its nuclear program," Boucher said. "It's interfered with and suspended inspections. It's failed to cooperate with the IAEA in resolving outstanding issues related to the program.
"And Iran has made clear, as shown by (Khatami's) remarks, that Iran doesn't somehow feel bound by its own pledge to suspend all enrichment-related activity," he said.
Despite Khatami's threats, he insisted that Iran still wanted to cooperate with the IAEA and said "it is not our intention to disengage from the NPT."
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last week that Iran's cooperation with the agency had been insufficient, but added that he had not drawn any conclusions over the nature of the country's nuclear program.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040527212304.k1udey0l.html
'Death to America' chanted again in Iran
05/28/2004
canoe.ca
TEHRAN -- In a display of anti-U.S. anger not seen in parliament for years, Iran's conservative-dominated legislature chanted "Death to America" and hardliners clashed with reformists yesterday in the first day of the house's new session. The tensions signalled a tough year ahead for President Mohammad Khatami, after fellow reformists lost control of the parliament in contentious February elections. The ballot was boycotted by reformists and largely spurned by voters because the hard-line Guardian Council disqualified thousands of reformist candidates.
In a speech to legislators, reformist Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari accused the clerics of the Guardian Council of acting without justification when it barred candidates from running in the election.
A number of conservative legislators shouted in protest, and, in a bid to end the bickering, hardline legislator Mahdi Kouchakzadeh asked parliament to condemn the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
"To attract the attention of everybody to what is our main task, I invite you to pray for the devastation of the American belligerent occupiers," he said.
Fellow conservatives responded by chanting "Death to America."
It was a sign of how much the new parliament, in which conservatives hold about 180 of 290 seats, differs from the previous one, dominated by reformists. Before, only a few would have shouted anti-American slogans.
With the election, the reformists lost an important forum for challenging hardline policies and supporting Khatami's foundering campaign to ease social and political restrictions. His term as president is in its final year.
Reformists had promoted political freedoms and the lifting of restrictions imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution. But the clerical establishment saw these moves as undermining the principles of the revolution. It used its control of bodies such as the Guardian Council, which vets legislation and electoral candidates, to thwart reforms.
Khatami, who watched the shouting and chanting in silence, later called for tolerance.
"Through respect and avoiding tension, while taking the country's supreme interests into consideration, we can demonstrate co-operation," Khatami said.
Later, Khatami told reporters he remains critical of the way elections were conducted. "Preparations for elections were not appropriate. Our protest still stands," he said.
Khatami said in February the elections were not democratic but that his government was holding them because it had been ordered to do so by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1143725/posts