Bush Edges Toward Europe on Iran Nuclear Crisis

© Reuters 2005 ^ | Thu Mar 3, 2005 06:32 PM ET | Steve Holland and Louis Charbonneau

[Former Military Chick]

WASHINGTON/VIENNA (Reuters) - President Bush on Thursday edged toward backing Europe's offer of incentives to Iran to abandon nuclear weapons, but diplomats said Tehran was building a research reactor that could eventually produce enough plutonium for one bomb a year.

A shift toward the European position would represent an important change in U.S. strategy toward Iran, an enemy Bush has been unwilling to reward for what he sees as its bad behavior over the nuclear issue.

"We want to help make sure the process goes forward and we're looking at ways to help move the process forward. The guilty party is Iran," Bush told reporters.

With U.S.-European talks close to agreement, Bush discussed Iran with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met on Tuesday in London with foreign ministers of the three European nations negotiating with Iran -- Britain, France and Germany.

Diplomats said they learned from satellite photos that Iran had begun work on a research reactor.

"Iran has laid the foundations for the research reactor at Arak," a Western diplomat close to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna told Reuters.

In September, the IAEA board of governors called on Iran to reconsider its decision to start building a reactor of a type that can be used to produce bomb-grade plutonium.

Iran also wants to test parts for machines for nuclear work, diplomats said, which showed that its freeze on activity which could produce atomic weapons would only be short-lived.

The Western diplomats said Iran had made this request despite European Union demands that it stop activities linked to uranium enrichment.

U.S. officials said under the new joint strategy toward Iran, the United States would not block Tehran from joining the World Trade Organization, and would not prevent European allies from selling Iran civilian aircraft parts.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT

In turn, the United States would insist that Iran abandon uranium enrichment, something it has refused to do.

Bush may also slightly ease U.S. sanctions law to permit American non-governmental groups to operate in Iran, congressional and diplomatic sources told Reuters.

Some U.S. officials believe offering incentives will strengthen the international community's hand by providing a united front for punitive measures, such as U.N. sanctions, if the incentives do not work.

Rice said the negotiations would show whether Iran was ready to end suspicions that it is pursuing a nuclear bomb.

"We believe that the EU negotiations are leading in the right direction because what they are doing is they are confronting Iran with a choice about whether it is prepared to give the international community the kind of confidence it needs about Iranian activities," she said.

Bush said Washington was working with its European allies to ensure that "the negotiating strategy achieves the objective of pointing out where guilt needs to be as well as achieving the objective of no nuclear weapon."

An announcement of the president's strategy could come this week, U.S. officials said.

Bush has branded Iran part of an "axis of evil," along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And Tehran has been an antagonist of Washington since the 1979 Iranian revolution when students seized more than 60 hostages in the U.S. Embassy in a crisis that lasted 444 days.

Bush has talked of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions on the nuclear issue, and officials believe that still may be necessary depending on how Iran responds.

The EU's "big three" states have offered Iran a package of economic and political incentives if it abandons its uranium enrichment program, which could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons. Tehran has temporarily frozen most of the program but has refused to abandon it.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Tehran denies this, insisting its aim is the peaceful generation of electricity. (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson, Tabassum Zakaria and Carol Giacomo)

[Former Military Chick]

As I read this I came to the conclusion that the media will paint this in a way that it will be anti Bush.

[Common Tator]

Very typical George W. Bush. The bottom line is No Atomic weapons for Iran. President Bush is taking away the Europeans excuse that their negotiations with Iran failed because of the USA. It is the typical approach of George W. Bush. The president said what he said, to make it look like everything is in the hands of the OLD Europe. When it fails, as it surely will, our president will be in a stronger position to do what needs to be done.

The Bush administration loves to have the media report he has folded his hand when he has not done any such thing.

Remember President Bush leaned over back wards to France and Germany to get their hel to force Saddam to give in to the UN. When Saddam didn't give in, we took him down. But Presideht Bush always lets the Europeans and the UN try and fail.

This is like the Bush statement on attacking Iran. The President said that the rumor that the USA was planing an attack on IRAN was rediculous!"... He immediately followed that statement with, "All options are on the table"

Which says pretty clearly to IRAN.. we are not going to attack Iran right now... later we might but not right now. I suspect that we are hard at work fomenting all the trouble we can for the mullahs in Iran. It will take a while but there is an uprising coming.

Most of our problems in the middle east can be traced to Jimmy Carters failure to support the Shah and a Pro USA successor when the Shaw died of cancer.

I still remember Dan Rather doing a glowing piece on CBS Sixty Minutes about that wonderful religious man Ayatollah Khomeini. Rather, to the cheers of the Carter Administation, painted Ayatollah Khomeini as the Muslim equivelent of Billy Graham .. only nicer and more honorable. Then they got blindsided with the Ayatollah got in power.. with their help.

It is my view that Jimmmy Carter and CBS have cost us a lot of lives. By their stupid desire to replace the Shah system in Iran they have seen to it that millions live in terror and thousands of our troops die.