Posted on 01/12/2006 6:31:13 PM PST by blam
Iran faces isolation over nuclear ambitions
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor and Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 13/01/2006)
Iran faced growing isolation last night after Russia signalled that it would support a campaign by America and Europe to report Teheran to the United Nations for breaching its nuclear obligations.
Teheran's defiant decision this week to restart its uranium enrichment programme, coupled with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map", has stoked international fears that Teheran is trying to build atomic bombs.
The foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany
Meeting in Berlin, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany called for an emergency session of the International Atomic Energy Agency that would refer Iran to the UN Security Council in the coming weeks.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, backed the move, accusing Iran of a "deliberate escalation" of the dispute.
"I don't think it serves anybody's purpose to have a nuclear-armed Iran," she said. "I don't think anybody believes Iran's protestations that this is a peaceful programme."
Miss Rice was careful to say that the door to diplomacy remained open, and that any measures would be targeted at the Iranian regime rather than the Iranian people.
Senior officials from the so-called EU3 will meet in London next week with their counterparts from America, Russia, China to co-ordinate their response.
A former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said Iran was determined to "break the colonial taboos" and accused the West of wanting "to deprive Islamic nations of nuclear energy knowledge and keep them backwards".
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, expressed Russia's alarm.
"The lack of economic logic and the absence of real practical necessity are questions that will feed suspicion that this programme could have a hidden military aspect," he said.
He criticised the anti-Israeli diatribes by Mr Ahmadinejad as pouring "oil on the fire", adding: "All this adds political arguments for those who believe that Iran can only be addressed through the UN Security Council."
He said the security threat posed by Iran was aggravated by the fact that Teheran is also developing a range of ballistic missiles. His comments were tantamount to a recognition that Russia is just as vulnerable to the Iranian nuclear threat as Europe or America.
Mr Rafsanjani: Iran would 'break the colonial taboos'
Western diplomats hope that now that the Kremlin has adopted much of the western diagnosis it will also share the prescription and vote to refer Iran to the Security Council.
Russian backing would, in turn, make it easier to win the support of other important waverers, such as China, India and South Africa. Many Third World countries are wary of setting any precedent that denies them full access to nuclear technology.
They are also suspicious of western motives after America and Britain justified the invasion of Iraq on the grounds of non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
Matters are not helped by the fact that the governing board of the IAEA now includes radical states such as Cuba, Venezuela and Syria. Western countries have sufficient votes to force through a resolution at the IAEA board, but they want a convincing show of international unity.
They also need to get Security Council members to agree what measures the UN should take and avoid the prospect of a veto.
European ministers said they had negotiated "in good faith" with Iran, but Teheran was to blame for taking "unilateral" steps.
They had offered "the most far-reaching proposals for co-operation with Europe in the political, security and economic fields that Iran has received since the Revolution" [of 1979] if Iran gave up enrichment.
European officials are playing down the prospect of sanctions any time soon. "The first sanction is the authority of the Security Council," said one.
who,
Somewhat more so, actually - they and Europe are in range of the missiles, and we aren't. But the real issue is simpler than that - they're convinced that Ahmadinejad really is nuts. So am I.
so USSR builds them nukes and arms their facilities and now they are shocked
hmm, maybe because they know sanctions will last well into the future,
Unfortunately, China still stands ready to veto any substantive punitive action by the UN Security Council against their newfound Iranian buddies.
I can't believe the middle-east hellholes keeps falling for the same line of crap from Russia.
"Keep buying our outdated crappy weapon systems and technology, and we got your back if you have to go up against the US and Europe."
and then when the shit is about to start hitting the fan, the russians get the hell out of dodge.
Russia to Iran: If you don't stop building nuclear weapons, I'm tattling to the UN on you and they will send you a nasty letter!!!
This is getting better by the minute - Iran disregards every warning, thumbs their nose at the rest of the world while they remove IAEA seals on equipment, now say theyre ready to talk again, after the free world got tough and condemned them?!? Is there ANYONE who doesnt beleive this is just another smokescreen so they can drag out negotiations while they continue working on a bomb? (Yeah, I know - the democrats). Is it not also the democrats who shot down development of the nuclear bunker buster, which would destroy the Iranians clandestine nuclear program? I thought so. If this keeps up, Isreal will soon be glowing in the dark...
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