President Bush: Iran Shouldn't Have Weapons Program
September 25, 2003
Kansas City Star
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday his talks with world leaders showed wide agreement that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapons program.
Bush said he plans to raise the issue during meetings over the next two days at Camp David with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that it was a chief subject of many of his sessions with world leaders this week in New York.
"It is very important for the world to come together to make it very clear to Iran that there will be universal condemnation if they continue with a nuclear weapons program," Bush told reporters. "I'll tell you, the response was very positive. People understand the danger of the Iranians having a nuclear weapons program."
Bush's comments came as diplomats said that U.N. atomic experts have found traces of weapons-grade uranium at a second site in Iran, a development that heightened international concerns about the nature of Tehran's nuclear activities.
The diplomats said minute quantities of the substance were found by the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Kalay-e Electric Co., just west of Tehran. Earlier this year, U.N. inspectors found weapons-grade highly enriched uranium particles at a plant in Natanz that is supposed to produce only a lower grade for energy purposes.
Iran says its nuclear programs are to produce energy and that the traces of weapons-grade material were imported on equipment purchased from abroad. The United States and its allies argue the only purpose of Iran's nuclear efforts is for weapons programs.
Earlier, Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, denounced the discovery.
"These are part of a long-standing pattern of evasions and deception to disguise the true nature and purpose of Iran's nuclear activities," he said.
The U.N. agency has set an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is for energy purposes as it claims.
The White House said it would support a referral to the Security Council if Iran does not comply with the U.N. demands.
"This is one last chance for Iran to comply," McClellan said.
The U.S.-Russia disagreement over Iran is one of several thorny topics hanging over the round of meetings scheduled between Bush and Putin at the president's retreat in the Maryland mountains.
The Bush administration says that Russian sales of technology to Iran are helping Tehran to develop a nuclear weapons program. Russia has denied that.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/6859996.htm