Free Republic

WASHINGTON: The US has threatened to haul Iran before the UN Security Council if it makes good its latest plan to resume nuclear fuel research. The warning came as Iranian delegates failed to show up at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday to discuss Tehran's plan to resume atomic fuel research, suspended two years ago. Iran has described its nuclear fuel plan as a "program for peaceful nuclear energy" and said it would restart the program on Monday. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that if Iran did reopen its nuclear fuel...

'Iran is on brink of a dark age' By Lillian Swift (Filed: 20/11/2005) Iran is on the brink of entering another dark age under its new conservative regime, according to one of its leading artistic luminaries. Ali Reza Sami-Azar, who recently resigned as the head of the Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art, said the cultural glasnost of the past five years had come to an end. "We are in very grave danger of reverting back to the post-revolutionary days, when only those artists who were deemed as expressing so-called Islamic values were displayed," he said in an interview with the...

North Korea on brink of first nuclear blast, warn Americans By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 07/05/2005) America's spy satellites have detected frenetic activity in North Korea indicating that the secretive Stalinist state is on the verge of detonating a nuclear weapon for the first time. The preparations include the construction of a reviewing stand that might be used by Pyongyang's leadership to observe a test explosion. Intelligence officers regard that as highly significant since Kim Jong-il's regime constructed a similar stand seven years ago when it fired a new missile over Japan, an act which triggered a major regional...

US and Europe on brink of trade war WTO says Bush's steel tariffs break rules · Brussels threatens to retaliate unless Washington backs down Andrew Osborn in Brussels and Larry Elliott Saturday July 12, 2003 The Guardian The European Union and the United States were teetering on the brink of a transatlantic trade war last night after Brussels threatened a $2.2bn package of sanctions unless Washington scrapped steel tariffs ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation yesterday. Brussels claimed victory in its fight to force President George Bush to drop measures aimed at shoring up his political support in America's...

On The Brinkwritten by James Daly (james_daly_ca@hotmail.com)The situation in Iraq, regardless of UN bickering and posturing, will come to a head this week.  Forget the diplomats and forget the UN proposals that would stretch out the inspections indefinitely.  Most importantly, forget what all those talking heads on cable news are saying.  If you want to truly understand the situation, watch what America and her allies do, rather than what they say.  While last minute diplomacy continues, it should be clear to all that we are indeed on the brink of war.It has long been understood that actions speak louder...

ON THE BRINK Our Father in Heaven, We find ourselves on the brink of war. It sounds like a cliche, for we have been hearing that phrase bandied about like so much candy in our press. But as we look at what that phrase means, we give pause. What are they saying to us? A brink is the upper edge of a steep or vertical declivity. The assumption of course is that if we go forward, there is absolutely no turning back; we will fall. Gravity will take over, and natural laws being what they are, we, the falling object,...

On the brink of war: UK gives Saddam 10-day deadline to avoid conflict By David Usborne in New York 08 March 2003 The countdown to war started yesterday with 17 March set as a final deadline for Iraq to reveal and surrender all of its weapons programmes or face military punishment. In a passionate address to the UN Security Council, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, urged members to approve an Anglo-American resolution clearing the path to war in a vote on Tuesday. And in an attempt to win enough votes for the resolution, an amended version was circulated giving Iraq...

Blix verdict brings US to brink of war By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 20/12/2002) America stepped up its drive towards war last night, saying that Saddam Hussein was in "material breach" of United Nations resolution 1441. At the same time it announced that it was doubling its forces in the Gulf. It gave its verdict on Iraq's 12,000-page declaration on weapons of mass destruction after Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, told the Security Council that the document contained little new. Mr Blix said it was based largely on statements Iraq made during inspections between 1991 and 1998,...