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What happened to the support that the Bush administration said it had for sanctions against Iran? LAST SPRING the Bush administration struck what looked like a clever diplomatic bargain with European governments, Russia and China on addressing Iran. The Islamic regime, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, would be offered a "clear choice" between a package of economic and political treats -- including the direct dialogue with the United States that Tehran has long craved -- and international sanctions, depending on whether it agreed to suspend its nuclear program. Bush administration officials said they agreed to back the incentive package...

Iran moved a step closer to U.N. sanctions Thursday, with a meeting of the five Security Council permanent members plus Germany making a "lot of progress" on ways of punishing Tehran for its nuclear defiance, a senior State Department official said. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said further discussions were needed on how harshly to penalize Tehran for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, as demanded by the Security Council. But "we've made a lot of progress ... to push this along toward a sanctions resolution," Burns said, speaking at the end of the six-nation talks. The meeting came amid...

Six of the world's powers concluded Thursday that Iran has not met a U.N. Security Council demand to suspend uranium enrichment, a move that could lead to sanctions. "We had a first discussion of next steps in the Security Council following the lines of resolution 1696," Reuters quoted a diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying. The diplomat took part in the meeting of senior officials from Germany, France, Britain, the U.S., Russia and China, taking place in Berlin.

The U.N. can't possibly stop Iran. Sunday, September 3, 2006 12:01 a.m. Despite last week's United Nations deadline for Iran to give up its nuclear bomb program, Iran has done no such thing. The next diplomatic move is supposed to be for the U.N. to impose sanctions on Iran. That won't work, either.

BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is "no military option" for handling Iran's nuclear program, her spokesman told reporters here on Monday. "The chancellor has expressed the view that there is no military option," Ulrich Wilhelm said, adding that "the door for negotiations remains open." The U.S. leaders have said repeatedly any option would not be ruled out in dealing with Iran's nuclear program as they insist that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. But Iran has said its program is for peaceful purpose, refusing to comply with a UN directive that it cease uranium enrichment...

EU to Iran: We're sorry it had to come to this, but you leave us no choice but to set another deadline. And rest assured we've got many more with your name on them ... and we're not afraid to use them. From Reuters: LAPPEENRANTA, Finland (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Saturday to try to clarify Iran's stance on halting uranium enrichment within two weeks and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan held talks in Tehran to try and settle the standoff. Annan's visit to Iran takes place two days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency...

Iran offered to help support the cease-fire in Lebanon in talks Saturday with U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and insisted that diplomacy is the only way to resolve Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West. The talks came two days after Iran defied a U.N. deadline to halt uranium enrichment, opening the door to consideration of sanctions to reinforce Western demands that the Islamic republic rein in its nuclear program and allay suspicions it is working on atomic weapons. Before the Security Council discusses the issue, the European Union is taking another stab at diplomacy this week, and Annan said before arriving...

French PM Dominique de Villepin has expressed disappointment at Iran's decision to disregard a UN deadline for stopping sensitive nuclear work. "We cannot accept that Iran does not respect commitments it has made in the past," Mr Villepin said after talks with Italian PM Romano Prodi in Rome. Mr Prodi said France and Italy should co-operate over the "Iranian problem". The US wants UN sanctions against Iran over its failure to meet a 31 August deadline to stop enriching uranium. Six world powers are set to meet next week to decide on the way forward. The UN nuclear agency, the...

Annan: Sanctions will not solve Iran nuclear issue By News Agencies and Haaretz Service United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met on Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran. Annan is expected to press Iran to help shore up the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, but diplomats say the talks will also cover Iran's nuclear standoff with the West. Annan said in a newspaper interview before arriving that he hoped for a diplomatic solution that would "avoid another conflict in a region already subjected to a great stress at this moment." Asked about indications that the United States...

The United States has warned Iran that military option "is not off the table" as it mulls a multi-pronged strategy to prevent Tehran from going nuclear. "I think any president charged with responsibility for protecting the American people is not going to take the military option off the table when you confront a threat as grave as an Iran armed with nuclear weapons," US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said. "... He's (Bush) made it plain for some time that our preferred way of dealing with this problem is through peaceful and diplomatic means, and that's what we've...

France leads rebuke of Iran By Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 02/09/2006) France led the international condemnation of Iran's nuclear ambitions yesterday, giving the clearest indication to date that it could side with an American push to impose sanctions. The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, went further than ever before in his criticism of Iran's refusal to suspend its nuclear programme, though he said he still hoped for a negotiated solution to the row. "We cannot accept that Iran should be able to resume its activities in the nuclear field," said Mr de Villepin. "The door must always...

Unenforced deadlines make a mockery of the UN system SOMEHOW the approach of a deadline for one of the world's most unhinged and apocalyptically minded dictators to put a halt to his program of enriching uranium to build nuclear weapons should seem more dramatic. And yet, as the clock ticks down on another ultimatum asking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cease and desist with his nuclear ambitions, much of the world has already shrugged its shoulders with diminished expectations. Mr Ahmadinejad knows the UN can only do so much and that Russia and China are likely to insulate it from consequence in...

Iranians are used to sanctions after struggling with a decades-old ban on doing business with America. What made them bristle Thursday - as the United Nations deadline passed for Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program - was the thought that their country could become an international pariah. "Everyone's worried," jeweler Bahram Mehraban said in his small Tehran storefront, contemplating the possibility of UN sanctions. "Only the common people will be hurt. . . . All the important people here will have prepared and (will) still have a luxurious life." With a tough speech from hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran...

(AP) TEHRAN, Iran Iran's president defiantly refused to compromise as a U.N. deadline for his country to stop enriching uranium arrived Thursday, saying Tehran would not be bullied into giving up its right to nuclear technology. Iran's refusal to heed the U.N. Security Council demand to stop enrichment will be detailed in a confidential IAEA report to be completed Thursday and given to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35 board member nations. That is likely to trigger council members -- by mid-September -- to begin considering economic or political sanctions.

Analysis: Iran Won't Back Down From U.N. Wednesday August 30, 2006 11:16 PM By LEE KEATH Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Iran isn't blinking in the face of Thursday's U.N. deadline for it to halt uranium enrichment or else finally face the possibility of sanctions the United States has sought for years. Tehran appears confident it can withstand any punishment - if it comes at all. There seems to be no question of Iran's bending to the U.N. demand. It was enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its facility in Natanz as recently as Tuesday, U.N. and...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council will need until mid-September before acting on its threat to punish Iran if Tehran's leaders flout a Thursday deadline to suspend uranium enrichment as is widely expected, Britain's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry's prediction seemed to rule out the immediate threat of sanctions against Iran if it disregards the council's demands - spelled out in a resolution adopted this month - to suspend enrichment by Thursday. Iran has already said it would reject the deadline. Jones-Parry said that before it can act, the Security Council will need to receive a...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A key U.S. legislator said in Israel on Sunday he would block aid President George W. Bush promised Lebanon and free the funds only when Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border with Syria. "The international community must use all our available means to stiffen Lebanon's spine and to convince the government of Lebanon to have the new UNIFIL troops on the Syrian border in adequate numbers," said Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee. Lantos said he was putting a legislative hold on Bush's proposal...

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has indicated it is prepared to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade if the United Nations Security Council fails to penalise Tehran for its nuclear enrichment programme, The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. A Security Council resolution gives Iran until Aug.31 to stop uranium enrichment, which could provide fuel to produce electricity or possibly atomic weapons, or face penalties. US Ambassador John Bolton said in an interview late this week that the United States planned to introduce a resolution imposing penalties such as a travel ban and asset freeze for...

Iran is ready for unconditional talks over its nuclear programme but rejects the West's "language of force" over the issue, one of the Islamic republic's religious leaders has said. "Yesterday, today and tomorrow, Islamic Iran is favourable toward negotiations that are just, logical and without preconditions, but refuses the language of force," Ahmad Khatami said in a Friday sermon broadcast on state radio. "Using the language of force with Iran is a foolish and clumsy attitude," said Khatami, who is a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, which supervises the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The United States...

The US would have to lift decades-old sanctions against Iran and probably give assurances that it has no policy of regime change towards the Islamic republic to settle Iran's nuclear dispute with the west, according to leaks of the Iranian response. Iran is demanding firmer guarantees on trade and nuclear supplies...