ot .... whose "moment of truth" ??
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Iran signals more defiance on nuclear work
Fri Jun 2, 2006 10:23 AM ET
today.reuters.com
VIENNA (Reuters) - A senior Iranian nuclear official signaled Tehran's determination on Friday to press on with its nuclear work, despite facing what Washington called a "moment of truth" over a program that could produce atomic weapons.
The remarks by Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, suggested Tehran may have already decided to reject offers of incentives and negotiations from six of the world's top powers in return for ending atomic fuel activities.
"Iran is determined to go ahead with its nuclear enrichment work for peaceful purposes," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told students news agency ISNA. "The Iranian nation will not let us give it up."
The White House urged Iran to study a basket of incentives, approved by the U.S., British, French, German Russian and Chinese foreign ministers at a Vienna meeting on Thursday, before officially responding.
European officials will give Iranian officials a detailed presentation of the incentives in the next couple of days and a formal answer was hoped for within weeks, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Asked about Iran's insistence that it would not give up uranium enrichment, Snow said: "As we've said, we think it's fair to give the government of Iran an opportunity to review carefully everything in the package. We understand people may make statements, but we want to give them time to study this."
Decision-making in Iran can be drawn out by a complex political structure with ultimate power resting in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran, the world's No. 4 oil producer, says it wants to enrich uranium only to the level required for use in atomic power reactors and has no interest in making highly-enriched uranium, a key ingredient in warheads.
"MOMENT OF TRUTH"
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a series of interviews with U.S. television and radio networks, told CBS Iran was facing a "moment of truth".
"They need to make a choice. The international community needs to know if negotiation is a real option," Rice told CNN.
Russia and China, who do not believe Iran poses an imminent threat to peace as Western leaders believe, have been opposed threatening Iran with sanctions if it defies such demands.
But Rice told CNN: "Russia and China have signed on to the two paths."
She said that both paths agreed in Vienna, one leading Iran to international integration with incentives and another path toward isolation via various disincentives, were "quite robust."
But Western officials would not say if the package specified what sanctions Iran would face for further defiance, and Russia said no military action -- mooted by Washington as a last-resort option -- was on the table now.
"I can say unambiguously that all the agreements from yesterday's meetings rule out in any circumstances the use of military force," Lavrov was quoted by RIA news agency as saying on his return to Moscow from Thursday's Vienna meeting.
If Iran rebuffed the incentives, Lavrov said the big powers would return to discussing a Council resolution ordering Tehran to stop enriching uranium. But he said this resolution would not mention sanctions, contrary to Western wishes.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett touted the package as "far-reaching and said it gave Iran a chance to "reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation".
She said it included an offer to remove Iran's case from the Council agenda if Tehran shelved uranium enrichment.
Diplomats said earlier the incentives would encompass a light-water nuclear reactor and an assured foreign supply of atomic fuel so Iran would not need to enrich uranium itself, thereby mastering technology with weapons applications.
They had said sanctions could entail visa bans and a freeze on assets of Iranian officials before resort to trade measures.
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Iran snubs U.S. offer of talks
Fri. 02 Jun 2006
iranfocus.com
Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Jun. 02 – Iran rejected as “repetitive” an offer by the United States to take part in direct negotiations with Tehran to resolve the international deadlock over its suspected nuclear weapons program if it first suspended uranium enrichment.
Senior cleric Ahmad Khatami told Friday prayers worshippers in Tehran that the offer by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was “old” and “repetitive”. His speech was aired live on state television.
“It appears that America has become confused about Iran and does not know what to do with the great Iranian nation”, Khatami said.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran created an opportunity for itself from the crisis that America had created”, he said.
“The U.S. Secretary of State says that Iran must first suspend its nuclear activities and then America will come to the negotiations table. They express their needs as concessions”, he said, adding, “For 27 year you have wished to have dialogue with Iran and are still unsuccessful”.
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Iran: U.S. is biggest threat to world security
Fri. 02 Jun 2006
iranfocus.com
Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Jun. 02 – A senior Iranian cleric accused the United States on Friday of being the greatest threat to the world’s security.
“If the world wants to identify the government which is the most important threat to world security, that government in the U.S.”, Ahmad Khatami told worshippers during Friday prayers in Tehran. His remarks were aired live on state television.
Khatami accused the United States of having launched or indirectly taken part in military attacks on 25 states over the past 50 years. “If this is not insecurity, then what is?” he said.
He said that drunk American drivers were responsible for the deaths of the “people of Afghanistan” and that protests by Afghans had been violently suppressed.
U.S. President George W. Bush’s popularity rating had dropped to 29 percent, he added.
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Ayat. Khatami dismisses US' anti-Iran claims
Tehran, June 2, IRNA
irna.ir
Iran-Prayers-Khatami
Substitute Friday prayers leader of Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami on Friday ruled out the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's anti-Iran claims, calling them "repetitive and worn-out."
"It seems that the US has been suffering a sort of confusion in speaking about Iran and it does not know how to deal with the great Iranian nation," said Khatami while delivering his second sermon to large groups of Tehrani Friday prayers worshippers.
Khatami brushed off Rice's claim that Iran's access to nuclear warfare would endanger world security.
"Rice claims Iran's access to nuclear warfare will put the world security in danger, while we have said times and again that nuclear arms have no position in our defense program," said Khatami.
He said that if the world is to name a government posing the greatest danger to global security it is the US government.
"The US government has over the past 50 years independently and indirectly launched military strikes on 25 independent states; if that's not insecurity, what is the meaning of insecurity then?" asked Khatami.
He further questioned, "Which country has a dirty record of nuclear strikes on the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Americans build up insecurity."
He went on to say that Americans intended to establish security in Afghanistan, but today, drunken American drivers kill people in the country and the people protesting the problem are given bullets in response.
Khatami further ridiculed Rice's claims, saying, "The US State Secretary says that if Iran's regime continues its current path, no other result but payment of a dear price will await it; if by dear cost it is meant economic sanctions, (I should say) we have been in sanctions for 27 years and we have benefited from it and made progress in science and technology in our country.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran changed the crisis, created by the US, into a chance for itself.
"If by dear cost it is meant the military strike, (I should say) eight years of war were imposed on us. Those are Americans that have paid the dear price; the US soldiers are today victims of the wrong policies of the US statesmen and popularity of (the US President George W.) Bush has fallen to 29 percent.
"The Iranian nation has shown in 27 years (since victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution) that is ready to pay any price in defense of the country and its aspirations."
He also dismissed the US State Secretary's claim that the precondition for the US talks with Iran is Tehran's suspending its nuclear activities.
"These (people) state their needs in the form of an incentive; You have for 27 years been wishing to talk with Iran and are still failed (to achieve your goals)," he went on to say.
Elsewhere in his sermon, the Iranian senior cleric held the US accountable for ethnic dispute in Iran.
He said that different ethnic groups have been leading a peaceful life in Iran for centuries and the core of their unity is Islam.
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