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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jcky who wrote (35059)	7/26/2002 4:40:10 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

jcky, You're not making very much sense here. How is questioning the limits of international law equivalent in any way to "reverting to charges of race, guilt, or character in an attempt to discredit an opponent's opinion"? I engaged in no ad hominem attacks. I merely said that Prof. D'Amato's opinions on international law were divorced from international reality.

To: jcky who wrote (35059)	7/26/2002 9:00:13 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

This decision by Russia, if true, surprises me. Iran is on record as stating that they will use an Atomic Bomb against Israel as soon as they have one. I really suspect that we plan a change in Iran's government at the end of the Iraq invasion, one way or another. We know they are funding and planning terrorist ops all over the world. From the NYT today. July 27, 2002 Russia to Go on Building Nuclear Reactors in Iran By STEVEN LEE MYERS [M] OSCOW, July 26 ? The Russian government, brushing aside the Bush administration's concerns, indicated today that it planned to continue building new nuclear reactors in Iran like one that American officials have repeatedly warned could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Russia's assistance in building a nuclear plant in the Iranian city of Bushehr, near the Persian Gulf, has been a nagging irritant in relations with the United States for years. It produced the sourest note in otherwise friendly meetings between President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin here in May. While administration officials have pressed Russia to break its contract to complete a 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr, a document approved this week by Prime Minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov and announced today outlined plans to build three more reactors at the site. The document also indicated that Russia would offer to build two more reactors at a new nuclear power station at Ahwaz, a city about 60 miles from Iran's border with Iraq. That appeared to contradict remarks earlier this month by Russia's atomic energy minister, Aleksandr Y. Rumyantsev, who said the country's cooperation with Iran in developing its nuclear-power industry would end with the project at Bushehr. Russia, like Iran, has repeatedly dismissed the American concerns about the project, insisting that it was a purely civilian effort to develop new energy sources. But the Bush administration, which has labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea, fears that the Iranians will use Russian equipment and expertise to pursue a secret program to produce nuclear weapons that could threaten Europe and the United States. Russia's plans were released on the government's official Web site today, without public comment, as part of a draft outlining potential areas of economic, industrial and scientific cooperation with Iran over the next 10 years. It includes a section on "a long-term program of cooperation in the field of the peaceful use of atomic power." The prospect of more Russian assistance is certain to provoke new warnings from the United States and may undercut the close relationship that has developed between Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. In recent months Russian officials have sought to defuse the Bush administration's complaints, saying Russia would insist that Iran return the plutonium produced as a byproduct of nuclear power generation to prevent it from being used in weapons. After their meetings in May, Mr. Bush said Mr. Putin had assured him that Russia would press Iran to allow extensive international inspections of the plant. Iran has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has previously said it will cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees the world's civilian nuclear power programs. In Washington, administration officials said Russian cooperation with Iran's nuclear energy program would be on the agenda next week when Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham leads an American delegation to Russia to discuss energy and nuclear proliferation issues. "Our concerns with regards to Russian cooperation with Iran on the issue of Bushehr are well known," said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "We have expressed them in public as well as in private directly to Russian President Putin. And we will continue to work with Russia on proliferation issues of concern." Last month, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, John R. Bolton, angered officials here when he said that Russia "over the years has pursued policies that have led, and continue to lead in our judgment, to the proliferation" of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Russia signed an $800 million agreement to build the reactor at Bushehr in 1995, to complete construction that a subsidiary of the German company Siemes suspended after Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. More than 1,000 Russian engineers and technicians are now at work on the project. The installation of the reactor's main turbine is expected to begin in August. Building more reactors, which must still be negotiated between Iranian and Russian officials, would be lucrative for Russia's ailing nuclear power industry. After today's announcement, the chairman of Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Dmitri O. Rogozin, said the government's plans should not hurt relations with the United States since Russia shares the Bush administration's worries. "Neither Russia nor the United States is interested in other countries' use of peaceful nuclear technologies for military purposes," he told the Interfax news agency.