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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JBTFD who wrote (81238)	6/1/2007 4:35:27 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 93284

Rice denies U.S. is split on dealing with Iran By Helene Cooper Friday, June 1, 2007 MADRID: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Friday to minimize any sense of division over Iran within the Bush administration after the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency criticized the "new crazies" pushing for military action against Tehran. "The president of the United States has made it clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course," Rice said here. "That policy is supported by all of the members of the cabinet and by the vice president of the United States." Rice's comment came as senior officials at the State Department were expressing fury over reports that members of Dick Cheney's staff have told others that the vice president believes the diplomatic track with Iran is pointless and is looking for ways to persuade Bush to confront Iran militarily. In a news conference Friday, Rice said Cheney supported her strategy of trying to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions through diplomacy. A senior Bush administration official separately denied that there was a deep divide between Rice and Cheney on Iran. But, the official said, "the vice president is not necessarily responsible for every single thing that comes out of the mouth of every single member of his staff." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about any divide within the administration. The reports about hawkish statements by members of Cheney's staff surfaced last week in The Washington Note, a blog put out by Steve Clemons of the left-leaning New America Foundation. The reports have alarmed European diplomats, some of whom fear that the struggle over Iran's nuclear program may evolve into a decision by the Bush administration to resort to force. In interviews, people who have spoken with Cheney's staff have confirmed the broad outlines of the report. Some said that some of the hawkish statements to outsiders were made by David Wurmser, a former Pentagon official who is now Cheney's principal deputy assistant for national security affairs. The accounts were provided by people who expressed alarm about the statements but declined to be quoted by name. In an interview with BBC Radio that was broadcast Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, said he did not want to see another war like the one raging in Iraq four years after the U.S.-led invasion. "You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say, 'Let's go and bomb Iran,' " ElBaradei said. "I wake up every morning and see 100 Iraqis, innocent civilians, are dying." ElBaradei, who has urged Western powers to consider allowing Iran limited enrichment on its own territory, has faced criticism from Bush administration officials who contend he should stick to monitoring Iran's nuclear program and leave diplomatic policy to the six countries that have banded together to try to rein in its nuclear ambitions. But several West European officials echoed his concerns and said privately that they were worried that Cheney's "red line" - the point at which he believes that Iran would be on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon and a military strike was necessary - may be coming up soon. ElBaradei said in the BBC interview that one could not "bomb knowledge." Asked who the "new crazies" were, he replied: "Those who have extreme views and say the only solution is to impose our will by force." One year ago Friday, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States offered Tehran a package of incentives if it stopped enriching uranium, which it maintains is for peaceful purposes but the West believes is directed toward a nuclear weapons program. Iran rejected the offer and the UN Security Council has since passed two sets of mild sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to change its mind. Rice was the one who prodded Bush last year to reverse 27 years of U.S. policy and join European talks with Iran over its program, provided that Iran suspended its enrichment of uranium. Some conservatives in the administration have expressed doubts that the diplomatic course would yield much. Last week, the IAEA issued a report detailing Iran's progress in enriching uranium. It said Tehran had 1,300 centrifuges running during a surprise inspection in May. The report noted that Iran had fed only 260 kilograms of uranium hexafluoride into the machines for enrichment over the past few months, suggesting that the centrifuges were running quite slowly, perhaps to keep from failing. But U.S. officials have nonetheless called the report "alarming" because Iran is closing in on the 3,000 centrifuges that are needed to make a nuclear bomb. Traveling in Europe this week, Rice declined to say where her own "red lines" were on Iran and said she intended to continue to pursue diplomacy with Iran. In Madrid for a brief stop to try to mend the Bush administration's tattered relations with Spain's Socialist government, Rice was asked whether she could assure that Cheney did not want to use military action against Iran. "The most powerful set of disincentives that we have now are the collateral effects of Iran being under a Security Council resolution, which has made the private sector think twice about the investment and reputational risk of getting involve with Iran," she said. "I will tell you what will help to get us to a place where we don't have an unpalatable choice," she added. "We do have a choice, we have a diplomatic choice." Separately, Iran took a small step toward allaying Western concerns about its nuclear program, offering to come clean to the IAEA about its past nuclear-related activities. During a meeting with the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ari Larijani, pledged to end years of stonewalling about what Iran's nuclear program entails. The offer was short of the concession that the United States and Europe have demanded - suspension of uranium enrichment - and it was unlikely to be enough to break the impasse.