Iran Wants European, Russian Help to Enrich Uranium
Tehran Times (Hardliners' Paper)
May 9th 2004
Iran
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Iran wants to team up with European states and Russia to produce enriched uranium, hoping that by involving them it can remove fears that it is developing nuclear arms, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday.
"Europeans are concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment program and feel distrustful towards it," Hossein Musavian, secretary of the foreign policy committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.
Iran and Europe "should jointly build trustful relations, including joint uranium enrichment programs," Musavian said, adding that he planned to raise the idea with Britain, Germany and France in the next two to three weeks. "We could, for example, start talking about setting up a consortium, which would include European countries and Russia, to work together on this program." "Of course this is not necessarily just political chit-chat by the Iranian side at a time when their nuclear program is under so much scrutiny," he said. "But we see it as something rather unlikely to happen, at least in the near future."
IRAN CONFIDENT ABOUT IAEA MEETING
The Foreign Ministry said Iran was confident of escaping censure at next month's UN nuclear watchdog board meeting.
"I am optimistic about the results of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) next meeting," the official IRNA news agency quoted spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying. "Iran will definitely not be condemned in the next meeting, because Iran has been cooperating with the agency transparently."
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/9/2004&Cat=2&Num=022HOUSE CALLS FOR STOPPING IRAN'S NUKES BY ALL MEANS
May 9th 2004
Middle East News Line
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The House of Representatives has called on the United States and the rest of the international community to stop Iran's nuclear weapons programs by any means.
House members said the resolution was meant to pave the way for a more aggressive U.S. stance toward Iran's secret development of nuclear weapons. They said this could include additional sanctions on nuclear suppliers to Iran as well as military options.
The nonbinding House resolution, passed 376-3, was said to have endorsed the Bush administration's doctrine of preventive war in the case of Iran's nuclear weapons. The resolution called on the United States and other members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to "use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said similar wording was used by the Bush administration to justify its decision to launch war against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Kucinich voted against the resolution.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/may/05_10_2.html