Posted on 01/26/2005 3:22:31 AM PST by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Iran Sees Nuclear Enrichment As a Goal
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
Confidential talks between key European powers and Iran are deadlocked on the key issue of uranium enrichment, with Tehran refusing to scrap such programs and banish fears it wants to make atomic arms, according to a summary of the last meeting made available Tuesday to The Associated Press.
The summary of the last meeting on the issue involving representatives of France, Britain, Germany and Iran states that Tehran's position remains "the goal of maintaining" its enrichment program, while the European powers continue to insist on its "cessation" or "dismantlement."
Diplomats familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the atmosphere between the two sides had improved during the second round, held in Geneva Jan. 17.
But they agreed that no progress is being made on the Europeans' insistence that Iran's present temporary suspension of its enrichment programs be turned into a commitment to permanently mothball all such activities.
"The two positions cannot coexist," said one of the diplomats, from a West European nation. "If the impasse cannot be resolved, then there will be no solution," clearing the path for Iran to resume work on activities that will allow it to enrich uranium, he said.
Iran publicly insists it only seeks to make low-grade enriched uranium for generating power. The United States and other countries say that once the program is fully active, Iran will use it to make weapons grade uranium for the core of nuclear missiles.
The summary of the last meeting suggests that at those talks, Iran privately acknowledged what Washington and its allies have argued all along - that as an oil rich country, it does not need nuclear energy.
"Iran recognizes explicitly that its fuel cycle program cannot be justified on economic grounds," the summary said.
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Iran's Youth Push Islamic Limits
CBSNews ^ | TEHRAN, Jan. 25, 2005
Posted on 01/26/2005 2:17:53 AM PST by F14 Pilot
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1328760/posts
Bump!
The Ayatollahs are playing games with fools.
There is absolutely no reason why a country dripping with oil needs nuclear facilities except to produce weapons.
And they certainly don't need nuclear bombs to intimidate or attack the western Euroweenies.
Make no mistake about it. The ayatollahs are targetting the U.S. with nuclear weapons.
Unless we either support a popular revolution WITHIN Iran or launch pre-emptive strikes against their nuclear facilities, we are inviting a nuclear attack on the American homeland.
Iran filling political vacuum?
By Ilan Berman
Washington Times
January 26, 2005
Who's in charge of Palestinian politics? Following his commanding performance in the January 11th Palestinian presidential elections, officials in Washington and Jerusalem are looking to Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's successor as head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as their new political counterpart -- and potential peace partner. Yet alarming signs suggest that the biggest beneficiary of the political changes now taking place in the Palestinian Territories might just turn out to be the Islamic Republic of Iran.
An Iranian foothold in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is certainly not a new development. Both directly and through their terrorist intermediaries in Lebanon, Iran's ayatollahs have been meddling in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for years. But the death of Yasser Arafat, and the political vacuum that has emerged in the wake of the Palestinian strongman's passing, have laid the groundwork for even greater Iranian infiltration of Palestinian politics.
Signs of this expanding influence are already visible. Over the past two years, Iran's ayatollahs have provided substantial resources to their most potent terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, in order to increase the Lebanese militia's presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The results have been dramatic; according to new assessments just issued by the Shin Bet, Israel's vaunted internal security service, the Lebanese terrorist powerhouse is rapidly expanding its control over Palestinian insurgent groups, co-opting existing terror cells and creating new ones. Hezbollah is now believed to direct over 50 separate (mostly secular-nationalist) Palestinian terror cells -- a seven-fold increase since 2002. And Fatah, the PLO's main political faction -- also the party of the Palestinian Authority's new president -- is said to be the most deeply penetrated. In 2004 alone, 38 separate Fatah cells were identified by Israeli intelligence as having been co-opted by Hezbollah.
Iran is also increasing its leverage among the Palestinian Authority's Islamist factions. Over the past two years, Israel's successes against Hamas have led the group to seek an accommodation with Hezbollah, signing an unexpected strategic accord in March of 2004 to cement Hezbollah's--andIran's--influence over the most prominent terrorist organization in the Palestinian territories. The other Islamist terror outfit in the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, is already a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Islamic Republic -- one whose resources have been dramatically increased by Tehran since mid-2002. It's no wonder that Israeli intelligence officials now say that Iran is "in control of terrorism in Israel."
When he was in charge of Palestinian politics, Yasser Arafat found this sort of activity troubling enough to publicly oppose it. Back in October, for example, the PLO chairman himself took the unprecedented step of denouncing the Islamic Republic's meddling. "[Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei is working against us," Mr. Arafat had told reporters visiting his Ramallah compound at the time. "He is giving money to all these fanatical groups. Khamenei is a troublemaker."
Now, however, the Palestinian Authority's various factions -- jockeying for political position in the West Bank and Gaza Strip --have begun serious efforts to curry favor with the Islamic Republic. In December of 2004, in an ominous sign of things to come, Farouq Qaddoumi, the new head of Fatah, kicked off a three-day visit to the Islamic Republic. On Qaddoumi's agenda were meetings with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and other top regime officials, with the goal of "consolidating relations between the Iranian and Palestinian nations." Moreover, as part of this new political bargain, Palestinian officials appear to have embraced the idea of a dramatic expansion of Iranian involvement in local politics. During his visit to Tehran, Qaddoumi publicly welcomed Iranian infiltration, dubbing it a positive sign of the Islamic Republic's "support [for] the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause and the liberation of Palestine."
All this suggests that American and Israeli policymakers could be asking the wrong questions. In the wake of Mr. Abbas' electoral victory, both countries have begun to debate the new Palestinian leader's reformist credentials, as well as his ability to resume real peace negotiations with Israel. But, given the growing inroads Iran is making in the West Bank and Gaza, a more important issue might be the plans for the Palestinian Authority now being laid in Tehran.
Ilan Berman is Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington and author of the forthcoming "Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States."
Bump!
Iran should be next on our hit list.
Middle east is on its way to democracy~~~
They should be next on our support list not HIT list. We can't take democracy to any where by Bomb.
Oh the humanity.
"Support" list then, if necessary, but if that doesn't work, the menace of their nuclear facilities must removed by the use of other means.
I see a win-win situation here. Unfortunately it's for the West Europeans and the Iranians and not the world at large. The mullahs milk the situation for all the economic considerations they can, and smile and say that they've decided to cease their enrichment. Which they will not. The EU saves face, and Iran gets the bribe money and the bomb. The rest of the world gets the shaft.
I do believe once the regime is gone, the nuclear issue will no longer be our concern.
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