Defiant: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits a uranium enrichment facility.
Come around the table to discuss sanctions on Iran...
Posted on 04/01/2010 7:35:29 AM PDT by myknowledge
Six major world powers have agreed to draw up new sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear ambitions.
Officials from the US, Britain, France, Russia, Germany and China reached an agreement on sanctions during a conference call.
They fear Iran's nuclear program is a front for building weapons but Iran insists the aim of the program is to generate electricity.
"The time has come to take decisions. Iran cannot continue its mad race," French president Nicholas Sarkozy said.
Mr Sarkozy has held talks at the White House with US President Barack Obama, who has also been keen to move on sanctions.
"I'm not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks," Mr Obama said.
"And as Nicholas said, this is not simply an issue of trying to isolate Iran. It has enormous implications for the safety and the security of the entire region."
China agreed to the sanctions after dropping its opposition. Previously, Chinese diplomats had pushed for diplomatic pressure on Iran.
China's agreement is important because it is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and can veto any resolution.
A White House spokesman says China knows it is not in its interest to have a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
But Iran says the talk of sanctions by world powers is just an empty threat.
"The nuclear program of the Islamic Republic is fully peaceful and the talk of sanctions is a threat that has been ineffective over the past 30 years," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
Nuclear scientist defects
The six-power talks coincided with another setback for Iran - a US television network has reported that an Iranian nuclear scientist has defected to the United States.
It has been described as an "intelligence coup".
America's ABC network reported scientist Shahram Amiri defected, relocated to the US and gave the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) first-hand information about what he knows of Iran's compartmentalised nuclear program.
Mr Amiri, who vanished on a pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca last year, agreed to defect even though it meant leaving his wife and family behind.
It is claimed his defection was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to flee Iran and move to the United States.
The ABC Network says since the late 1990s, the CIA has attempted to recruit Iranian scientists and officials through contacts made with relatives living in the United States.
Case officers have conducted hundreds of interviews in the Los Angeles area. It is home to a lot of Iranian Americans and many of them came to America after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
A CIA spokeswoman has declined to comment on the reported defection.
Defiant: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits a uranium enrichment facility.
Come around the table to discuss sanctions on Iran...
That would be hussein’s non-sanction sanctions that actually do nothing to harm iran... typical muzzie tactic by the muzzie in chief.
LLS
More talk, more talk, more talk. These people are fools. Nothing will be done until Iran kills a few million people. Then they will slap their hands and say “Naughty, naughty”. We need people with cajones in this world.
Nothing more than MORE words...public show...nothing else.
INEPT!
Obama can’t get this in WEEKS, it’s already been MONTHS!
Cajones,intelligence and western values...But it’s not obomba
Ooooh, sanctions - Ouch. That’ll bring those Iranian bad boys to heel.
What? Another strongly worded letter from the Long-Legged Mac Daddy??
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