Arab Times – Hill consensus on Iran attack
Hill consensus on Iran attack.
JERUSALEM, July 7, (Agencies): US Senator Joseph Lieberman says there is a broad consensus in Congress that military force can be used if necessary to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Lieberman cites a recent set of sanctions passed by Congress against Iran as a potential deterrent. But he insists that the goal of keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear power will be accomplished “through diplomatic and economic sanctions if we possibly can, through military actions if we must.”
The Connecticut senator spoke Wednesday in Jerusalem, where he was visiting with fellow senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Israel, the US and other Western countries accuse Iran of trying to develop an atomic weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian use.
The United Arab Emirates dismissed as “inaccurate” on Wednesday statements attributed to its ambassador in Washington backing possible military action over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The statements attributed by the Washington Times to the UAE ambassador to the United States, Youssef Al-Otaiba, are not precise,” the official WAM news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Tareq al-Haidan as saying.
Comments quoted in the paper on Tuesday “came as part of general discussions held on the sidelines of an unofficial gathering” in which the ambassador was speaking, Haidan said.
They “were taken out of context.”
In the reported remarks, which the Washington Times described as “unusually blunt”, Otaiba was quoted as saying that he preferred a resort to military action to “living with a nuclear Iran.”
“We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the UAE,” the ambassador was quoted as saying.
The deputy foreign minister stressed: “The UAE totally rejects the use of force as a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and rather calls for a solution through political means.”
Haidan said his government “respects and believes in the sovereignty of other states and in the principle of non-interference, in any form, in their internal affairs.”
However, “the UAE, at the same time, believes in the need to keep the Gulf region free of nuclear weapons,” he added.
The UAE’s relations with Iran deteriorated last month after it reportedly took steps to implement tough new UN sanctions against its neighbour across the Gulf.
The central bank ordered the freezing of 41 bank accounts targeted by the new sanctions, one UAE daily said.
Dubai also closed down the offices of 40 firms suspected of breaching the sanctions against Iran, another daily quoted an unnamed UAE official as saying.
Sanctions
Iran acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that newly imposed sanctions “may slow down” its nuclear drive, including its sensitive uranium enrichment work, but said it will not halt it.
The comments by the head of Iran’s atomic energy, Ali Akbar Salehi, were the first admission by a senior official of the impact of new UN sanctions imposed on June 9.
“One can’t say sanctions are ineffective,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Salehi as telling a press conference in the southern port city of Bushehr.
“If sanctions are aimed at preventing Iran’s nuclear activities… we say they may slow down the work, but will not stop the activities. This is a certainty.”
Previously senior officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been defiant in their dismissal of the new sanctions.
Speaking soon after the UN Security Council adopted the new measures, Ahmadinejad said they were like a “used hanky which should be thrown in the dustbin.”
Salehi, who is one of several vice presidents in Ahmadinejad’s government, said the sanctions would not affect a nuclear power station nearing completion in Bushehr, which he visited on Wednesday.
But he said there could be some impact on Iran’s uranium enrichment programme as it would now be more difficult to procure some equipment.
“The Bushehr site is not (affected) by the sanctions and Russian officials have repeatedly maintained that the sanctions are not targeting Bushehr,” he said after inspecting the Russian-built plant, which he said would open in September.
“But on the issue of enrichment, we may face problems with some equipment such as measuring instruments,” he said.
He added: “If we face a problem over this equipment, we will manufacture it.”
Talks with the major powers on a plan drafted by the UN nuclear watchdog last October for the supply of fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor in return for Iran’s shipping most of its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium abroad failed to bear fruit.
A fresh proposal brokered by Brazil and Turkey before the adoption of the new UN sanctions has been cold-shouldered by the West.
Salehi said Iran was “ready to negotiate” with the major powers over the fuel supply plan but he insisted that the talks should be on the basis of the proposal agreed with Brazil and Turkey.
He said the Tehran reactor was currently being run so as to ensure that the existing fuel “will suffice until September next year.”
Satellite
Telecommunication Minister Reza Taghipour said on Wednesday that Iran is expected to launch a new satellite, Rasad 1, in the last week of August, the Mehr news agency reported.
“Rasad 1 (Observation) satellite is expected to be launched into space on the back of a domestic carrier during the period marking the government week (last week of August),” Taghipour said.
He said the launch would mark Iran’s “newest achievement” in space technology.
The minister had previously said that during the current Iranian year to March 2011, new satellites capable of transmitting data and images would be launched.
In his Wednesday comments he did not say whether Rasad 1 was one of these satellites.
Iran in February revealed details of three new satellite prototypes — the Toloo (Dawn), Navid (Good News) and Mesbah-2 (Lantern), the last said to be a telecommunications satellite.
In February 2009, Iran launched its first home-built satellite, the Omid (Hope), to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Meanwhile, Iran’s first nuclear power plant is set to be launched by late September now that an important final test has been carried out at the reactor, the head of the Islamic state’s Atomic Energy Organisation said on Wednesday.
Ali Akbar Salehi’s statement, at the site near the Gulf port city of Bushehr, suggested that a row that erupted between Moscow and Tehran in May over new UN sanctions against Iran had caused no further delays to the project.
“We reached the point of no return and the ground is paved for the reactor to go on stream,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Salehi as saying, adding the start-up would take place during the Iranian month which begins on Aug 23.
He said warm-water tests had been conducted on the facility, adding they were “the last and some of the most important tests before going on stream.” The report did not say when they were carried out nor by whom.
Russia agreed to build the 1,000-megawatt reactor 15 years ago but delays have haunted the $1 billion project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relations with Tehran.
The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko, said this year the Bushehr reactor was scheduled to begin operating in August.
A Canadian court found a Toronto man guilty on Tuesday of attempting to export nuclear-related materials to Iran in violation of sanctions, prosecutors said.
Mahmoud Yadegari, 36, was convicted in the Ontario Court of Justice of nine criminal and customs charges for attempting last year to ship pressure transducers to Iran via Dubai, said the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
The items, manufactured in the United States, can be used in nuclear power plants but are also required to produce nuclear weapons. They are subject to a UN embargo on nuclear exports to Iran and are on Canada’s export control list.
Yadegari was arrested in April 2009 for failing to obtain required permits to export the so-called “dual use” items the month before.
He faces up to a maximum of 10 years in prison and fines of up to 500,000 dollars for each infraction. He was, however, acquitted of one count of forgery.
Yadegari is to be sentenced on July 29.
Iran has summoned the Swiss charge d’affaires to protest the “abduction” of a nuclear scientist by US intelligence agents, state television’s website reported on Wednesday.
The Swiss mission in Tehran handles US interests as Washington has had no diplomatic ties with Iran for more than 30 years.
“The Swiss charge d’affaires (Georg Steiner) was summoned on Tuesday following the release of new documents relating to the abduction of Shahram Amiri by American security forces,” the report said, quoting a foreign ministry statement.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on July 4 it had presented to the Swiss embassy “evidence” that Amiri, who has been missing since last year, was abducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Iranian television on June 29 screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.
“I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents… I am not free and I’m not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible,” he said.
“I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country,” the man said, adding he has not “betrayed” Iran.
WarSclerotic 
Leave a comment