West backs away from Iran

[Neil D]

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Western powers appeared to back away from an early move to refer Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council as Tehran sought to widen backing for its stance by offering on Thursday to share peaceful nuclear technology with other Islamic nations.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that the United States and its European allies may lack the votes to haul Iran before the highest United Nations body next week over its resumption of uranium conversion.

"If we get a referral on Sept. 19, that will be good, but I think the issue of a referral is something that we'll be working for a while," she told Fox News Editorial board.

"I'm not so concerned about exactly when it happens because I don't think this matter is so urgent that it has to be on Sept. 19," Rice said in remarks released after a meeting on Wednesday.

Foreign ministers of the three European Union nations that have been negotiating with Iran on its nuclar ambitions -- Britain, France and Germany -- were expected to meet new Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of a U.N. summit on Thursday, diplomats said.

"We want to give the new Iranian authorities every opportunity," an EU diplomat said. "We have never closed the door to negotiation. It always remained our preferred route."

European officials said they were struggling to build a convincing majority on the board of the International Atomic Energy Authority, the world nuclear watchdog, to report Iran to the Security Council.

"We would not like to be in a situation diplomatically where we have so many countries voting against our motion," the diplomat said.

IRAN OFFERS SHARING

Another European diplomat said three weeks of intensive lobbying of key members of the 35-nation IAEA board such as Russia, China and India had failed to produce broad support for a referral. Brazil and Pakistan were hostile and "swing voters" such as Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria were also in doubt.

Iran resumed converting uranium into gas last month -- the first stage in a process to produce enriched fuel that can be used in power stations or to make an atomic weapon.

That prompted the Europeans to break off negotiations on economic, political and nuclear cooperation, accusing Tehran of breaching a November 2004 agreement to suspend all enrichment-related activity for the duration of the talks.

Mottaki said on Sunday Tehran had no intention of restoring the suspension, which Iran says was purely voluntary.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a group of U.S. media editors on Thursday he would put forward new proposals when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly Saturday, but he gave them no details of the plan, a participant said.

He was to meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan later in the day. Diplomats have said he may call for the nuclear negotiations to be widened to include non-aligned countries more sympathetic to Iran.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Iran was ready to share its technology with other Islamic countries.

"The Islamic Republic never seeks weapons of mass destruction and with respect to the needs of Islamic countries, we are ready to transfer nuclear know-how to these countries," he said, according to IRNA.

An EU3 official acknowledged that a failure to report Iran to the Security Council now would be a loss of face for the West, and things were unlikely to get easier when a new group of countries joins the IAEA board later this month.

(Additional reporting by Carol Giacomo and Sue Pleming in New York, Paul Hughes in Tehran and Lou Charbonneau in Berlin)

[:"blue"] What should the US do now??< [/]

[Ron Lambert]

I think the U.S. should do to Iran what Israel did to Iraq 20 years ago--bombed their nuclear facility into rubble. The same should be done to North Korea. The U.N., as usual, will condemn us for being "cowboys"; but most nations will privately be very thankful that we took the needed actions.

[Neil D]

Quote:

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The U.N., as usual, will condemn us for being "cowboys"; but most nations will privately be very thankful that we took the needed actions.

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Let's see...I remember reading in my European history class, a trend that continues to this day...If you are the leading power, and you do things that are in your intrest only, and do not bring in others into your will, then all nations will work against you, regardless of the outcomes...Examples abound, like germany, and france and england in each of thier heyday had other countries working against them.

Today, venesula, cuba, and USSR, Iran, many middle east countries, all are trending to work to undermine the leadership of the US. Will we ever work together to build the relationships of the world? Not in my lifetime, prolly.

[Dr. Shane]

The US does not do things alone. I believe even Austraila was with us in Vietnaum - but that was perhaps America's darkest hour in recent history. Of course over 30 nations were with the US in both the first Gulf War and the Iraq War.

Moreover the US does not act in self-interest alone. If we did the price of oil at the pump would not be nearly $3. The US is a beast with lamb-like horns. We do much good throughout the world. Yet the US also speaks as a dragon. That is why it is headed toward a coersive end - but it is not there yet. The beast we see today is the one of lamb-like horns.

I seriously doubt the US will do anythiing with Iran alone. Europe is much more concerned about Iran's nuclear capability than the US is.

[Taylor]

This is way off topic,.....but I thougth you would get a laugh from this. You know how you can read something quickly and miss what it is really saying?..... I thought this post said "Wet backs from Iran". I really did a double take cuz I couldn't imagine the USA having "wet backs trying to get into the USA from Iran....and if they did, they would be soaked as it is a LONG swim from Iran to USA. lol

[lazarus]

My guess is that China and Russia wouldn't mind nuclear Iran because it shifts the balance of power away from the US and Israel back to the Arab nations

The US with Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina and now Rita will not have the politcal will to pick a real fight with Iran. this is what Iran is banking on. Time is on their side.

[Dr. Shane]

The problem with Iran is that they sponsor terrorism and can sell nuclear weapons to terrorists. Of course Russia is concerned about that. They have problems with terrorists too.

[David_McQueen]

Quote:

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Ron Lambert said:

I think the U.S. should do to Iran what Israel did to Iraq 20 years ago--bombed their nuclear facility into rubble. The same should be done to North Korea. The U.N., as usual, will condemn us for being "cowboys"; but most nations will privately be very thankful that we took the needed actions.

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[lazarus]

Russia signed a deal with Iran in Feb 2005. This deal involves nuclear fuel. The plant that Russia is helping them with is to start Oct 2006. The Russians want to benefit from the next major mid-east realignment.

I think they believe that a strong alliance with Iran can stave off any help Iran may think of giving to the Chechens.

[Dr. Shane]

And nuclear fuel is not the same as nuclear weapons. Weapons grade is different.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

I think they believe that a strong alliance with Iran can stave off any help Iran may think of giving to the Chechens.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

I didn't say the Russians were smart, did I?

[lazarus]

I think that the lasting legacy of the neo-con agenda will be to have ignored the more pressing threats of Iran and North Korea in favor of regime change in Iraq. With the US now bogged down Iran is freer than it would have been to persue its clandestine interests.

[Dr. Shane]

I don't even know what neo-con is but Bush identified Iraq, North Korea and Iran as the axis of evil and many of the Left gasp <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

He has dealt with each of them differently and continues to deal with them differently. At no time has the Bush Administration ignored any of the nations in the axis of evil.

The Clinton Administration did for North Korea what Russia plans to do with Iran in hopes of achieving the same end. By helping North Korea develope nuclear power, the Clinton Administration hoped to stop them from developing nuclear weapons. Well, it back-fired on us and now Russia, for some reason, thinks it will work with Iran.