Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Kerry and EU would offer Iran a nuclear deal
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, September 2, 2004
WASHINGTON Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry has signaled a departure in U.S. policy regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Kerry aides said that, if elected, his administration, in cooperation with the European Union, would offer a deal to Iran that would allow the Islamic republic to retain its nuclear facilities. In return, Teheran would have to pledge to return all imported nuclear fuel acquired for its reactor at Bushehr.
The Kerry position has long been recommended by State Department circles. Current and former U.S. diplomats have warned against a U.S. confrontation with Iran, instead proposing a so-called "grand bargain" with Teheran that would include a removal of sanctions imposed on Iran.
Earlier this year, the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace issued a report that called on the United States, Europe and Russia to devise "a combination of costs and incentives" to change Iran's course. The report recommended that Iran "be guaranteed a commercially viable supply of low-enriched uranium for its nuclear reactors and for the removal and disposal of spent fuel," Middle East Newsline reported.
"If we are engaging with Iranians in an effort to reach this great bargain and if in fact this is a bluff that they are trying to develop nuclear weapons capability, then we know that our European friends will stand with us," Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards said.
In speeches and interviews granted this week, Edwards stressed that a Democratic presidential administration would not ease U.S. opposition to an Iranian nuclear bomb.
"A nuclear Iran is unacceptable for so many reasons, including the possibility that it creates a gateway and the need for other countries in the region to develop nuclear capability Saudi Arabia, Egypt, potentially others," Edwards told the Washington Post.
Kerry first discussed Iran policy in a speech in June. During that speech, he said his administration would attempt to reach an agreement with the Iranians, a position later echoed by Edwards.
"At the end of the day [Bush officials] can argue all they want about their policies," Edwards said. "But the test is: Have they worked? And Iran is further along in developing a nuclear weapon than they were when George Bush came into office."
The Bush administration has pressed the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue with inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.
The administration has sought to bring the Iranian nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council for the imposition of sanctions.
But Bush said in a television interview on Aug. 31 that he seeks a diplomatic solution to end Iran's nuclear program.
"The military option is always the last option for a president, not the first," Bush said.
Palestinian Jew said:If this conflict can be solved peacefully, it should be. We would learn very quickly whether Tehran would cooperate and be able to adjust the plan accordingly.
It says many State Department cirlcles have been recommending this, so it can't be the most disasterious plan ever.
gop_jeff said:Incredible. Bush should put this story in every ad from now through November. Kerry won't get 40% nationally.
It is utterly ridiculous to me that anyone would stick with the concept of appeasement after its horrendous track record.
I can't get over this. It's taken me five minutes to type this much. How utterly stupid can one man be?!?
Tehran demands support from Europe
By Anton La Guardia
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
Published August 11, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON -- Iran has issued a list of demands to Britain and other European countries, telling them to provide advanced nuclear technology, conventional weapons and a security guarantee against nuclear attack by Israel.
Iran's request, said by British officials to have "gone down very badly," sharply raises the stakes in the crisis over the country's nuclear program, which the United States and Britain say is aimed at making atomic bombs.
Tehran's move came during crisis talks this month in Paris with senior diplomats from Britain, France and Germany.
The three European nations were trying to persuade Iranian officials to honor an earlier deal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program.
Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear-power stations or to make simple atomic bombs, such as the ones dropped on Japan toward the end of World War II.
Iranian officials refused to comply, saying they had every right under international law to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.
They then stunned the Europeans by presenting a letter setting out their own demands.
Iran said Europe should support Tehran's quest for "advanced [nuclear] technology, including those with dual use" -- a reference to equipment that has civilian as well as military applications.
The Europeans should "remove impediments" preventing Iran from having such technology and stick to these commitments, even if faced with "legal or political ... limitations," an allusion to U.S. pressure or even future international sanctions against Iran.
In Vienna, Austria, yesterday, the United Nations' atomic agency reported that, in at least one case, traces of enriched uranium that had been discovered by international inspectors on Iranian nuclear equipment had originated in Pakistan...
