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Canada Supports Curbing Iranian Nuclear Work
Canada announced Friday it would support efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to halt Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development, the Ottawa Citizen reported (see GSN, Aug. 11). “We are very preoccupied by the nuclear proliferation,” said Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. “And we are not pleased at all with the way the Iranians are conducting this level of nuclear proliferation,” Pettigrew added (Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen/Canada.com Aug. 14). Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic republic would proceed with its nuclear program despite international concern, Iran’s state news agency reported today. “The Islamic republic will continue on the reasonable path which will result in the peaceful use of nuclear energy without concerning itself about all this fuss and bother,” Khamenei said yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, Aug. 16). Elsewhere, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said yesterday that the United States should get “very tough” with Iran to prevent the Islamic republic from building a nuclear bomb. “The Iranians are moving toward weaponization of the uranium experiment that they have. And they’ve been clearly doing this. I suspect to begin with economic sanctions on Iran ... but not ruling out at the end of the day military sanctions against Iran,” Lugar added. Lugar could not say whether the United States would back a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear installations by another nation, such as Israel’s attack against Iraq in 1981. “I’m not going to speculate for a moment on a pre-emptive strike or any specific action,” he said (UPI/Washington Times, Aug. 15). Meanwhile, the United States on Friday called on Japan to review its business dealings with Iran in light of the Islamic republic’s suspected nuclear weapons drive, Agence France-Presse reported. “We would hope that as Japan examines its relationship with Iran, it would take into account, in any business transaction or any proposals that come along, the fact that Iran is not behaving in a responsible manner,” Powell said (Agence France-Presse, Aug. 13). In response, Japanese officials said yesterday that Japan does not plan to stop pursuing an oil development deal with Iran, Kyodo News Service reported. “We won’t say we’ll give up just because we were asked to do so,” said Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa. “There will be no policy reversal at the current stage,” Nakagawa added (Kyodo News Service/Japan Today, Aug. 15).
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