World Powers to Discuss Iran Plans

Officials from leading U.N. Security Council nations plan to meet within one week to discuss how to handle Iran’s continuing refusal to curb its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, May 23).

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director reported yesterday that Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment activities since the council last demanded a freeze of that program in March.  Furthermore, the agency’s understanding of Iran’s nuclear efforts has “deteriorated” over the past year as Tehran has reduced the amount of information if provides to inspectors, said agency head Mohamed ElBaradei.

The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany would meet soon to craft their strategy to persuade Iran to return to negotiations to find a long-term solution to the nuclear crisis, said Chinese Deputy U.N. Ambassador Liu Zhenmin.

“I think efforts are being made to encourage the Iranians to talk,” he said.  “I think the six [nations] will have another meeting at experts level by the end of the month” (Edith Lederer, Associated Press I/Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, May 24).

U.S. President George W. Bush today called for more stringent measures against Iran.

“'The world has spoken and said ... no nuclear weapons programs. And yet they're constantly ignoring the demands,” Bush said during White House press conference today.

Iranian officials “continue to be defiant as to the demands of the free world,” Bush added.  “My view is that we need to strengthen our sanction regime” (Associated Press II/New York Times, May 24).

In addition to seeking strengthened U.N. measures, Washington would urge nations to apply their own, unilateral sanctions, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said yesterday.

“The Iranians need to know that we’re serious about this,” he said (Cooper/Sanger, New York Times, May 24).

The United States has also ratcheted up indirect pressure against Iran, the McClatchey news service reported today.

U.S. ships, including two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, began a major naval exercise yesterday in the Persian Gulf.

Navy statements said the exercise “is not connected to events in the region” and “not directed against any nation” (Jonathan Landay, McClatchey/Miami Herald, May 24).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today reaffirmed his intention to press forward with plans to build thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges.

“If we stop for a while, they (Iran's enemies) will achieve their goals.  The enemy wants Iran to surrender so it won't have any say in the world” he told a gathering of the Revolutionary Guards.

“If Iran's right to nuclear technology is confirmed, all nations of the world will gather under Iran's political banner. Enemies of Islamic Iran know this, and for this reason they have mobilized,” he added (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press III/San Diego Union-Tribune, May 24).

Still, Iran was prepared to seek a negotiated resolution to the crisis if the Security Council stepped away, a senior Iranian nuclear official said.

“Iran is fully ready for solving the entire remaining issues in accordance with its legal commitments, on condition that our dossier would be returned to IAEA, that is the only concerned international organ for the purpose, but at any rate, Iran would continue cooperation with the agency,” said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chairman of the nation’s Atomic Energy Organization (IRNA, May 24).

Meanwhile, the United States lodged a formal complaint yesterday with ElBaradei over his recent remarks suggesting the possibility that the world may need to accept Iran having a uranium enrichment program, AP reported.

U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte met with ElBaradei yesterday in Vienna and the British and French ambassadors were scheduled to support Schulte in meetings with ElBaradei tomorrow (George Jahn, Associated Press IV/Hindu, May 24).

In remarks today, ElBaradei said there was time for all parties to seek a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis.

“I tend, based on our analysis, to agree with people like John Negroponte and the new director of the CIA, who are saying that even if Iran wanted to go for a nuclear weapon, it would not be before the end of this decade or sometime in the middle of the next decade. In other words three to eight years from now,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a nonproliferation conference in Luxembourg (Mark John, Reuters, May 24).

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