Bush Warns Iran On Uranium Enrichment Program

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday urged Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program and warned that Tehran’s actions could lead to a confrontation with the United States (see GSN, Jan. 28).

“Above all, know this:  America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf,” Bush said in his final State of the Union address.

“Our message to the people of Iran is clear:  We have no quarrel with you, we respect your traditions and your history, and we look forward to the day when you have your freedom,” Bush said, according to Agence France-Presse.

“Our message to the leaders of Iran is also clear:  Verifiably suspend your nuclear enrichment, so negotiations can begin.  And to rejoin the community of nations, come clean about your nuclear intentions and past actions, stop your oppression at home and cease your support for terror abroad,” he said (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Jan. 29).

Meanwhile, officials from the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations met with representatives of the body’s current set of 10 nonpermanent states yesterday to discuss a proposed sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program, Reuters reported.

Deputy Chinese envoy Liu Zhenmin told journalists that “it will take maybe a few weeks” for the body to vote on the resolution.

The United States had sought a quick vote on the resolution after months of campaigning for the new sanctions, but European powers preferred to take additional time to build a unanimous consensus around the proposed measures, according to one U.S. official.

Colin Keating, head of the independent watchdog group Security Council Report, said he was certain the council would pass the resolution.  Its limited punitive actions against Iran are unlikely to divide the body, although Indonesia and South Africa might propose some language adjustments.

South African Ambassador to the United Nations Dumisani Kumalo said the council should wait for International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report on Iran’s progress in disclosing details of its nuclear activities before voting on the resolution.

“I think the IAEA report is very important because they are … the experts,” he said.  “Let's see what they have to say” (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Jan. 29).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday said the resolution could open the door for future measures to pressure Iran to halt its disputed nuclear work, AFP reported.

“The important thing is that it both deepens … sanctions against Iran and opens the possibility of new directions, like for instance the possibility of cargo inspections,” Rice said in a news conference.

“But most importantly, it is a resolution that shows and will show Iran that it continues to be isolated from the international community, that it has no friends when it comes to its desires to pursue technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon,” she said.

Rice said the resolution would pave the way for new reprisals from the international community as well as the United States, which imposed unilateral sanctions against several Iranian banks last year.

“That has made it difficult for many others to deal with Iran because the reputational and investment risk of dealing with an Iran … are quite grave” under the U.S. and Security Council sanctions, she said.

“As to whether or not we can improve the state of U.S.-Iranian relations, that's something that I would put to Iran,” she said.  The United States has held out the prospects of diplomatic relations with Iran if Tehran halts its uranium enrichment program, which could produce a nuclear weapon ingredient (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Jan. 28).

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki yesterday warned that “serious consequences” would result if the Security Council votes to impose new sanctions on Iran.

“If a resolution is passed … it will have serious and logical consequences and we will announce them later,” Mottaki told reporters (Agence France-Presse III/Spacewar.com, Jan. 28).

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