Global Security Newswire

The U.S. presidential transition gives Iran a new opportunity to negotiate a halt to its uranium enrichment efforts, the U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 24).

The United States and other Western countries have expressed concern that Iran's enrichment work could support a potential nuclear weapons program in the country, but Tehran maintains that it only wants to produce fuel for its nascent nuclear power program.

"We'll see if they take advantage of this -- I mean, it would be good if they said, 'OK, now is an opportunity for us to get into negotiations and to take concrete steps that the world expects,' to give us assurances of the peaceful nature of their nuclear program," said Ambassador Gregory Schulte.

Schulte emphasized that President-elect Barack Obama's positions on Iran are similar to those of President George W. Bush.

"The president-elect has also talked about the need for reinforced diplomacy, the need for direct tough diplomacy, and the need for that diplomacy to be sustained, to be backed by the prospect of economic sanctions and political isolation," Schulte said. (David Rising, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 24).

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence officials recently told Israel's defense minister that Iran could make significant nuclear development progress over the next year due to slackening international efforts to limit its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Iran does not need to begin operating its Bushehr nuclear power plant in order to advance its suspected nuclear weapons program, said the officials, who are expected to present their findings to Obama soon after his January inauguration (Amy Teibel, Associated Press II/International Herald Tribune, Nov. 24).

Also, retired Israeli Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon on Sunday denied advocating the possible assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an attempt to roll back Tehran's nuclear efforts, the Jerusalem Post reported.

"We have to consider killing him," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Yaalon as saying. "All options must be considered."

According to an aide, Yaalon only said that "Israel needs to defeat the Iranian regime."

News reports consider the retired officer a possible pick to serve as Israel's defense minister under future leadership (Katz/Keinon, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 23).