[Mb-civic] FW: Iran's message to West: Back off or ...

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From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 12:34:53 -0500
Subject: Iran's message to West: Back off or ...

Iran's message to West: Back off or ...
 
Guardian
February 2, 2006
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=263038&area=/breaking_news/br
eaking_news__international_news/#
<http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=263038&area=/breaking_news/b
reaking_news__international_news/>   
 
Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday threatened immediate retaliation over a
move to refer its nuclear weapons activities to the United Nations Security
Council in comments that deepen his country's confrontation with the
international community.

In an interview with The Guardian -- his first with Western media --
Manouchehr Mottaki accused the United States of manufacturing the crisis and
insisted there is still time to avoid a collision. But he warned that any
military action by the US orIsrael against Iran would have "severe
consequences" and be countered "by all means" at Iran's disposal.

Reflecting a hardening Iranian position, he threatened to end snap UN
inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities and all other voluntary
cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, if Iran is referred to the UN on
Thursday or Friday.

He also vowed that Iran would match any sanctions with measures of its own
and warned that the West would quickly regret any resort to military action.
The escalating crisis could further destabilise the Middle East by
intensifying US and British difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and could
spell an end to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to
prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

Mottaki, who was appointed by Iran's hard-line President, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, in September, said Iranian retaliation would come
"simultaneously" with any decision on referral by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, which meets in emergency
session in Vienna on Thursday. Iran has not ruled out further steps,
including withdrawal from the NPT and the permanent ejection of UN
inspectors. 

"If the Iran dossier is reported to the Security Council, the additional
protocol [which allows UN inspectors to conduct snap inspections] will be
the first victim," he said.

Iraq
Asked whether Iran is prepared to use its leverage in Iraq, where Iran has
been accused of aiding attacks on British troops, and elsewhere in the
region, Mottaki said Tehran's actions would "correspond" to Western
political, military and economic pressure.

Israel, along with the US, has not ruled out air strikes against Iran's
nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails.

"Iran does not think that the Zionist regime is in a condition to engage in
such a dangerous venture and they know how severe the possible Iranian
response will be to its possible audacity," Mottaki said. "Suffice to say
that the Zionist regime, if they attack, will regret it."

That message was underscored on Wednesday by Iran's defence minister, who
said that any attack on Iran would bring "a crushing response".

Mottaki said the US, even with 200 000 troops on the ground in Iraq and
Afghanistan, is unable to impose its will on the region. "It would be better
for President [George] Bush to spend the second half of his presidency
governing his country in a calmer manner."

He urged Britain and other European countries to postpone a decision on UN
referral until a scheduled meeting of the IAEA on March 6. "There's still
time for our European friends to take a wise decision not to take wrong
steps."

Bush
The foreign minister said Bush had lied to the American people about Iran in
his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night and he rejected any chance of
direct contacts with the US. The Guardian interview in London was held
before Mottaki had talks with Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary. A
Foreign Office spokesperson said later: "Mottaki was warned not to walk away
from the IAEA additional protocol or to make threats."

Thursday's showdown at the IAEA follows Iran's decision to resume
uranium-enrichment research last month, a move condemned by Britain, France
and Germany as a breach of earlier undertakings.

Western countries suspect Iran's civil nuclear programme will be used to
manufacture nuclear weapons. But Iran says it has an inalienable right to
civil nuclear power and denies seeking the bomb. Bush, in his Tuesday
speech, called Iran "a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite
that is isolating and repressing its people".

But Mottaki said the president's attempt to appeal to the Iranian people is
doomed to failure. "Six days from now in the Ashura ceremony [a Shi'ite
Muslim festival] in Tehran, the Iranian people will respond to Mr Bush's
comments".

Ahmadinejad, who also rejected the US president's comments on Wednesday,
described the US as a "hollow superpower" that is "tainted with the blood of
nations".

Mottaki was in London for a two-day conference on the future of Afghanistan.
In a further indication of hostility towards Israel, he urged Hamas, winner
of last week's Palestinian elections, to continue its policy of armed
struggle. 

"The victory is the victory of the resistance," he said. "Our impression is
they will insist on the continuation of resistance until the rights of the
Palestinian people are secure."
---
Accusations as Crisis Talks Loom

February 02, 2006 
CNN News 
CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/02/iran.wrap/index.html
<http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/02/iran.wrap/index.html>

VIENNA, Austria -- Just hours ahead of an emergency meeting of the U.N.
nuclear watchdog, a U.S. official says a "troubling" briefing in Vienna has
revealed new information that Iran might be pursuing atomic weapons. The
35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) is due to meet at 9:30 a.m. GMT (4:30 a.m. ET) Thursday, to determine
whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear
activities. 

A referral -- a step towards possible sanctions -- is regarded as highly
likely. 

Iran has warned the board "not to make a mistake," even as the U.S.
ambassador to the IAEA said Wednesday he had seen a "troubling" briefing
that "highlighted many unanswered questions about [Iran's nuclear] program."

The report included "questions pointing directly to a military dimension,
including the fabrication of nuclear weapons components and the design of
missile re-entry vehicles," ambassador Greg Schulte said.

A leaked IAEA report confirmed that Iran had acquired documents and drawings
on the black market that served no purpose other than to prepare an atomic
warhead, media reports have said.

A diplomatic settlement is still possible if Tehran halts its nuclear
activity, Schulte has said.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA has said the accusations are without merit and
blamed faulty intelligence.

"We are experiencing the same bitter experience as Iraq," said Ali-Asgh'ar
Soltanieh. "We've had 20 of these allegations, and one by one have been
proven baseless." 

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Ahead of the meeting, the EU3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- submitted a
draft resolution to the IAEA board, requesting that the Security Council
address Iran's nuclear activities. The European Union trio had been
spearheading talks with Iran.

The resolution said the EU3 "deeply regrets" that Iran -- despite calls to
maintain its suspension on nuclear activities -- resumed uranium conversion
last northern summer and "took steps to resume enrichment" last month.

It is supported by the EU and the five permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

"The reason why we're reporting this to the Security Council is to move
diplomacy to a new phase so we can see if we can achieve a political
settlement," Schulte said.

However, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA has told CNN that if the nation is
referred to the council, it would lift its voluntary suspension of uranium
enrichment at its nuclear facility in Natanz.

"The government has to stop voluntary cooperation with the IAEA if there is
any referral or reporting of Iran's nuclear dossier to the United Nations
Security Council," he said.

In order to get Russia and China to sign on, the draft resolution was
amended to include a request that the Security Council delay any action
against Iran until March, when IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei
presents his report on Iran's nuclear program to the board of governors.

That could open the door for negotiations on a proposal under which Russia
would enrich uranium for Iran. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali
Larijani, said Wednesday that Iran is considering the proposal along with
several others, "but we don't see any sign of life in this plan at the time
being." 

"If they give us enough time to consider Russia's proposal, then there will
be more opportunities," Larijani said, noting that the proposal does not
rule out enrichment in Iran.

"There are several parts in this proposal," he noted.

Last-ditch diplomacy

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomacy took place Wednesday, a last-ditch effort
before the IAEA meeting to get Tehran to back off its stance.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met with Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, telling him not to walk away from Iran's
agreement with the IAEA and not to make threats, a British foreign office
spokesman said. 

Before the meeting, Straw told BBC radio that he would urge Mottaki "to see
this agreed position by the international community not as a threat but as
... a final opportunity to put itself back on track."

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Bush said the world must
act together to prevent Iran joining the list of nuclear-armed nations.

"The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions --
and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain
nuclear weapons," Bush said in his speech. "America will continue to rally
the world to confront these threats." (Full story)

In Tehran, representatives from China and Russia carried the same message to
Iranian officials in what European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana
called "one last effort to try to reach an agreement" before Thursday's IAEA
meeting. 

Iranian officials showed no sign of backing off their refusal to halt
nuclear activity in the wake of international pressure.

"Our nation can't give in to the coercion of some bully countries who
imagine they are the whole world and see themselves equal to the entire
globe," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech Wednesday.

Speaking in Bushehr, the site of Iran's nuclear power plant, the Iranian
leader stood by the country's commitment to its nuclear program, which
Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes. (Ahmadinejad defiant)

"Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully
realized," Ahmadinejad said.

Larijani said Wednesday that if the matter is referred to the Security
Council, "it would be an improper and unsatisfactory measure which means a
country would be punished for conducting research," the state news agency,
IRNA, reported. 

The United States believes Tehran has stepped up its preparations to enrich
uranium ahead of a possible referral to the U.N. Security Council, a senior
State Department official said Tuesday.

Since breaking IAEA seals at its nuclear facilities last month, Iranian
nuclear activity has been "pretty consistent," with Tehran moving equipment
to its nuclear facility at Natanz in preparation for enriching uranium --
activity the U.S. believes could be aimed at producing fissile material for
a nuclear bomb, the official said. (Full story)

CNN's Elise Labott, Richard Roth and journalist Christian Mahne contributed
to this report.



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