Intelligence

Bush: Iran's 'grave threat' to global security

Iran threatens to cut links with nuclear watchdog - World - Times Online

By Simon Freeman and agencies

President Bush said today that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran was unnacceptable and posed a "grave threat" to global security.

Appearing at a White House press conference following talks with Angela Merkel, on her first visit to Washington as German Chancellor, the President condemned what he said were Tehran's clandestine attempts to gain nuclear expertise through the guise of a civilian programme.

"The development of know-how and or nuclear weapons is unnacceptable because an Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threat to the security of the world," President Bush said.

"Countries such as ours have a great responsibility to work together and send a common message to Iran that it's behaviour... trying to clandestinely develop a nuclear weapon or using the guise of a civilian programme to get the know-how ... is unacceptable," he said.

The President recalled the statements made by President Ahmadinejad, Iran's hardline new ruler, in which he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

"And that’s unacceptable. And the development of a nuclear weapon seems to me would make them a step closer to achieving that objective," he said.

Mr Bush said he did not want to prejudge what action the United Nations Security Council might take against Iran, but added that referring Iran to the UN was part of a message to Tehran. "It’s logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic efforts to end the nuclear crisis be sent to the United Nations Security Council."

Mr Bush spoke after Iran threatened to end its co-operation with the UN atomic watchdog if its nuclear programme was referred for possible sanctions.

The move would stop the snap inspection of Iranian nuclear facilities and could bring an end to a moratorium on its enrichment of uranium. It would also jeopardise diplomatic negotiations with Britain, France and Germany, the three European powers who have been leading international efforts to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapon technology.

"If the dossier is sent to the Security Council, the European countries will lose the means which are currently at their disposal, because... the government will be obliged, in conformity with the law adopted by parliament, to end all its voluntary measures of cooperation," Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, told the IRNA news agency today.

Iran’s stand-off with the international community escalated on Tuesday when Tehran, which says it is simply trying to develop a nuclear power industry, broke International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seals at its underground nuclear facility at Narantz in central Iran.

The Narantz plant is used for uranium enrichment, a necessary process to produce nuclear fuel but which can also be used to produce the material for bombs.

The foreign ministers of the three major European powers, a group known as the E3, met in Berlin yesterday to consider the move and called an emergency meeting of the IAEA to refer Iran to the Security Council.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, said yesterday that Iran's new hardline leadership was still keen to continue nuclear talks with the European powers. But there appears to be a consensus among the major powers - and even among the Russians, traditionally seen as the Iranians' main protectors - that Tehran's move demands a clear response.

Russia today renewed its call for Iran to resume its moratorium on nuclear activities and "implement full and transparent cooperation with the IAEA". Russian newspapers reported that Moscow had lost patience with Iran and would not prevent it being referred to the Security Council.

The daily Kommersant said that 3,000 Russian experts, who had been building Iran’s first nuclear reactor at a cost of $1.2 billion were preparing for evacuation in the event of the US declaring war.

Citing an unnamed source, Kommersant also said that the Russian government had stopped negotiating the sale of S-300 anti-aircraft complexes in protest at President Ahmadinejad’s bullish nuclear stand.

"Russia, which has until now played the role of defence lawyer for Iran on the international scene, is beginning to lose patience," said another Russian newspaper, Vremya Novostei.

Quite what action the Security Council would take against Iran is far from clear. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the military option was inconceivable. "Iran is not Iraq," he said.

But while Mr Straw said that the Council would have to consider the possibility of political or economic sanctions, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said that France favoured a step-by-step approach and both Britain and Germany agreed that a request for sanctions would be "premature at the moment".

"We’ll see what happens at the Security Council," said the spokesman, Jean-Baptiste Mattei. "One step at a time."

Last month, Iranian Mr Ahmadinejad signed off on legislation that could limit UN inspections at Iran’s nuclear sites if its case is taken to the Security Council. The law obliges the Government to "stop voluntary and non-legally binding measures and implement its scientific, research and executive programmes" if the Security Council gets involved.

Mr Ahmadinejad has ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency to be prepared to apply the law, which does not refer to specific forms of retaliation although counter-measures could include the resumption of uranium enrichment as well as refusing to adhere to the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives increased inspection powers to the IAEA.

In Washington, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, accused Tehran of a"deliberate escalation" of the dispute, and said it was in "dangerous defiance of the entire international community".

While threatening to halt cooperation, Iranian officials have nevertheless signalled their willingness for negotiations to be continued, but on their terms. After a telephone conversation with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, Mr Annan said that Tehran was still keen on pursuing "serious" nuclear talks with European powers within a clear-cut timeframe.

And a leading Iranian cleric, Ahmad Khatami, said that Iran would resist the "psychological war" being waged against it.

"This is a psychological war. This nation is not a nation to yield to such pressures," Mr Khatami told worshippers in a Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University.

To chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Britain", he added: "The Europeans should avoid the language of threat. Using this language against the great Iranian nation is useless

January 14, 2006 at 10:28 AM in Iran | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home