Skip to main content

West demands Iran to comply on nuke issues

Friday, September 25, 2009 UNITED NATIONS: World powers leading talks to rein in Iran's suspect nuclear ambitions have upped the pressure on the Islamic republic, as momentum grew toward imposing new sanctions.As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appeared to make a major policy shift by countenancing tough new nuclear sanctions, the global powers said Wednesday they still had "serious concerns" about Tehran's nuclear program.Top diplomats from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany called on Iran to meet its international obligations as they prepared for talks next week in Geneva."Iran's nuclear program remains a matter of serious concern to the international community," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in reading a statement from the six powers."We acknowledge the recent measures taken by Iran regarding its cooperation with the IAEA and encourage Iran to cooperate further with the IAEA to resolve the remaining issues which need to be clarified to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."He called on Iran to implement all the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Security Council "to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program at the earliest possible date."He said the group, known as the P5 + 1, expects "a serious response from Iran" on October 1.Russia meanwhile moved closer than ever before to Washington's position that the Islamic Republic should face crippling sanctions unless it makes concessions on its nuclear program in the talks."Sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases sanctions are inevitable," Medvedev said, after talks with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.The apparent US and Russian convergence came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the annual debate.Obama said after the talks at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York that time was running out for Iran to open the doors of its nuclear program to the rest of the world."Serious additional sanctions remain a possibility," the president said, calling on Tehran to "seize the opportunity" at the talks with the P5 + 1.While stiffening his position, Medvedev did call on the international community to send the right signals and incentives to Iran to convince it to halt what Western powers and Israel claim is a cover to produce nuclear weapons."We need to help Iran to (make) the right decisions," he said.US officials welcomed the remarks."We are in a different place in US-Russia relations, said Michael McFaul, the top official responsible for Russia on Obama's National Security Council, adding there was no "daylight" between the sides on the Iran issue."I cannot improve on what President Medvedev said. He could not have been clearer."Taking a more conciliatory tone than his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama has asked Iran to accept an outstretched hand of friendship and engage with the United States on nuclear and other issues.But on Wednesday, Obama urged world leaders to hold Iran -- as well as North Korea -- to account for their nuclear programs, warning they threatened to take the world down a "dangerous slope."French President Nicolas Sarkozy also warned Iran against "making a tragic mistake" by assuming the international community will stand idly by while Tehran pursues what he called a military nuclear program.Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful nuclear energy, denying charges it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.But patience appeared to be wearing thin as Iran steadfastly refuses to halt its uranium enrichment.Speaking about the threat of nuclear proliferation from both Iran and North Korea, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "we are ready to consider further sanctions" against them.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...