Sunday, October 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian and French counterparts Saturday, rallying support for a deal to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, as they urged Tehran to accept the offer. Obama made Saturday-morning calls to Russia's Dmitry Medvedev and France's Nicolas Sarkozy during which all three men "affirmed their full support" for a recently offered deal, the White House said. Under the plan Russia and France would produce enriched uranium for Tehran in exchange for assurances the Islamic Republic will not seek a nuclear weapon. The three leaders also "discussed the importance of all parties accepting the proposal so that implementation can begin as soon as possible," Washington said. The conversations came a day after Iran ignored a Friday deadline to respond to the offer, saying it would make its decision in the next week. Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran was "examining different dimensions" of the offer "about the provisional supply of fuel for the Tehran research reactor." Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program. The enrichment process produces fuel for civilian reactors, but at higher levels of enrichment can be used to make the fissile core of an atomic bomb. Despite the lack of public details about the plan, and the absence of an Iranian response, elements were already being picked apart. Iran has said it does not want Russia to subcontract part of the enrichment process to France, which has taken a tough line against Tehran's program.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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