March 20, 2007
Russia Starts Playing Hardball With Iran
Paper Reports Moscow Issues Ultimatum To Stop Enrichment
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(AP / CBS)
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Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, attends a meeting with clerics in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. Ahmadinejad said his country would move forward with its disputed nuclear program. (AP Photo/ISNA, Ruhollah Vahdati)
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Timeline Iran Nuclear Chronology Events in development of Iran's nuclear program since it first came to light.
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Fast Facts Russia Learn about the people, economy and history.
Russia has told Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for a power plant Moscow is building inside the Islamic republic, unless Tehran halts its contentious uranium enrichment program, according to a Tuesday report in the New York Times.
The ultimatum comes after several weeks of growing tension between Tehran and Russia, one of the few countries that has tried to temper a push by the United States to punish Iran for its nuclear program.
Russia has been building a nuclear power plant at Bushehr, in Iran, as an incentive to deter the regime from forging ahead with a nuclear enrichment program on their own, away from the eyes of other nations.
In recent weeks, Moscow has accused Tehran of failing to make payments for the crucial fuel delivery — what would be the next step in the plant's construction — and said the fuel would be withheld until overdue payments were made.
Russia's state-run nuclear power company went so far as to say the delinquent payments could permanently derail the planned construction of the plant.
Iran's government has insisted repeatedly that all due payments have been made, and says Russia must provide the gas according to the deal struck by the two nations.
U.S. and European government representatives said Tuesday that Russia is pulling out its experts from the Iranian nuclear reactor site at Bushehr.
The representatives — a European diplomat and a U.S. official — said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists have returned to Moscow within the last week. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential.
Russia's new ultimatum was delivered last week by Igor S. Ivanov, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council, to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator, according to The Times, which cited anonymous officials.
It indicates a shift in the Russian attitude towards Iran that diplomats in the U.S. and Europe will welcome.
Western members of the U.N. Security Council have been pushing for much harsher sanctions against Tehran to force them to halt enrichment, but they've met with resistance from Russia and China, both of which wield veto-power in the council.
"We're not sure what mix of commercial and political motives are at play here," one senior Bush administration official told The Times. "But clearly the Russians and the Iranians are getting on each other's nerves — and that's not all bad."
It wasn't clear whether the Russians adopted their new, tougher stance on Iran over the money issue, or for reasons related to the constant pressure applied on Moscow from Washington and Europe to force Iran's hand.
Meanwhile, South Africa called Monday for a 90-day "time out" on sanctions against Iran and said a resolution drafted by six world powers should drop an embargo on arms exports and financial sanctions targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards and an Iranian bank.
The proposals by South Africa, which holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council this month, were obtained by The Associated Press ahead of an informal council meeting Tuesday and the first formal discussion Wednesday on the draft resolution.
The U.S. has granted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a visa, letting him travel to New York to address the U.N. Security Council as it considers sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.
The department has processed 39 visas for Ahmadinejad and his delegation, which includes 12 other senior Iranian officials and 26 security guards, he said. Another 33 visa requests, for airline crew and support staff, are expected to be processed shortly.
The approvals, which had been expected, were announced Monday after world powers agreed in principle to the new sanctions. Iran wants to speak to the council before members vote on the resolution to impose the new measures.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 29 CommentsAs far as "president doushe bag has made many of us ashamed to be an american..... " luckily Clinton is out now so this is no longer a concern. WE had no choice but to act in Iraq - what is critical now is minimizing Iran's influence in Iraq. Iran is a house of cards waiting to fall. We need to support thier internal opposition parties.
The Truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism
Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic%u2014and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/08/the_muslim_crusades.html
so what do you think can be done in iraq. ne hope for peace their?
only way i could see this happen is A. one side wins out and other perish B. they somehow reject the religion that has caused them nothing but grief for soooo long. or C. someone wipes them all out and lets god sort them out....
i was just trying to shake things up see if anyone was reading this post...
When i used crazy their i meant those on holy missions to harm/kill people. which is far from what you stand for.
Hi, sometimes you gotta try to spark a little conversation...aka my last post...
but seriously their has been feuding in the middle east for what is it 1200 years. The scary thing now a days tho is that weapons of mass destruction are available. where as in the past, it was just hand to hand combat. all in all, their mindset has been the same for this long.
The only hope for peace in iraq is for the U.S. and probably many other countries to baby sit them and stay their for probably the next 50 some odd years.
http://www.allaboutreligion.org/origin-of-islam.htm
lets turn our heads the other direction while china does a little ethnic cleansing in the area and spreads itself out across the land.
Split up the oil reserves.
and world will be a better place.
(p.s. i'm not serious but until the crazy religious idiots are all dead the world will not be a very safe place)
Posted by tuckerndfw
no need to wait till '09, recent european opinion polls listing least respected:
1st place : USA
2nd place : Jewish State of Israel
Posted by karlimhof at 10:41 AM : Mar 20, 2007
if you did the same poll in the U.S. the results will pretty damm close to the same.....
president doushe bag has made many of us ashamed to be an american.....
The Truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism
Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic%u2014and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/08/the_muslim_crusades.html
Terror at Beslan
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1316935651894423094
RAPES IN BESLAN: IN MUHAMMAD%u2019S FOOTSTEPS
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/News/Trifkovic04/NewsST091304.html
Forget Not the Children of Beslan
http://kenlydell.typepad.com/islamic_evil/forget_not_the_children_of_beslan/index.html
Religion of Peace??? More like a cult of death.
http://www.terrorists-suck.org/why_suck/beslan.html
j4401 - read up on WWII - you should make an effort to understand the basics of our use of the bombs against Japan. Can you even find Japan on a map? What day was the most devestating to the Japanese during WWII - any clue?
You are all suffering from Bushotitus and need serious help.
After all that's happened, being lied into a unjust war - it's time to start thinking again.
I wish there had been a better way than WWII to deter Hitler's belief that his Aryan race should inherit our planet, but that jerk allowed the destruction of every major German city and got down to children fighting before he took the easy way out. And the leaders of Iran don't just have an economic motive -- a higher being is calling on them to kill. At least that is what the clerics who lead the goverment tell their citizens (oops I mean parishoners.)
The reason for the separation of church and state in the US is not to protect the church.
I am not smart enough to think of a way to deter Teheran's global ambitions but am dead certain that if something is not done very soon, all of us are going to be fighting to keep our heads attached to our bodies.
Our current direction sure sounds a lot like Neville Chamblerlain's appeasement of Hitler. I'll bet that (unless someone had a crystal ball into the future), he would have instantly lost his place in British politics if he had taken pre-emptive action to stop the growing threat.
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