President Obama said it was still possible to resolve Iran\’s suspected bid for a nuclear weapon through diplomacy, but added that a military option was still on the table and that containment was not an option.
Iranians voted on Friday in a parliamentary election likely to reinforce Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\’s power over rival hardliners led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Western powers hope to win Russian and Chinese backing for rebuking Iran at the U.N. nuclear agency next week over Tehran\’s failure to address mounting fears that it is secretly bent on acquiring nuclear weapons capability, diplomats say.
The United States said on Wednesday that North Korea had agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches and to allow nuclear inspectors to visit its Yongbyon nuclear complex to verify a halt to all nuclear activities including uranium enrichment.
Iran has yet to give an explanation over a small quantity of uranium metal missing from a research site, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a report that voiced concern over possible military links to Tehran\’s nuclear program.
A confidential report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities in recent months.
Ever since their first awkward encounter – a hastily arranged meeting in a custodian\’s office at a Washington airport in 2007 – Iran has been one of the few issues on which Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu have been able to find some common ground.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran\’s suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West.
Russia warned Israel on Wednesday that attacking Iran would be a disastrous and played down the failure of a U.N. nuclear agency mission to Tehran, saying there is still a chance for new talks over the Iranian atomic program.
A rare visit by senior U.N. nuclear inspectors next week raises pressure on Iran to address suspicions it is trying to develop atomic weapons, though Western powers that are piling on sanctions expect no significant breakthrough.
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