China urged Iran to show flexibility on the day the U.N. nuclear watchdog launched talks with the Islamic Republic over greater access to its nuclear sites.
We should not be too surprised that Iran continues to defy international calls to open its nuclear program to greater scrutiny and transparency. Even as the toughest U.S. sanctions yet were enacted, and Europe was considering a ban on Iranian oil imports, the militant theocracy threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40 percent of the world\’s seaborne supply of crude oil flows.
Israel, the United States and Iran have all gone deep into mixed-signals territory. Conversations with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left one prominent journalist convinced that Israel will strike Iran by year’s end. Yet two weeks ago, Barak had said that any possible Israeli attack on Iran is “far off.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela\’s Hugo Chavez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked U.S. disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.
The Obama administration is engaged in a full-court press to persuade Israel that Iran’s nuclear threat can be contained short of war. The U.S. lobbying has received a mixed reception from Israel, where the Netanyahu government has not ruled out a unilateral strike on Iran.
The Israeli president’s recent threat to bomb Iranian nuclear sites focused world attention on Iran’s nuclear program even before the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) shocking report on the country’s efforts to get the bomb was published.
As reports circulate about an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iranian progress toward building a nuclear weapon, issues of foreign policy and
Iran has amassed all of the components it needs to build a nuclear weapon, and could do so in just a few months , according to officials briefed on the United Nations nuclear watchdog\’s findings.
Argentina reinforced the suspicion of a secret deal with Iran on two terrorist bombings when its U.N. mission failed to walk out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\’s General Assembly address, five Argentinian lawmakers said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Western powers on Thursday for a catalogue of misdeeds, but his address to the United Nations failed to mention Tehran\’s disputed nuclear program.
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