China has agreed to negotiate possible sanctions against Iran over Tehran’s failure to comply with international regulations involving its nuclear energy program, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations said Wednesday.
Iranian nuclear scientist’s defection to the US is latest in series of blows dealt to Tehran regime by western intelligence war
In the absence of any sign so far that Iran will curb its nuclear ambitions under the threat of sanctions or military action, or in exchange for economic incentives, espionage is the only strand of western strategy towards Iran that appears to be having any success.
Yesterday’s report that Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri had defected to the US is one of a series of incidents that have sown paranoia in the top ranks of the Tehran regime.
If Amiri was lured away from his job by the CIA, as ABC News and others have reported, it will have at the very least…
• Beijing agrees to begin drafting UN resolution
• Move to curb atomic plans comes as scientist defects
Fresh sanctions against Iran moved closer yesterday, when China agreed to begin drafting a UN resolution imposing measures aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear programme.
Last night, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said the five permanent security council members plus Germany “continues to be unified” in talks on sanctions. “There will be a great deal of further consultation not only among the [six], but other members of the security council and other [UN] member nations during the next weeks,” she said.
According to officials with knowledge of the talks, an…
Former watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei says IAEA had to be aware of ‘political implications of our work’
The UN’s former top nuclear watchdog said tonight that his cautious language in reports about Iran’s nuclear programme was part of a deliberate policy to keep a lid on tensions and avert a rush to war.
Mohamed ElBaradei, who was director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency for 12 years before stepping down last November, pleaded with the international community to “learn the lessons” of the Iraq invasion and prevent further conflict in the Middle East.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, he said that despite its technical status, the IAEA’s work was deeply politicised….
As the US and Russia agree on arms reduction in a threatening world, a combined missile defence system should be next
Next week in Prague, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and US president Barack Obama will sign a new strategic arms reduction treaty (Start). That agreement is an historic achievement, and an inspiration for further progress in global arms control. But at the same time, here and now, we must also prepare to defend against another, less encouraging trend.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery is a threat to both the Nato allies and Russia. A look at current trends shows that more than 30 countries have or are developing missile…
An Iranian nuclear physicist who vanished last summer during a visit to Saudi Arabia was persuaded to defect by the CIA, a US report claims
ABC News is reporting that Shahram Amiri, a young Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing while on a pilgrimage to Mecca in late May or early June last year, is now living in the US having been seduced by US intelligence.
According to the people briefed on the intelligence operation, Amiri’s disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached the scientist in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States.
Last October, Iran accused the US of…
An Iranian nuclear scientist who has been missing since June has defected to the United States, a media report there says.
Six of the winning candidates in Iraq’s elections should be disqualified because of alleged ties to the former Baath government, a vetting panel says.
US president warms relations with Europe after French leader takes trip to fast food joint
Nicolas Sarkozy dispensed with Gallic fussiness about food on his visit to Washington yesterday to dine in the city’s most famous fast food joint, Ben’s Chili Bowl.
The restaurant, with its selection of cheap hamburgers and ‘half smokes’ – a sort of cholesterol-laden hot dog – could never be described as haute cuisine, yet the French president’s wife Carla Bruni opted for a half smoke and then, perhaps surprisingly for an ex-model, ordered a second.
The trip was a piece of crowd-pleasing propaganda on a two-day US trip designed to show that relations between the US and Europe remain close. Links…
US President Barack Obama and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy vow to push for new UN sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Obama and Sarkozy say ‘the time has come to take decisions’ on Iran’s nuclear programme
President Barack Obama said he would like to see new sanctions in place against Iran “in weeks”, during a press conference with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy at the White House today.
“My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring. I’m not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I’m interested in seeing that regime in weeks,” Obama said.
“In the interim, we are going to move forcefully for a UN sanctions regime,” Obama said. “Do we have unanimity in the international community on sanctions? Not yet. And that’s something that we have to work on.”
The US has…
Given the angry prelude and lingering discord, the German chancellor’s visit to Turkey was refreshingly constructive
On the eve of Angela Merkel’s arrival in Turkey this week, predictions of “diplomatic tensions” – and worse – were rife. A harsh exchange of words between the German chancellor and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had set the scene for what threatened to be a turbulent visit to Ankara. Where Merkel’s statements about German-Turkish relations had Erdogan denouncing her “hatred against Turkey”, in Ankara her language was conciliatory. But softened rhetoric cannot disguise underlying disagreements.
The chancellor’s visit – her first to Ankara in four…
Obama’s belated visit may have been triggered by a realisation that Kabul is slipping into other powers’ spheres of influence
President Obama’s recent visit to Kabul was in tune with local traditions of hospitality: the guest arrived late and unannounced. But unlike his first visit, in 2008, Obama’s departure this time did not leave behind a silence filled with hope. Instead, rumours began to circulate in a vain attempt to make sense of this unexpected nocturnal visit. The notion that President Karzai had been kept in the dark about the visit until a mere hour before Obama’s arrival was particularly embarrassing, and was immediately dismissed by the government spokesman who reassured the…
Iyad Allawi, the man who won Iraq’s parliamentary elections, accuses Iran of trying to prevent him from becoming prime minister.
Reports on Iranian television say ‘complicated operation’ enabled return of man abducted in 2008
Iranian intelligence agents launched a cross-border mission into Pakistan to free an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in 2008, Iranian state television reported today.
Reports said the agents rescued Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, of Iran’s Peshawar consulate, in what was described as a “complicated intelligence operation”.
The Iranian intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi, said Iran had asked Pakistan to free the diplomat, but Tehran handled the situation itself after Pakistan failed to do the job.
“We have a high intelligence capability in the region,” Moslehi said. “We have a good intelligence…
