PRESIDENT BUSH RENEWS ANTI-IRANIAN SANCTIONS
WASHINGTON 14 Mar. (IPS) President George W. Bush renewed on Thursday sanctions established eight years ago against the Islamic Republic of Iran, barring U.S. citizens or companies from entering into oil development contracts in that country.
"Because the actions and policies of the government of Iran continue to
pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign
policy, and economy of the United States, the national emergency declared on
March 15, 1995, must continue in effect beyond March 15, 2003", President
Bush said in his executive order.
The sanctions put in place by the previous Clinton Administration in March 1995, blocks Americans individuals or companies from financing, supervising or managing Iran's vital oil development projects, as well as exporting to Tehran sensitive equipments, paralysing Iran's collapsing economy.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says new information about Iran's nominally peaceful nuclear program, which emerged after a visit to previously secret nuclear sites in that country by U.N. inspectors has reinforced deep concerns among U.S. officials that Iran is using its nuclear power infrastructure to develop nuclear weapons.
Appearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Mr. Powell said the Iranian nuclear effort is far more extensive that commonly believed and, among other things vindicates, President Bush's listing of Iran last year as part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and Iraq.
"We've raised this issue repeatedly. We've talked about the "axis of evil" and been criticized for it", said Mr. Powell. "And lo and behold, we discover they had a far more robust nuclear infrastructure that could be used for weapons development than people had thought, or wanted us to believe. We were seen as suspicious, and we shouldn't be moving in this direction, but now we have a real concern. When you marry that up with their continued support for terrorist organizations that foment terror in Lebanon and other places throughout the Middle East, I believe that our concerns with respect to Iran were well founded."
The news about Iran’s new nuclear facilities, a uranium enrichment facility and a plant to refine uranium ore, in Natanz and in Arak, in central Iran, were first revealed by an Iranian armed opposition group based in Iraq and supported, financed and trained by Saddam Hoseyn.
Mr. Rasool Naficy, an Iranian professor in Washington D.C. said what made the Bush Administration to consider the Islamic Republic as posing an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the American’s national security is the recent news from Tehran concerning Iran’s progresses in the nuclear field.
According to Mr. Naficy, the goal of the divulgation of the sensitive information by this group – which informed Iranian sources say is now part of the intelligence department of the Iraqi forces – was to reduce international pressures on Iraq by shifting the attention to Tehran.
"Anyhow, the end result is that the hawks around Mr. Bush, those who advocate Iran must be dealt before Iraq, have now a greater manoeuvring room", he told the Persian service of Radio France International (RFI) on Friday.
Mr. Powell said under questioning the United States has given Iran no ultimatum about what it would do if it continues, "moving down this road" toward a nuclear weapons capability. But he says it has made clear to the Iranians, and those supporting Iranian nuclear efforts, including Russia, that it finds the activity "irresponsible."
"At present, Washington’s policy on Iran is not clear. In the one hand, the United States does not intend to attack Iran, but on the other, it perceives Iran as a potential danger and makes verbal threats. On the middle, policymakers in the White House are also aware that there are already forces in Iran struggling for democracy and freedom and they favour to back these movements, as seen by a recent congressional move", Mr. Naficy explained.
Mr. Powell also said in his testimony that the United States has been trying to put out a message of support for the Iranian neo-reformers and young people in what he described as a "battle" underway between the country's political leadership under President Mohamed Khatami and the religious leadership of Mr. Khamenei.
On Thursday, Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born advisor to the White House on Iranian, Iraq and Afghanistan affairs said Iran must be disarmed after Iraq. On invitation from Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Mohammad el-Baradeh’i last month visited the facilities and U.S. officials say they are still awaiting his formal report.
Both Iranian and Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the nuclear power plant that is under construction in Booshehr, on the Persian Gulf, as well as all other atom-based programs are for peaceful purposes only.
But at the same time, Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic and President Mohammad Khatami insist that Iran has a right to develop nuclear weapons to counter Israel's presumed arsenal. ENDS IRAN SANCTIONS RENEWED 14303