BUSH SAYS HE WOULD SUPPORT IRANIANS QUEST FOR DEMOCRACY
PARIS 21 Jan. (IPS) American President George W. Bush reiterated Tuesday his determination to "support" Iranian people’s aspirations for democracy and freedom and but at the same time urged the Islamic Republic to respect its nuclear engagements.
"Iranians, like all people, have a right to choose their own government and determine their own destiny, and the United States supports their aspirations to live in freedom", Mr. Bush said in his State of the Union address, refraining from any direct threat to the ruling Iranian ayatollahs and deleting the label of "evil State" he had tagged on the Islamic republic more than a year ago.
"In Iran, we continue to see a government that represses its people,
pursues weapons of mass destruction, and supports terror. We also see Iranian
citizens risking intimidation and death as they speak out for liberty and human
rights and democracy", the President said, adding that however, he prefer
to see nuclear crisis with Iran and North Korea be solved by peaceful
negotiations.
"Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail, terror, and mass murder. They could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist allies, who would use them without the least hesitation", he observed in an indirect reference to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Stalinist regime of North Korea.
Iranian analysts said Mr. Bush’s soft language on Iran might confirm "signals" Iranian ruling conservatives have sent to Washington about resuming talks on resumption of relations between the two states.
As President Bush was addressing the Congress, in Vienna, diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) renewed concerns over Iranian nuclear programs.
The American news agency The Associated Press quoted diplomats on condition of anonymity, even key European nations who negotiated the deal with Tehran have started to question Iran's commitment because it appears to be using semantics — the meaning of the word suspend — to keep some of its nuclear enrichment program operational.
On 21 October, Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rohani, the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security met with foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and announced Iran’s acceptance of signing the Additional Protocol to the Non Proliferation Treaty and suspend provisory all its uranium enriching programs, activities it had carried out for years without informing the IAEA.
The most recent developments threaten, therefore, to put Iran again at center stage at the next top-level meeting of the International nuclear watchdog in March.
If the Iranian program becomes central at the March IAEA meeting, the issue could pit Washington against France, Germany and Britain, which secured Iran's suspension pledge last summer in exchange for a promise to ease restrictions on technology exports to Tehran.
One of the diplomats suggested an oversight on the part of France, Germany and Britain when they made their deal with Iran. "Right from the beginning, everybody asked, "what is suspension" but the Europeans and Iranians never defined it", The Associated Press quoted the unidentified diplomat as having said.
Diplomats said Javier Solana, the European Union's High Representative on Foreign and Security Affairs brought up the continued manufacture of centrifuges with Mr. Rohani during his visit to Tehran last week. The French also raised the issue Thursday, when the powerful and influential cleric visited Paris.
Mr. Rohani reiterated to the French that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, as alleged by Washington and urged the Europeans to honour their promises of increased technological aid for peaceful purposes, as stipulated by the NPT.
The United States interprets suspension as encompassing the whole process — including a halt in assemblage of enrichment equipment and in his State of the Union speech, President Bush urged Tehran to respect its engagements.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher warned last week that failure by Iran to indefinitely suspend "all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities would be deeply troubling."
The IAEA continues to negotiate with Iran on what constitutes suspension, but one diplomat told AP that IAEA Director Mohammad el-Barade’i "feels strongly" that Iran should also stop making and assembling centrifuges, a process needed for producing nuclear energy. ENDS US IRAN 21104