US President George W. Bush pledged Thursday to work with allies
to strengthen sanctions on Iran after a UN watchdog agency reported
that Teheran was accelerating its nuclear enrichment program in
defiance of international demands.
"The world has spoken and said... no nuclear weapons programs.
And yet they're constantly ignoring the demands," Bush said at a
White House news conference. The ratcheting up of rhetoric against
Iran came just days before US and Iranian diplomats were to meet in
Baghdad to discuss ways of stabilizing Iraq.
The president said he had directed Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to work with European partners to "develop further
sanctions." He said he would also soon discuss the matter with
Russia and China.
Iran's leaders "continue to be defiant as to the demands of the
free world," Bush said. "My view is that we need to strengthen our
sanction regime."
The UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), on Wednesday accused Iran of accelerating its
uranium enrichment program despite international demands that it
shut it down. The US has moved two aircraft carriers and seven
other ships into the Persian Gulf in a show of force.
The United States has lodged a formal protest with the head of
the UN nuclear watchdog agency for suggesting that Iran be allowed
to keep some elements of its uranium enrichment program, and France
and Britain plan to do the same, diplomats said Thursday.
The diplomats said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief US
representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
had expressed his displeasure in a meeting on Wednesday with IAEA
chief Mohamed ElBaradei. His British and French counterparts would
follow suit as early as today, said the diplomats, who demanded
anonymity because their information was confidential.
"They have an appointment with ElBaradei tomorrow," said one of
the diplomats, alluding to the heads of the British and French
missions to the IAEA.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming confirmed that Schulte and
ElBaradei had met on Wednesday but she declined to elaborate beyond
saying the mood was "cordial."
Diplomats first revealed such plans on Tuesday, saying the US
was seeking allied support for a protest. Thursday, they said
Washington had enlisted the French and British. Canada, Australia
and several other countries normally backing Washington on Iran had
not made a decision as of Thursday on whether to back the move,
they said.
The Americans and their allies are taking issue with recent
public suggestions by ElBaradei that it is too late to force
Teheran to scrap its enrichment program as demanded by the UN
Security Council and his push instead for implementing inspection
safeguards to prevent an expansion of the program.
"I believe that (UN) demand has been superseded by events,"
ElBaradei told the Spanish newspaper ABC last week. Instead, he
said, "the important thing now is to concentrate on Iran not taking
it to industrial scale."
France had already publicly rebuffed ElBaradei on Wednesday.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said Paris
shared "the gist of concerns expressed by our American partners -
along with several other partners, for that matter," adding: "I can
confirm that our permanent representative in Vienna will take part
in the American initiative."
(China Daily via agencies May 25, 2007)
