French president Jacques Chirac(R) is welcomed by his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak at the presidential Palace in Cairo. World powers showed divisions over how to halt Iran’s nuclear drive even as the United States claimed growing support for sanctions.

AFP: Chirac, Mubarak urge diplomacy with Iran

French President Jacques Chirac and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged nations to pursue diplomacy rather than military force with Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

“We must explore all diplomatic possibilities,” Chirac said at a press conference in Cairo after arriving for a two-day visit during which he was expected to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran’s nuclear ambitions with his counterpart.

Mubarak expressed the same view as Chirac and also warned against the use of military force.

“This question must be resolved through diplomatic and political means, distancing military operations which would have dangerous repercussions in the region,” Mubarak said after meeting with the French president.

AFP: US ‘will do what we have to do’ against Iran

A top US diplomat refused to rule out unilateral action by the United States to curb Iran’s nuclear program but said it would be “best” to work with other countries in doing so.

“We are going to act to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability,” US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters here after two days of talks with other world powers on how to resolve the Iran nuclear impasse.

“We think that the best way forward is to work with other countries and we’ve invested a lot of time in that,” he said.

But he added: “I think we’ve made our view clear in Washington, our administration, and that is that it is absolutely not in our interest or anyone else’s to have Iran with nuclear weapons.

“And so we’re going to do what we have to do to prevent that from occurring.”

AP: Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value

Wading into oil politics for the first time, Iran’s hard-line president said Wednesday that crude oil prices — now at record levels — still are below their true value.

In statements likely to rattle world oil markets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said developed countries, not producing countries like Iran, are benefiting the most from the current high prices.

“The global oil price has not reached its real value yet. The products derived from crude oil are sold at prices dozens of times higher than those charged by oil-producing countries,” state-run Tehran radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

“The developed nations are the biggest beneficiary of the added value of oil products,” he said.

Reuters: Rice says US will use varied means to stop Iran

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday the United States would use political, economic and other measures to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Speaking to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, Rice said the international community agreed Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and was mobilized to respond.

On Tuesday, President George W. Bush refused to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy failed to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions.

“In order to turn the Iranians back from what has been behavior that is contrary to all the wishes of the international community, we are prepared to use measures at our disposal — political, economic, others, to dissuade Iran,” Rice said in reply to a question on Iran.

When asked what the threshold would be for military action against Iran, Rice reiterated that political and economic pressure should run its course. However she stressed the president’s view that all options remained on the table.

Las Vegas Sun: Reid blasts Bush during Reno visit

The Bush administration is relying too heavily on other countries in the international effort to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, according to Sen. Harry Reid.

Reid, D-Nev., said the administration should be taking the lead, but instead is relying on Germany, France and Great Britain to convince Iran to end its uranium enrichment program.

“It is hard to comprehend,” Reid said Tuesday in Reno. “We should be involved at trying to arrive at a diplomatic solution. … Not just these three countries.”

Reid said the Middle East is a “powder keg” because of U.S. failures in Iraq, the rise of fundamentalism and the recent election of Hamas in Palestine.

“Our not being involved diplomatically in trying to solve the situation in Iran shows the Bush failure in foreign policy there and elsewhere.”

And he said the U.S. has no military option in Iran.

“We don’t have the resources to do it” because of the ongoing war in Iraq,” he said.

Everybody is a critic of President Bush and the administration’s negotiating policy towards Iran.

Doesn’t everyone agree that Iran should not develop a nuclear weapon? And doesn’t everyone prefer diplomatic negotiations over a military operation?

Good! Flap knows now we can all get along.

Diplomacy takes time and everyone is a Monday morning quarterback. But, it is the President’s decision and it will be W. who will decide there has been enough negotiation and too little action.

Stay tuned……

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Iran Nuclear Watch Briefings

The Iran Nuclear Watch Files

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U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Wednesday, April 19, 2006. Burns said Wednesday that a majority of the countries that are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Group of Eight members support possible sanctions against Iran in the dispute over the country’s nuclear program.

ASSociated Press: U.S.: More Countries Back Iran Sanctions

A top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that most of the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members and the Group of Eight support possible sanctions against Iran in the dispute over that country’s nuclear program.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns also said the United States has not given up on efforts to resolve the dispute through diplomacy. Earlier this week, President Bush said “all options are on the table” — including the military option — to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons.

“Nearly every country is considering some sort of sanctions and that’s new,” Burns told reporters after two days of meetings in Moscow.

He declined to specify which countries support possible sanctions. Russia and China, both of which are permanent Security Council members, are seen as the most likely to resist sanctions.

ASSociated Press: U.S. May Turn to Watchdog Agency on Iran

The United States may turn to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to exert more pressure on Iran over its atomic program out of frustration with Russian and Chinese opposition to firm Security Council action, diplomats said Wednesday.

The diplomats, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the American initiative, said the U.S. delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency had contacted other national delegations over the past few days to gauge support for a special IAEA board meeting on Iran.

Reuters: Iran unlikely to meet UN demands: Straw

Britain does not expect Iran to comply with U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment by the end of April, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday.

“We are working on the basis that Iran will not meet the proposals from the Security Council on the 30-day deadline,” Straw told BBC Radio Four in an interview from Saudi Arabia.

He declined to say later to reporters what action he thought the Security Council might then take.

Bloomberg.com: Iran Facing `Isolation, Costs’ Over Nuclear Stance (Update1)

Envoys meeting in Moscow to discuss Iran’s nuclear development agreed the Islamic Republic must face international action for defying the United Nations by enriching uranium, said Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs.

“All of us want to take one collective, multilateral action in New York at the Security Council,” Burns told reporters. The delegates share a “general notion that Iran has to feel the isolation and pressure of the international community and they have to have some costs to what they are doing,” he said.

A majority of the delegations agreed that sanctions against Iran are necessary, without deciding on specifics, Burns said. He spoke after two days of meetings to discuss the standoff with representatives from the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

AFP: US demands end to Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation

The United States demanded an end to Russia’s cooperation with Iran in building the Islamic republic’s first civilian nuclear power station.

“We also think it is important for countries to stop cooperation with Iran on nuclear issues, even on civilian nuclear issues like the Bushehr facility,” US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told journalists in Moscow.

Burns made clear that he was talking about various countries’ work with Iran’s nuclear industry. However, Russia is Iran’s biggest nuclear partner and is building the country’s first atomic power station at Bushehr.

“A number of countries are continuing to permit the export of dual-use materials that could be used, and we think in some cases are being used, to help the growth of Iran’s nuclear industry,” Burns said.

“It is the view of my government that it would be appropriate now for those individual governments to stop that practice and no longer permit it.”

Well, Russia cannot have it both ways, now can they?

Negotiations are going NOWHERE but the United States puts on a good “SHOW.”

Stay tuned…….

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The Iran Nuclear Watch Files

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