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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rose in hand, in front of a picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (AP)
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Assuming the position, in preparation for the moonwalk? (AP)
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| By Associated Press April 17, 2006 |
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The head of Israel's National Security Council said Saturday that despite Iran's claim that it had enriched uranium it was not too late for the international community to work together to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Giora Eiland told Israel Radio that Iran was trying to create an inaccurate impression of inevitability about its nuclear program, though it was still far from being able to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran announced Tuesday that, for the first time, it had enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a step toward the large-scale production that would be necessary to produce nuclear weapons. The move touched off a flurry of international activity to try to stop Iran's nuclear program from further progressing.
"True, they somehow upgraded their ability and have achieved new abilities of research and development in uranium enrichment. But between that stage and having the commercial ability to produce uranium in amounts needed for a bomb, and between this ability and creating a system of real weapons, there is a gap of technology and time," Eiland said.
Iran says its nuclear work is solely for civilian purposes. The U.S. and other nations believe it is trying to create weapons, though Western experts say Iran is far from producing weapons-grade uranium.
The U.N. Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to cease enriching uranium, a demand Iran has rejected. The United States and Europe are pressing for sanctions on Iran, but Russia and China - who hold a veto in the Security Council - have so far opposed those plans.
Iran is an intractable enemy of Israel that has repeatedly threatened to destroy the Jewish state. The Israeli government has preferred to allow the U.S. and Europe to take the lead in dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue.
Eiland said the international community, which has been slow to respond to Iran, will have to start taking diplomatic action.
"So far too few steps have been taken, and too late. But one can expect that Iran's bold statements will wake up the world," he said.
Eiland said that a threat from a nuclear Iran would hang over every conflict in the Middle East, not just those with Israel.
"Iran threatens the whole region. There is fear in the Gulf states and in Saudi Arabia from Iran's nuclear weapons, no less than our fears of it," he said.
Iran's successful acquisition of nuclear arms could also create an arms race in the Middle East, inspiring other states to acquire nuclear weapons for themselves.
Israel itself is widely considered to have nuclear weapons, though it maintains a policy of "nuclear ambiguity," neither acknowledging or denying it. Israeli officials have said that they consider a nuclear Iran one of the greatest threats to the country.
Last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and questioned whether the Holocaust actually happened.
On Friday, Ahmadinejad opened a three-day conference on the Palestinians by calling Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm."
Eiland declined to respond directly to his comment, but said: "I hope the world understands his words in their full seriousness."
Former Iranian president says US attack not in Washington's interests
Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Sunday a U.S. military strike against Iran was not in Washington's interests.
Wrapping up a five-day visit to Syria, Rafsanjani noted that the U.N. Security Council so far had not endorsed any unanimous resolution for action against Iran over its nuclear program and accused the United States of waging "a psychological war" against Tehran after it announced it had enriched uranium, the main plank of its nuclear program.
"If the United States launched a military strike against Iran, that would be neither in its interests nor in the interests of the entire region," Rafsanjani told a joint news conference in Damascus with Syrian Vice president Farouk al-Sharaa.
He said he believed that the United States was "incapable of taking a risk or engaging into a new war in the region without discussing the subject seriously."
U.S. media reports have said President George W. Bush's administration was considering a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington claims is designed to produce nuclear weapons.
Bush has dismissed those reports as "wild speculation." The U.S. is working with the Security Council to press Iran to stop its nuclear program, which Tehran says is aimed solely at civilian electricity generation.
Al-Sharaa defended Iran's right to possess nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, saying western pressure on Iran has arisen because "the United States and Europe refuse to make any Muslim country possess modern technology."
Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections, called the western countries' stand on Iran's uranium enrichment "unjust."
"Iran's success in uranium enrichment is for the interest of the region's countries and all Islamic countries," Rafsanjani said. He stressed that Iran's nuclear program was not intended to harm any country in the region.
Rafsanjani, who heads the Expediency Council, a powerful body that arbitrates between Iran's parliament and clerical hierarchy, traveled to Kuwait Sunday where he is scheduled to meet with the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, on Monday. The former Iranian leader said he would discuss bilaterial relations and developments in the Palestinian territories and Iraq.
Kuwait has expressed concern it could be affected by pollution from an accident at Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr, which is due to come on stream later this year. There are also fears that they could be caught in cross fire in any military action against Iran.
At the news conference, Al-Sharaa said President Bashar Assad urged Syrians to donate to the Palestinian Authority and people "in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians who are subjected to pressures for their democratic choice," - a reference to the militant Palestinian Hamas group's election victory in January.
Iranian president's nuclear rhetoric not to the taste of all his people
Iran's success enriching uranium may have increased national pride, but Ahmadinejad has annoyed his predecessors by claiming the achievement in his name alone.
Some Iranians are also concerned that Ahmadinejad's rhetoric is stoking the international concern over the goals of Tehran's nuclear program.
On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges - a significant step toward the large-scale production of enriched uranium required for either fueling nuclear reactors or making nuclear weapons.
Since the announcement that Iran successfully enriched uranium, the president has used even more defiant language over his country's nuclear activities and intensified his anti-Israel rhetoric.
He rebuffed a request Thursday by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, saying Tehran will not retreat "one iota."
And to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle he has just one comment: "Be angry at us and die of this anger."
Such reckless talk has some in this conservative Islamic Republic concerned.
"The more Ahmadinejad confronts the international community, the more power he may show to his public in the short term but deny Iran a good life among world nations in the long term," Hossein Salimi, professor of international relations at a university in Tehran said.
Ahmadinejad's tough talk comes on the heels of Iran large-scale war games earlier this month in testing what it claimed were stealth missiles and high speed torpedoes. And the location of those maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz, the 55-kilometer-wide (34-mile-wide) entrance to the Persian Gulf through which about two-fifths of the world's oil supplies pass, made them all the more provocative.
The show of force invited further international criticism of Iran but resounded with some of the country's more religious people.
"Ahmadinejad is a source of pride for resisting the U.S. and defending Iran's nuclear rights," said Ali Mahmoudi, a regular attendee of Friday prayers.
Some believe Ahmadinejad alienated potential allies when he announced the "good nuclear news" Tuesday without mentioning former leaders' names or thanking them for their efforts to make uranium enrichment possible.
"Ahmadinejad spoke as if production of enriched uranium was his work. He didn't mention that it was the outcome of more than two decades of clandestine work by previous governments," said political analyst Saeed Leilaz.
Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, in an apparent show of displeasure, tried to take some of the glory from Ahmadinejad by making the enrichment announcement several hours before he did.
Another past leader, reformist president Mohammad Khatami, publicly reminded Ahmadinejad that the Iranian nuclear achievement was not his alone.
"This was the outcome of efforts by competent Iranian scientists, a process that had begun by previous governments," Khatami was quoted by the daily Shargh as saying Thursday.
"Ahmadinejad just wants to appropriate this national achievement in his own name. He needs to do it to boost his political base," Leilaz said.
Iran's top leaders have made it clear that Iran wants the U.S. to recognize it as a "big, regional power" and deal with it on that basis.
"The key problem between Iran and the U.S. is that Washington treats Iran as a non-grown up person. The Iranian leadership is very unhappy with this. Tehran wants America to treat Iran as a regional superpower," Leilaz said.
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad sent a clear message that Iran expected to be treated as a peer.
"Today, our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from the position of a nuclear country," he said.
But Ahmadinejad might have taken the nuclear rhetoric one step too far. Even his supporters are starting to question his tactics.
"Ahmadinejad has forgotten why he won the presidential vote. The needy voted for him because he promised to bring bread to people's homes but nothing good has been done to improve living standards," said Tehran University student Reza Lotfi.
Mansour Ramezanpour, a construction worker, blamed the country's economic troubles on the Ahmadinejad government.
"Previously, I went to work four days a week. Now, not more than two days. Recession is everywhere," he said.
But Ahmadinejad appears determined to make the most of the nuclear card to improve his standing among his people. It was certainly no coincidence that he announced that Iran had enriched uranium on April 9 - the same day the U.S. severed ties with Iran in 1980.
And by turning that day into an annual event, hard-liners have suggested it be called "National Technology Day," it seems that Iranian leadership wants to drive home the idea that the severing of relations with the United States didn't harm Iran but actually helped it to flourish technologically.
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