Clinton: U.S. has no plan to strike Iran over nuclear program
Iran: We will never give up enrichment at any price; Netanyahu: Watered-down sanctions not enough.
By News Agencies and Nir Hasson Tags: Iran sanctions Iran nuclear Israel newsU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. is not planning a military strike on Iran over its nuclear program, in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.
"Obviously, we don't want Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, but we are not planning anything other than going for sanctions," Clinton told Al-Arabiya television.
"What we are focusing on is trying to change Iranian behavior, and the international community has been united in trying to send a message to Iran that it is time for it to clarify its intentions," she said.
"We want to try to get the strongest sanctions we can out of the United Nations Security Council...mostly to influence their decision-making," Clinton added.
She said the Obama administration believes "the better approach is to join at the international community, to work together toward sanctions, to exert maximum pressure on the Iranians, and to try every way we can to change their thinking."
Iran earlier Wednesday said it will not give up uranium enrichment and the West must get used to an Iran that is a "master of enrichment," Tehran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog was quoted as saying.
Iran was "always ready to talk in a civilized manner," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in an interview with New Statesman, a British current affairs magazine.
"But the West just has to cope with a strong Iran, a country with thousands of years of civilization, that is now the master of enrichment. I know it is hard for them to digest, but it is the reality," he said.
"Iran will never give up enrichment - at any price. Even the threat of military attack will not stop us," the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
New Statesman said the interview was conducted in Vienna "one recent Sunday" but did not give the date.
Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation. Tehran announced this month it had begun work to enrich uranium to a higher grade for a reactor making isotopes for cancer patients, further raising Western concerns that it might build a nuclear bomb.
Western powers had offered Iran a fuel swap under which it would have sent much of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel rods for the medical reactor.
The United States is leading a push for the UN Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work.
Soltanieh said the language of threats reflected a "colonialist mentality."
"By threatening Iran with the Security Council, with sanctions, with military action, you are just making life more difficult for yourself - it doesn't work," he said.
Soltanieh said U.S. President Barack Obama had come to power with a slogan for change.
"Whether he can translate those words into action, we will have to see. So far, Obama has been unable to deliver, and on occasion has resorted to using the same language of threats as [former President] George W. Bush. This is very disappointing," he said.
Obama came to office vowing to break with Bush's policy of seeking to isolate Iran. But he has taken a tougher stance since the disputed elections there last June and the passing of a deadline for Tehran to accept the fuel swap deal.
Netanyahu: Watered-down sanctions not enough
The 'gap in understanding' between Israel and the world over Iran is narrowing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
Disputed elections in Iran and the uncovering of a secret uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian city of Qom had alerted the world to the growing Iranian threat, Netanyahu said.
"Now the international community has an obligation to intervene to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," the prime minister told a conference of Jewish leaders from South America.
The world must now act to impose heavy restrictions on Iran, Netanyahu said.
"Watered-down sanctions, modest sanctions, will not do the job," he said adding that new measures must aim to curtail Iran's oil exports and energy supply. (Although an oil producer, Iran has limited refining capacity and imports gasoline).
Israel has urged the United Nations Security Council to impose "crippling" sanctions on Iran, which announced in February that it had begun production of 20-percent-enriched uranium - potentially a significant step towards an atomic bomb.
Recent weeks have seen greater international willingness to act on Iran, with Russia, a veto-wielding Security Council member that had previously opposed sanctions, showing signs of a change in position.
Also on Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinted that Israel had not ruled out independent action against Iran.
"The world is very aware that Iran continues to display open hostility and hatred toward the Middle East, through means of funding and the transfer of weaponry to Hezbollah and Hamas," he said in a speech to newly commissioned army officers.
"We are prepared to make firm decisions, for the sake of a better future."
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CJ... I'm writing real slow... because I see you can't read or comprehend very fast [...I've said this to you before]. Iran has no ability or capacity to transform enrich uranium to fuel rods necessary for *peaceful* power generation. First disprove that statement... then we will debate Tehran's NPT guarantees and peaceful use of nuclear material. Good luck... slowpoke
CJ... I'm writing real slow... because I understand you can't read or comprehend. Iran has no ability or capacity to transform enrich uranium to fuel rods necessary for *peaceful* power generation. First disprove that statement... then we will debate Tehran's NPT guarantees and peaceful use of nuclear material. Good luck...
The question really is: when Iran has the atomic weapon, will the western world be united to destroy all the cancer, or will they simply be looking for more useless sanctions? I think the answer is self evident. Then again, the world knows that Israel cannot afford not to destroy the weapon sites, and this of course will free the western world of being hammered by the oil producing countries. Israel becomes the bad guy once again. In other words THE SCAPEGOAT!
...you care to make up. Quite handy. Iran, as an IAEA Member and a signatory to the NPT is guaranteed the means to acquire the technologies needed for peaceful uses of Nuclear materials. " That the fact remains... no matter how much nuclear enrichment Iran does. They simply don`t have the ability or capacity to transform enrich uranium to fuel rods necessary for power generation." http://www-tc.iaea.org/tcweb/projectinfo/default.asp "I got it, they think we... the world, have no capacity for logic to see through the Iranian nonsense" Uh huh.
Sir, You started as an apparently thoughtful person with particular position to present. You quickly became just another propagandist of, to say mercifully, weird worldview ...
schoken should be proud..a real pogrom in here.. oh well, first of all, israel didnt kill him, iran did, and second, this has zero to do with irans nuke program..but guess who loves the diversion from it..you bet..iran...look there and you're getting to the core.
What is most apparent in Mr. Soltanieh statement...'Iran will never give up enrichment - at any price'... is what is so blatantly not stated. That the fact remains... no matter how much nuclear enrichment Iran does. They simply don't have the ability or capacity to transform enrich uranium to fuel rods necessary for power generation. Matter of fact, there are only 3 or 4 nations on this planet with that technological ability. Those are... the US, France, Russia and possibly Brazil. So the question remains... what does Iran plan to do with the enrichment material. The community of nations want to know. Wait... I got it, they think we... the world, have no capacity for logic to see through the Iranian nonsense.
Only when Israel's neighbors are strong enough militarily, will Israel be ready to live in peace with them. Israel's main rule of engagement is to never attack anyone who is capable of defending themselves, and Iran know that.
This is absolutely wooly-headed. The West, especially the US, look like their historic counterparts from 70-75 years ago. Alongside Stanley Baldwin bleating 'the bombers will always get through', we have Hillary Clinton baaing that the US no longer will keep all option open against the Iranian nuclear menace. No wonder the Israelis see fit to keep their own options on the table. They haven't a friend in the world - and won't, until some huge oil field is discovered in the Negev. In the meantime, the Israelis seem to have no end of lanolin, courtesy of the sheep. MV
Bibi's ideas were revealed yesterday. He wants sanctions that hurt the Iranian people. He then thinks they'll blame their government and force them to do his bidding or he thinks the Persian people will change their gov more to suit him. When did the US give in to the Arab Oil Embargo? Did Moscow withdraw from Afghanistan when America boycotted the Olympics? When did Israel crumble in the face of painful sanctions? Has Gaza stopped smuggling food because of the siege? Did the US fold after Pearl Harbor or 9-11? In each and every case, people rally round the current government and dissent is silenced. Your ideas of painful sanctions are bankrupt Bibi.
America and Israel has no business to strike Iran over nuclear program only because these both nations have more than 200 nuke bombs in their pocket, the one has already used nukes and killed more than 500,000 innocent; the other is ready to follow her leader. Iran on the other side has not attacked his enemies but has fought many wars to defend her nation. Israel has proved to the world that it is an outlawed and uncivilized nation by cold bloodily killing a Hamas leader in Dubai. THE WROLD MUST CONDEMN the killing and punish Israel for killing.
Esther # 1 3 (That's an unlucky number by the way) You got everything mixed-up: If that jew is the son of God,then God is A JEW ! Ah what a thought !
Israel is not at all able to launch any kind of 'independent' strike against Iran without the connivance of the US. The US would need to provide the miljet fuel, the specialist bombs required, overfly clearances, intel, and, above all, the support Israel needs to fend off retaliation by Iran directly and Hezbollah and Hamas indirectly. A strike against Iran will need to be more than just a strike against Iran's nuclear sites; it will need to have to bring Iran to its knees. There is only one way Israel can do that... The world doesn't want to go there. It would mean the end of Israel as well as Iran.
"...Israel might start a bloody war to maintain it`s regional dominance in order to continue illegally acquiring other folk`s territories." If Jews were kicked out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1948, how is Israel acquiring, "other folks' territories," by allowing them to move back in, daffy?
Whether Clinton and her husband like it or not the fact remains that US policy has been confirmed by officials up to and including the President. No option for keeping America safe from the Iranian Bomb has been ruled out, including military force. It would be irresponsible to give up your strongest card, paticularly when dealing with a Dictatorship that has massacred its own people and brainwashed an entire generation with shouts of "death to America". After thirty one years it is time to start answering them: death to the murderers!
Or put otherwise: to whom is she talking? Ahmadinejad or Netanyahu?
For the West requires Iranian oil & gas. Imagine Iran without the 68 billion or so of US dollars in revenue. But, what actually happens to those billions.? For the price of food rises. Unemployment is at a all time high. The jails are full of opposition figures. The hangman is busy. So, they want an atomic bomb. Let them be, for in the end, we all know that these incompetent fiddler scientists will most probably blow themselves and their country into the stone age. I mean, really, all they produce are bicycles, tractors copied from some DPRK blueprints, yet they have yet to produce anything worthy to mankind less so a Nobel Prize Laurette. Meanwhile, the cancer patients die in hospitals, for all isotopes are needed for this all new Iranian, non Arab bomb. Red mercury.? What an abomination, how sad. Such is life in todays Iran. Good night.
No water down sanctions on Irael NOT Iran.
The time to wake up to Iran was during the Jimmy Carter administration. All this talk of maybe one day soon (what does soon mean?) we will probably get sanctions tough enough to make Iran cry uncle is the equivilant of pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock. In the end it will be WWIII because the always worthless UN drug its feet.
Israel shouldn't count on anybody and act accordingly but so must Iran simple as that!
As Iran gets closer to having both nuclear weapons and the long range missiles that can reach all of southern Russia and nearly to Moscow, the scarier it gets for Putin and his clique. It's a lot of fun to poke Uncle Sam in the eye by pretending to back the US hating Iranians, but even the thickest headed russian knows that these missiles and nukes are much more of a threat to Russia than they are to America. Especially when it is so clear that there are NO potential territorial conflicts between Iran and either US or Israel, while there are many such conflicts between the russian and iranian empires.
What a wonderful thought BiBi ! But you forgot to factor in the fact some of the world wants to see God out of the picture .. & that also means God's people. You see some people think they know more than God- they think they are God. You see, it is a war of satan-anti-Christ verse Father God-Jesus Christ-Yeshua Messiah for the souls of every person & every nation. So it really depends on whom the nations of the world serve ? If the nation is righteous, the people rejoice ... when evil rule- people mourn. Serving God or mammon-satan ? Each must choose. God said in these last days .. HE will pour out HIS Holy Spirit, men & women will prophesy, young men will see visions & older men will dream dreams ! Nice thought though BiBi .. but while the world talks ... the bombs are being manufactured ! Talk without heart action = empty = death.
The result of such sanctions would be to undermine the opposition and unite the Iranian People further against the West. I am terrified of Iran now. Specifically targeted sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guard make sense to me.
Just like when Iran MIGHT be building a nuclear weapon there are no end to the condemnations, but when Israel builds a bunch of Dimona, then Mordechai Vanunu exposes it, then is kidnapped by the Mossad, then spends 18 years in prison for exposing Israel`s lies and 11 of them in solitary confinement, you only heard about it in a Human Rights Watch.
You are just using diversion tactics Bibi, the world is waking up to what your ignorant government has been doing for so many years, and you can not escape it. Take a few steps back prime minister, and asses the situation again. The Arab world will gain power over you, and your American "friends". It is the law of nature "Action/Reaction" , and in history books children will read how so many died, for the American "dream" and how the Israeli leaders kept on sending their young to die so the next greedy tycoon can buy himself another plane or some infantile toy. Yes Bibi we know that Israel is just a military base for you, and your "friends" We can also see history repeating itself, again some Jews are working for the Pharaoh, while some are starving, and used as slaves. It is all there Bibi, and it will be written again, open your eyes. If you had any sense of strategy you will form a friendship with your Arab neighbors, and stop the American "dream" before it stops you, and all of us.
Not so sure the world perceives Iran as a threat, rather the nuclear armed theocracy known as Israel, ruled by comedians, and with scant regard for International Law and the Geneva Conventions.
...Israel might start a bloody war to maintain it's regional dominance in order to continue illegally acquiring other folk's territories. A Greater Israel at any cost, no matter how illegal, how ghastly or what the price. The nut cases running Israel need to be locked away before they ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, Arab/Muslim/Jews alike. We were granted enough territory to accommodate every Jewish person on the planet on May 14th 1948. Time for the lies, paranoia, deceit to stop!! http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y
My lousy president and its adm are considering not to meet ahmdoomninejad anymore.
The police are dying to hear your views on Iran sanctions and even more keen to hear about any faked UK passports your hitmen may have been running around with.
of the plight of the Palestinians between Israel and the world narrows there will be other narrowing as well. That would be nice.
conducting the so caled "phoney war" ,until themselves attacked by Germans. Israel shouldn't count on anybody and act accordingly.
Iran has no nuclear weapons program. The "existential threat" Iran poses to Israel is its support of a one-state solution and its support for Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran's nuclear program is designed to prepare Iran for technological self-sufficiency when the oil revenues eventually run out.
just declare that u will dismantle ur own nuclear weapons, u will not threaten the other countries and u will not order the assasination of the people in the hotel rooms.(no matter whom they are) Then U may be eligible to ask for sanctions towards other countries.
Sorry mate, not really interested in what you want right now. Go shove your fake passports up your Mossad.