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Monday, 29 November 2004 |
 Washington Post: Dropping a last-minute demand yesterday, Iran agreed to fully suspend its nuclear programs and won some additional concessions from Europe for a resolution that excludes many of the Bush administration's proposals for increasing pressure on the Islamic republic. The resolution, drafted by Britain, France and Germany, is the mildest of the seven previous resolutions against Iran and does not include the explicit threat the White House had sought for reporting Tehran to the U.N. Security Council if it breaks the latest suspension. |
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Monday, 29 November 2004 |
 New York Times: Iran on Sunday backed off a demand to operate uranium enrichment equipment that could be used either for energy purposes or in a nuclear bomb-making project, European and Iranian officials said. The Iranian retreat appeared to salvage a nuclear agreement reached Nov. 15 between Iran and France, Britain and Germany to freeze all of Iran's uranium enrichment, conversion and reprocessing activities. |
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Monday, 29 November 2004 |
 Los Angeles Times: Iran on Sunday agreed to halt its uranium enrichment activities, opening the way for the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency to sign the deal when it reconvenes here today, diplomats said. The deal with three major European nations virtually assured that Iran would not be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. |
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Monday, 29 November 2004 |
 AFP: Canada hit straight back on Sunday after Iran warned its new ambassador to Tehran would get into "trouble" if he pursued the case of a murdered Iranian-Canadian photographer, which has already sparked a diplomatic crisis. The killing of Zahra Kazemi last year, after she was arrested in Iran, sent relations between Ottawa and Tehran into turmoil. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 Reuters: France, Britain and Germany finalized a draft resolution on Sunday that calls on Iran to freeze sensitive nuclear work, but does not make any threats of punitive
action if Tehran resumes such work, the U.N. said.
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 Reuters:Iran has formally withdrawn its demand to exempt sensitive research from a freeze of key parts of its nuclear programme -- a last-minute bid to remove the threat of U.N. economic sanctions, Western diplomats say. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iran backed down Sunday on a demand to exempt sensitive equipment from a freeze on uranium enrichment that can make atomic weapons, setting the stage for the UN nuclear watchdog to endorse the freeze as a confidence-building measure. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 Press Association: The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: train for suicide attacks against US troops in Iraq, or train for suicide attacks against Israelis. Or train to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 AFP: A dissident Iranian journalist has been barred from leaving the Islamic republic after trying to fly to the Netherlands for a conference, the student news agency ISNA reported Sunday. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 AFP: Canada's newly-appointed ambassador to Iran will get into "trouble" if he pursues the case of murdered Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, Iran's foreign ministry warned Sunday. "If anyone enters Iran on this mission they get themselves into trouble. This is a domestic issue of the
Islamic Republic of Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 Sunday Times: Iran is working on a secret nuclear
programme for military purposes despite its promise to
halt all uranium enrichment activities, a German news magazine claimed yesterday. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 AP: Iran toughened its position over its nuclear program Sunday, vowing to maintain its demand to exempt 20 centrifuges it says it wants for research despite international efforts to save a deal committing Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment and all related activities. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also said Tehran was not worried about being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. |
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Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
 New York Times: Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that Iran had every right to keep, for research purposes, some centrifuges that could be used to enrich uranium, an indication that a standoff on the country's nuclear program may not be easily resolved. "Iran's demand to keep 20 centrifuges is not against its commitments," said the minister, Kamal Kharrazi, the IRNA news agency reported. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 New York Times: When Friday Prayer here finishes at about two o'clock in the afternoon, hundreds of worshipers parade toward waiting buses east of Tehran University, shouting canned rhetoric against America and Israel, defining themselves by their animosity toward others. Watching this ritual, one cannot help but ask a soul-searching question: "How can such a small minority of vocal people - totally orchestrated worshipers and their security guards - set the agenda for a nation of 70 million people?" |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 Reuters: France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Saturday if they had not reached a final agreement to freeze key parts of its atomic program by Monday, they would not stop moves to seek sanctions against Tehran, diplomats said. "The Iranians were told that if there's no deal by Monday, they (the EU) would no longer block a referral to the U.N. Security Council when the (U.N. nuclear watchdog) reconvenes," a Western diplomat told Reuters. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran is working on a secret nuclear programme for military purposes despite promising the European Union it would halt all activities related to uranium enrichment, the
news magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 AFP: Informal Iran-EU talks to rescue an agreement on a promised Iranian freeze of key nuclear fuel-making activities broke off Saturday, opening the door to possible UN sanctions against Tehran, diplomats said. "We have no progress. It is up to the Iranians now to ponder what they will do," a European diplomat close to the talks told AFP. "They have a very serious decision to make.". |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 AFP: A top US commander has warned Iran and other
countries to never underestimate US air and naval power, discounting concerns that US forces are too tied down in Iraq
to respond to challenges elsewhere. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 Associated Press: A top Iraqi official has been briefing Iranian officials on his country's ongoing problems with militants and demanding help from Tehran in curbing the infiltration of terrorists over the border into Iraq. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 CNN: Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said the new draft resolution put forward by three European powers at a key meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog is still unacceptable despite recent changes, Iran's state-run news agency reported Saturday. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 AFP: The standoff between Iran and the international community over its nuclear programme is headed towards "normalisation", a top cleric said on Friday, despite a row over whether Tehran has fully suspend uranium enrichment. "It is excluded that the issue will come before the UN Security Council. The affair is heading towards normalisation,"
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a Friday sermon in Tehran. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 New York Times: Iran and its European partners struggled Friday to salvage their agreement committing Tehran to freeze an important part of its nuclear program, European and Iranian officials said. But the two sides were so far apart that their talks were put off until Monday. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 Washington Post: Despite intense pressure from other nations, Iran failed to provide written assurances yesterday that it was fully suspending its nuclear program, though Tehran's negotiators promised a commitment would be forthcoming, U.S. and European diplomats said. |
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 The Guardian: Iran agreed to freeze all its nuclear programme last night, dropping its insistence that some uranium enrichment activities be exempted from a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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Saturday, 27 November 2004 |
 Associated Press: As President Bush sees it, "the only good deal is one that's verifiable."
He's applauding the efforts of some European countries to
get Iran to honor its commitment to refrain from developing nuclear weapons.
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Friday, 26 November 2004 |
 Los Angeles Times: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Thursday that Iran had stopped short of meeting its pledge to halt all nuclear enrichment by insisting on a last-minute exemption for some activities. The European-brokered deal for Iran to halt all enrichment threatened to founder when the U.N. atomic watchdog agency's governing board met here to review Iran's nuclear program. |
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Friday, 26 November 2004 |
New York Times: Iran refused Thursday to abandon plans to operate uranium enrichment equipment that could be used either for energy purposes or in a nuclear bomb-making project, European and Iranian officials said. The refusal threatened to scuttle a nuclear agreement Iran reached 10 days ago with France, Britain and Germany to freeze all of Iran's uranium enrichment activities, the European officials added.
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Friday, 26 November 2004 |
 Washington Post: The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency was unable to confirm that Iran had completely suspended its nuclear programs yesterday, as it had committed to doing, because the Islamic republic said it wanted to continue working with some of its equipment. |
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Reuters: Iran looked set to avoid being reported to the United Nations Security Council on Monday after reaffirming its commitment to a deal meant to reassure the world it is not trying to build a nuclear bomb. But there were signs of mounting exasperation from Western diplomats after five days of chaotic to-and-fro in which Iran first raised fresh demands and then retreated from them. 
