U.N. Security Council passes tough new sanctions on North Korea

The United Nations Security Council voted Saturday to enact tough new sanctions on North Korea over its continued pursuit of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

Iran split on nuke talks extension

Iran's media were deeply split Tuesday on the merits of ­extending nuclear talks with the West, with conservative newspapers criticizing the move as reformist outlets said progress had been made.

Vatan-e-Emrooz, a hard-line broadsheet newspaper, headlined its front page "Nothing" - and beneath the fold had only empty white space.

"A year has passed since the Geneva accord. Nuclear negotiations for the removal of sanctions did not reach a result," the newspaper said, announcing the seven-month extension in talks to its readers.

Siasate-e Rooz, another hard-line paper, was similarly pessimistic.

"Americans, despite announcing in their media that they want a deal, in fact do not believe in reaching a nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran and have never taken any steps to achieve this result."

However, President Hassan Rouhani, who on Monday said a nuclear deal with the West would be done despite missing the deadline in Vienna, received support from more moderate newspapers.

"A major change took place in the past 15 months ... the victory of realism, rationality and pragmatism," the reformist Shargh newspaper said.

"These negotiations showed that neither is Iran 'the axis of evil' that the Americans imagined and tried to make the world believe, nor does America have unresolvable conflicts with Iran as many said," it added.

The overall tone was pessimistic, however, with most newspapers taking a skeptical view of the talks extension.

Javan, a newspaper with close links to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, headlined its front-page report, "Seven months of artificial respiration to nuclear diplomacy."

 
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US House and Senate members reacted coolly Monday to an extension of international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, with skeptical lawmakers demanding Congress "tighten the economic vice on Tehran" through new sanctions.

No sooner had the extension been announced in Vienna and US Secretary of State John Kerry implored US lawmakers not to "walk away" from the negotiations by slapping punitive sanctions on Iran, that several lawmakers advocated just that, setting up a potential White House clash with Congress.

"Now more than ever, it's critical that Congress enacts sanctions that give Iran's mullahs no choice but to dismantle their illicit nuclear program," Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who supports new sanctions, said in a statement. Kirk has drawn up tough legislation with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez, a Democrat, that would see sanctions kick in should Iran violate terms of the temporary agreement or future deal.
AFP -  globaltimes.cn
25/11/14

Iran says no proposals from P 5+1 negotiators to Iran that require coordination

P 5 + 1 negotiators /five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany/ have not made any considerable proposals that would require coordination with Teheran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told reporters on Friday.

The past several days have seen intensive negotiations and the sides have held good discussions but P 5 + 1 didn’t make any really considerable proposals that should have been taken for coordination to Teheran, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has decided to stay in Vienna to take part in the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators, a source in the U.S. delegation told TASS on Friday.

The source said Kerry had changed his plans to opt for staying in Vienna instead of flying to Paris.

According to earlier reports, Kerry and France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius were to go to Paris on Friday evening to have additional consultations on the Iranian talks.

But after multi-lateral consultations on Friday, coordinator Catherine Ashton, the former EU foreign policy chief, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Kerry had several meetings in the three-party format. The contacts are planned to be continued into the night.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/761092
21/11/14

Iran and six world powers meeting in Geneva say they have reached a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iran is to curb its nuclear activities, initially for six months, in return for limited relief from sanctions. 
US President Barack Obama welcomed the deal, saying it included "substantial limitations which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon".
  But Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has insisted Iran retains its right to enrich uranium.

Tehran denies repeated claims by Western governments that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. It insists it must be allowed to enrich uranium for power stations. 'Reciprocal measures' After four days of negotiations, representatives of the so-called P5+1 group of nations - the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany - reached an agreement with Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning. A final text of the deal has yet to be released, but EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton said it included "reciprocal measures by both sides". She said the deal would be co-ordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In a televised address from Washington, US President Barack Obama said the measures agreed would "help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon". Mr Obama outlined what the deal contained, including a commitment by Iran to halt "certain levels of enrichment and neutralising part of its stockpiles" - an apparent reference to uranium enrichment above 5% purity, which is needed to create a nuclear bomb. In return, he said Iran would "halt work at its plutonium reactor and new inspections will provide extensive access to Iran's nuclear facilities and allow the international community to verify whether Iran is keeping its commitments". In his news conference in Geneva, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it was an opportunity for the "removal of any doubts about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme". But he insisted that Iran had not given up its right to enrich uranium. "We believe that the current agreement, the current plan of action as we call it, in two distinct places has a very clear reference to the fact that Iranian enrichment programme will continue and will be a part of any agreement, now and in the future," he said. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the agreement was "good news for the whole world". 'Significant agreement' Sanctions on Iran would be relaxed, the US State Department said.................http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-2507472924/11/13
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• Iran will freeze up the whole country’s nuclear programme for six months and will suspend the construction of a heavy water reactor in Arak, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. 

“We agreed that this will be the first stage of advancement to this goal, it will take six months, during which Iran will freeze up the whole country’s nuclear programme, will not add new centrifuges and will not take any steps related with the construction of a heavy water reactor in Arak, so, the whole volume of the Iranian nuclear programme, which, by the way, the IAEA is controlling fully and the agency will keep its control over it for next six months,” Lavrov noted.
http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/708780
24/11/13
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• Diplomats say an interim agreement has been reached in Geneva regarding Iran's nuclear programme. -Iran will freeze up the whole country’s nuclear programme for six months 

Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough agreement to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions in exchange for limited sanctions relief, in a first step towards resolving a dangerous decade-old standoff.The deal between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia was nailed down early on Sunday after more than four days of negotiations.
President Barack Obama says a nuclear deal with Iran is an "important first step" toward addressing the world's concerns over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme.Obama says the deal includes "substantial limitations'' on Iran and cuts off the Iran's most likely path to a bomb.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the deal does not recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium. Speaking after the deal was struck, Kerry said the nuclear deal makes Israel and other US allies in the Middle East safer. Tehran will halt progress on enrichment capacity and stop advancing on the heavy water reactor at Arak, in return there will unprecedented transparency and open access to international weapons inspection.The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, "I hope we can start restoring the lost confidence. The Iranian people demand respect for their rights and dignity, it is important to restore their confidence and I hope this process can do that." European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said "I'm delighted that we have got there, we are confident for a long term deal, this is the first step as you will see its very much within the framework of reaching a comprehensive agreement."Speaking from Tehran Al Jazeera's Soraya Lennie said "Iranians have been waiting over a decade for a positive outcome."They are waking up to the news in a much more positive mood than at any other time during any of these talks," she added.
Frozen fundsThe talks were aimed at finding a package of confidence-building steps to ease decades of tensions and banish the spectre of a Middle East war over Tehran's nuclear aspirations.The Western powers' goal had been to cap Iran's nuclear energy programme, which has a history of evading UN inspections and investigations, to remove any risk of Tehran covertly refining uranium to a level suitable for bombs.Tehran denies it would ever "weaponise" enrichment.The draft deal that had been under discussion in Geneva would see Iran suspend its higher-grade uranium enrichment in exchange for the release of billions of dollars in Iranian funds frozen in foreign bank accounts, and renewed trade in precious metals, petrochemicals and aircraft parts.

• Iran will get access to $4.2 bn in foreign exchange as part of the agreement, a Western diplomat said on Sunday.

Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants - Iran's stated goal - but also provide the fissile core of an atomic bomb if refined much further.
Diplomacy was stepped up after the landslide election of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, as Iranian president in June, replacing bellicose nationalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Rouhani aims to mend fences with big powers and get sanctions lifted. He obtained crucial public backing from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, keeping powerful hardline critics at bay.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/11/diplomats-strike-deal-iran-talks-201311242333773209.html
24/11/13

La position de l'Iran sur la France et Israël "complique la négociation" (Paris)...

La position du guide suprême iranien, l'ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sur la France et Israël complique la négociation sur le programme nucléaire de l'Iran, rapportent mercredi les médias français, se référant à la porte-parole du gouvernement français, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

"Les propos de Khamenei sont inacceptables et compliquent la négociation", a déclaré lors de son point de presse hebdomadaire Mme Vallaud-Belkacem, ajoutant que la position de Paris dans cette négociation était "ferme mais pas fermée".

L'ayatollah a désigné la France comme le responsable numéro un de l'échec des pourparlers de Genève sur le nucléaire iranien entre Téhéran et les Six (Etats-Unis, Chine, Russie, Grande-Bretagne, France et Allemagne), le 10 novembre dernier.

Tout comme Israël, la France a jugé prématuré de signer à ce stade un accord avec l'Iran.

Selon le guide suprême, la France a montré ainsi qu'elle était prête à céder à la pression non seulement des Etats-Unis, mais aussi d'Israël. Quant à l'Etat hébreu, il est "voué à la disparition", d'après l'ayatollah Khamenei qui refuse tout recul sur les "droits nucléaires" de Téhéran et sur les "lignes rouges".

Des discussions bilatérales se sont poursuivies toute la matinée avec une rencontre entre les diplomates en chef de l'Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif et de l'Union Européenne, Catherine Ashton, qui préside les négociations. Une discussion plénière entre l'Iran et les Six (est programmée en début d'après-midi. Les Six et l'Iran tentent une fois encore de finaliser un premier accord d'étape sur le programme nucléaire iranien, soupçonné par les Occidentaux et Israël de cacher un volet militaire, malgré les démentis de Téhéran.
http://fr.ria.ru/world/20131120/199831664.html
20/11/13
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• Μπήκαν για συνομιλίες και βγήκαν αμέσως. -Ιράν και οι χώρες της Ομάδας 5+1.

Ήταν ίσως η πιο σύντομη διαπραγμάτευση, μόλις δέκα λεπτών και προφανώς δεν είχε αποτέλεσμα...
Ο λόγος για τις συνομιλίες του Ιράν με την Ομάδα 5+1 (ΗΠΑ, Κίνα, Ρωσία, Βρετανία, Γαλλία και Γερμανία). Ο προηγούμενος κύκλος διαπραγματεύσεων στη Γενεύη είχε δημιουργήσει προσδοκίες, αλλά αποδείχτηκαν αβάσιμες. Το Ιράν είχε ζητήσει η συνάντηση να επικεντρωθεί στη διαδικασία των διαπραγματεύσεων προτού προχωρήσει η εξέταση μιας συμφωνίας, εκτιμώντας ότι «χάθηκε η εμπιστοσύνη» στη διάρκεια του προηγούμενου κύκλου των συζητήσεων.

• Υπενθυμίζεται ότι μεταξύ των δύο αυτών διαπραγματεύσεων, είχε ξεκινήσει ένας δημόσιος κύκλος ανταλλαγής απόψεων από τους ηγέτες των ΗΠΑ, της Γαλλίας, της Ε.Ε. και του Ισραήλ,, για το αν πρέπει στο μεσοδιάστημα αυτό να υιοθετηθούν νέες κυρώσεις εναντίον του Ιράν, ή όχι.

Οι υποστηρικτές των κυρώσεων, εκτιμούσαν ότι οι μέχρι τώρα κυρώσεις οδήγησαν το Ιράν να είναι πιο διαλλακτικό, ενώ οι αρνητές των νέων κυρώσεων, εκτιμούσαν ότι θα κατέστρεφαν το θετικό κλίμα που είχε αρχίσει να διαφαίνεται. Οι εξελίξεις μάλλον τους δικαιώνουν.
  Νewsroom enet, με πληροφορίες από ΑΜΠΕ, Γαλλικό http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=399636
20/11/13

N Korea threatens ‘stronger’ measures than nuclear test

SEOUL — North Korea’s state media said yesterday that its authoritarian regime may do something “stronger than a nuclear test” to respond to what it called signs that it is about to be attacked by the United States.
North Korea routinely warns its people that the US and South Korea are on the verge of invading it.

But yesterday’s statement adds to a series of criticisms and warnings directed at the US that have escalated steadily over the past two weeks.

The statements, which began soon after the United Nations Security Council imposed new penalties on Jan 22 on North Korea for violating a missile ban by launching a rocket in December, have been taken by outsiders as confirmation of widely held expectations that Pyongyang will soon test a nuclear explosive for the third time.
North Korea detonated nuclear explosives after being penalised for rocket launches in 2006 and 2009.
Yesterday’s statement, attributed as a commentary by the Korean Central News Agency, is notable chiefly because it went beyond the previous criticism of sanctions to allege that the US is planning a nuclear attack with the help of South Korea.
“The DPRK has drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces’ nuclear war moves that have become ever more undisguised,” the statement said.
“This is the demand of the people. There is no other option for the DPRK but to fight it out.”
DPRK is the abbreviation for the country’s full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, in an interview published by a Seoul newspaper yesterday, suggested that North Korea may try to detonate two or more explosives at the same time.
Analysts suspect that North Korea may attempt to detonate an explosive made from highly enriched uranium for the first time after its previous plutonium bomb tests. 
 .todayonline.com
5/2/13
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Related:

• Η Πιονγιάνγκ απείλησε τον κόσμο με πυρηνικό πόλεμο

• USA und Südkorea starten dreitägiges Manöver

• Sanctions mean declaration of war: Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

Iran responds to EU oil and gas sanctions with… oil and gas sanctions

Iran has slapped a ban on oil and gas exports to the European Union, even though the EU has already forbidden Iranian petrochemicals from entering its territory.
“Despite many requests by EU countries on buying oil and gas from Iran, Iran will not sell any oil and gas to those countries,” Oil Ministry Spokseman Alireza Nikzad Rahbar told the official Mehr news agency.
It is not clear what “requests” Nikzad Rahbar was referring to, as the EU stopped importing crude oil in July last year, and gas under the latest round of sanctions that came into force earlier this month.
It comes as fresh restrictions are being  implemented  by the EU, preventing Iranian banks from dealing with Europe, unless for humanitarian purposes. The embargoes are aimed at hindering Tehrans nuclear program, which Brussels believes is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon.


Iran’s Central Bank’s assets in the EU have also been frozen and European shipyards cannot construct oil tankers destined for the Islamic Republic.
Nikzad Rahbar said Tehran’s counter-sanctions were a direct response to these “hostile decisions”.
The exact effectiveness and impact of the sanctions on Iran has been disputed, due to sketchy information coming from Tehran’s officials.
The US has estimated that Iran has lost more than $40 billion in revenues as a result of oil import bans gradually imposed over the past year, mostly by Western countries.
Earlier this month, Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi also confirmed that oil exports had fallen by 40 percent, which tallies with the US estimate.
At the same time, Nikzad Rahbar insisted to Mehr that the exports hadn’t been “affected much” and that “Iran has signed new contracts with other world oil companies”.
There has also been mounting speculation that Iran is circumventing the EU sanctions by setting up fronts in other countries, particularly neighboring Turkey, and exporting petrochemicals through third parties, though the scope of these transactions is unclear.
Officially, Iran’s GDP contracted by 1 percent last year, while its currency lost 80 percent of its value against the dollar.
Tehran insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, while the US and the EU say Iran is producing ever-greater quantities of enriched uranium, which is a key component of a functioning nuclear weapon.
Latest negotiations between the sides have hinged on Iran accepting a new inspection program from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
After continually failing to even set a date for possible negotiations, the sides are now likely to meet for talks next month.
.rt.com
27/01/13