Nuclear Program

The report onIran'srefusal to negotiate about its nuclear program is misleading ("Iran defiant in response to EU's boycott of its oil," Jan. 24). Iran's "unwillingness to negotiate" is belied by the fact that Iran negotiated with the U.S. long before the implementation of sanctions ostensibly designed to force it back to the bargaining table. In the first and only American attempt to negotiate with Iran on this issue, the U.S. accepted an agreement between Iran and third-party countries that would have allowed Iran to transfer 1,200 kilograms of low- enriched uranium in exchange for fuel rods enriched to 20 percent for the production of medical isotopes.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi's five steps for dealing with Iran are steps to confrontation disguised as an alternative to war ("Five steps to isolate Iran," Dec. 6). Sanctions are self-evidently counter-productive as a means to stop or alter Iran's nuclear research and development when the motive behind sanctions is punishment or regime change. The premise of the sanctions - that the problem is with Iran exclusively - ignores the nuclear neighborhood that Iran lives in and our own desire to dominate the region.

A report this week on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program by the International Atomic Energy Agency leaves little doubt that country's ruling clerics remain determined to acquire the means to produce a bomb. That poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, which so far has tried to deter Iran's nuclear ambitions through diplomatic negotiations and targeted economic sanctions. But if the IAEA report is to be believed, that approach clearly isn't working. The IAEA investigators cited what they called compelling evidence that Iran has continued to pursue a range of advanced technologies that are needed to construct a nuclear weapon but that make little sense in the context of a civilian nuclear power program.

President Barack Obama may have scored a diplomatic win by securing international support for biting sanctions against Iran, but Arab public opinion is moving in a different direction. Polling conducted last month by Zogby and the University of Maryland in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates suggests that views in the region are shifting toward a positive perception of Iran's nuclear program. These views present problems for Washington, which has counted on Arabs seeing Iran as a threat — maybe even a bigger one than Israel.

After months of lobbying by the U.S. for additional sanctions against Iran, the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday finally passed, by a vote of 12 to 2 (with one abstention), a package of measures aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program. But don't hold your breath waiting for Iran to start dismantling its reactors and centrifuges under international pressure. As loath as we are to agree with anything Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says, his description of the U.N. sanctions meaning as much to that country as "used napkins that need to be thrown in the garbage can" sounds about right.

Western powers pressed Tehran on Saturday to commit to a proposal designed to dispel concerns about its nuclear program, dismissing conciliatory comments from Iranian officials as mere rhetoric meant to forestall sanctions. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, on a trip to Turkey, said it might be time to take a "different tack." Other top defense officials at the Munich Security Conference rejected overtures from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as nothing new. The frustration reflects concerns that Iran will use the proposal only to buy more time to advance its nuclear ambitions and thwart sanctions.

LONDON - Iran is holding five British sailors after stopping their racing yacht in the Persian Gulf, the British government said Monday. The move could heighten tensions between Iran and major world powers, including Britain, that are demanding a halt to its nuclear program. The yacht owned by Sail Bahrain was stopped on its way from the tiny island country to the Gulf city of Dubai on Wednesday when it "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters," Britain's Foreign Office said.

BEIRUT - -The latest United Nations report on Iran's nuclear program questioned Tehran's credibility regarding a recently disclosed facility built into a mountain near the holy city of Qom. The International Atomic Energy Agency report issued Monday noted Iran's contention that it began work on the nuclear facility in 2007 in response to Bush administration threats of war as part of a plan to safeguard sensitive "organizations and activities" that...

WASHINGTON - - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday that the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country already is under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers were preparing to meet with Iranian negotiators this Thursday to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates noted that the unemployment rate is 40 percent among Iran's young people and asserted that past economic sanctions "are having an impact."

BEIRUT, Lebanon - -Iran's political crisis is likely to prevent it from making any swift move to ratchet up its nuclear program, said analysts and officials, potentially giving President Barack Obama and Western allies more time to grapple with the issue. Yet the ongoing chaos over the disputed re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad further muddles the question of just who calls the shots in Tehran, and what a possible deal with the Islamic Republic would mean. The Obama administration, concerned that Tehran is seeking to amass the materials needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, set an informal deadline of September for Iran to respond positively to an offer to discuss the matter rather than risk new economic sanctions.