U.S. Backs Off Sanctions Against Iran

[Dover]

From Richard Moore:

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http://www.dailyindia.com/show/64515.php/US-eases-demand-for-Iran-sanctions

U.S. eases demand for Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Acting on EU advice, the United States
has postponed its call for immediate U.N. sanctions against Iran over
nuclear policy.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she spoke with the
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and said he assured her talks
with Tehran were going well, The Washington Times reported.
Solana met with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in
Berlin Wednesday, and again Thursday. Rice said Solana told her
Larijani "seems to be sincere" in an effort to end the impasse over
Iran's uranium enrichment program.
Thursday's talks ended inconclusively, and Solana and Larijani
scheduled more discussions next week.
Tehran claims the program is only to produce reactor fuel to
make electricity, but various countries are concerned it will result
in nuclear weapons.
Rice said the administration could wait a few more weeks for
Iran to stop enriching and return to international negotiations, but
"clearly this won't go on very much longer."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/20/content_5117320.htm

This news concerns, rather than relieves me. Will the U.S. strike Iran?
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U.S. backs off on Iran's nuclear sanctions
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-20 23:26:35

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United States, which warned
time and again to impose sanctions against Iran, has softened its
tone on Iran's nuclear program, the Washington Post said on Wednesday.
Slowly but surely, the White House has muddied what was once
clear lines in pursuit of diplomacy, the newspaper said.
As recently as a month ago, U.S. President George W. Bush and his
administration firmly demanded that Iran first suspend its nuclear
activities before the U.S. would join negotiations on the nuclear
program, "but now U.S. officials have quietly acquiesced in a
European-led effort to find a face-saving way for the talks to
begin," the article said.
"With allies balking, negotiations appear more likely than
punishment," the article said. Bush, in his speech on Tuesday to the
UN General Assembly, "used notably mild language when he discussed
Iran, suggesting that the two countries one day will 'be good friends
and close partners in the cause of peace.'"
Referring Bush's latest speech that U.S. officials "have no
objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power
program," the article said "this is a reversal from the policy in the
first term, when U.S. officials loudly proclaimed that a country with
such vast oil and gas reserves has no need for a nuclear program."
Under pressure from Europeans, the Bush administration dropped
that argument late last year, the article said.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/01/content_5160934.htm

Bush signs sanctions bill against Iran's partners

www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-01 11:06:12

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush signed
into law a new set of sanctions on Saturday that would impose
mandatory sanctions on entities or countries that provide goods or
services for Iran's weapons programs.
"I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment
to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing
activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act," Bush said in a
statement.
The U.S. Senate passed the new sanctions bill earlier Saturday,
which was passed by voice vote and cleared by the House of
Representatives on Thursday.
The bill, the Iran Freedom Support Act, sanctions any entity that
contributes to Iran's capability of acquiring chemical, biological or
nuclear weapons.
The bill states that the U.S. policy was meant "not to bring into
force an agreement for cooperation with the government of any country
that is assisting the nuclear program of Iran or transferring
advanced conventional weapons or missiles."
The U.S. sanctions against Iran have remained since the takeover
of the U.S. embassy by Iranian radicals in 1979.
Moreover, Washington has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran
through the UN Security Council on the grounds that Iran develops a
nuclear weapon program under the cover of a civilian program.
Iran, however, has denied the charge, saying its nuclear program
is for peaceful purposes only.
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[spag68]

1. IMHO matter of time.

[DemInDistress]

2. what's a bush to do? suppose Russia and China tell that idiot

we'll trade with Iran after all the Chinese have a stake in Iran today. as well as Venezuela. H'm..