Iran promises new nuclear proposals

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said that he had instructed the Supreme National Security Council to write new proposals on Iran's uranium enrichment program.

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"Iran will soon offer proposals about the cycle of nuclear fuel for peaceful use of nuclear energy," he said on state-run television. ...

The comments by Mr. Ahmadinejad suggest that he wants to begin a new dialogue in the hope of persuading Europe to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium.

Iran has been negotiating with France, Germany, and Britain over the country's nuclear capabilities, and its uranium enrichment program in particular, which Iran recently restarted despite Western protests. Iran claims to have only peaceful intentions for its nuclear facilities, but the EU and the US fear Iran's uranium enrichment may be used to build nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad's comments come in the wake of a UN report that Iran says vindicates its peaceful intent. Released Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report found that traces of enriched uranium found on Iranian centrifuges were not caused by Iranian procedures, AP reported. Rather, the uranium traces were left behind by Pakistan, who sold the second-hand equipment to Iran.

The US had argued that the radioactive traces showed Iran was engaged in producing highly enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons, but the IAEA report has weakened that argument and has Western diplomats scrambling, reports the BBC.

Iran has seized on the news as justification of its denials that it was up to no good.

Western diplomats have been thrown into some disarray - the news greatly complicating their efforts to persuade Iran to give up its enrichment activities altogether.

Washington, however, says the IAEA report doesn't resolve its concerns about Iran's nuclear program, reports Reuters.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday the contamination issue was "one part of this overall set of questions that not just the United States has, but the rest of the world has about Iran's nuclear program." ...

McCormack said the United States had other "unresolved concerns outside of the issue of the contaminated centrifuges," including Iran's dealings with "clandestine nuclear procurement networks."

Should it not prove possible to reach a compromise on Iran's nuclear program, the US and its allies may try to levy sanctions against Iran through the United Nations Security Council, reports The Christian Science Monitor. But Iran has shown little fear of Western rebuke, and may be considering using its influence in oil and Iraq to counterpunch Western political strikes.

Two words might account for Tehran's new forcefulness: oil and Iraq. Iran is a major oil producer, and thus might be able to manipulate already high world prices even higher if the West tries to punish it for its nuclear activities. And as Iraq's neighbor to the east, Iran is well positioned to interfere further there.

Before Iran can manipulate oil prices however, President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian parliament need to agree on a candidate for oil minister. On Wednesday, the parliament rejected Ahmadinejad's choice for the seat, as well as three other cabinet nominees. The rejection "marked the first time since a constitutional reform in 1989 that parliament had not endorsed a president's first cabinet in its entirety," reports Reuters, and some analysts say that it could hint at a rising centrism among Iran's conservative bloc.

"This was a real lesson to Ahmadinejad that he has to listen more. It's a setback for him," said one analyst, who declined to be named.

"It showed that, although parliament is mostly conservative, there are rifts developing and the moderate, more centrist camp seems to be getting stronger." ...

"His next picks will have to be more experienced, more moderate figures," said the analyst, noting that lack of experience and a radical background were the most serious criticisms leveled by lawmakers.

But while the Iranian government may be pressured internationally and internally, it no longer has to deal with the hunger strike of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji. Earlier this week, Ganji ended his hunger strike of the past three months, reports the BBC, and is "in fair health" according to his wife.

Ganji has been in prison since 2000, when he was arrested for publishing articles accusing the Iranian regime of murdering intellectuals in the 1990s. His hunger strike has been a rallying point for reformers within Iran and a focal point for criticism from Europe, the US, and the UN.

But while the hunger strike is over, Iranian reformers emphasize that this was not a victory for the Iranian government, reports the New York Sun.

"People who say that Khamenei won and Ganji lost cannot even see one foot in front of themselves," Mr. Atri [a student organization representative] said yesterday. ... "[Ganji] has demonstrated and created an opposition to Khamenei and the Islamic Republic, and he has drawn a clear and precise line between democracy and the Islamic republic and he is asking Iranians, 'What side are you on?' With the help of the Iranian student movement, he has been able to get the attention of the world on human rights and democracy and the Iranian people's dissatisfaction with the current president and his Cabinet."

Ganji is due to be released in five months.

Also...
• Sidebar: Iran in the Crosshairs ( Raise the Hammer)
• Khan 'gave N Korea centrifuges' ( BBC)
• Hackers Attack Via Chinese Web Sites ( The Washington Post)
• A Constitution? Iraqis Are Thinking About Their Lives First ( The New York Times)
• Al Qaeda will retreat to Africa, says general ( The Guardian)

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