MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-11-20 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] More Nukes Needed for ME
|
Bush Says Iran Speeds Output of A-Bomb Fuel
By DAVID E. SANGER
SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 20 - President Bush heightened the
administration's pressure on Iran on Saturday by using his first summit
meeting since he won re-election to accuse Iran of speeding the
production of the raw material used to produce fuel for a nuclear
weapon, calling it "a very serious matter."
Then, in back to back meetings with the leaders of China, Japan and
South Korea, he attempted to establish a unified front against North
Korea, which intelligence officials believe may have produced up to six
nuclear weapons in the past year.
Talking to reporters here after a meeting with Japan's prime minister,
Junichiro Koizumi, Mr. Bush cited reports that Iran was racing to
produce uranium hexaflouride, a gas that can be enriched into bomb fuel.
"They're willing to speed up processing of materials that could lead to
a nuclear weapon," Mr. Bush said.
Iran reached an agreement last weekend with European nations to suspend
all of its nuclear fuel production temporarily, but it has insisted that
it has the legal right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to make
such fuel for energy production and will not give up that ability.
Mr. Bush's harshest words were focused on the Iranian program, in large
part, administration officials say, because his national security aides
believe there is still time to stop Iran from actually producing a
weapon. "We're past that point with North Korea," one of his senior
advisers said recently. "With the North, it's a question of unwinding
what's already happened."
In 2003, Mr. Bush said he "will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North
Korea," and in April 2004, he told a convention of newspaper editors in
Washington that a nuclear program in Iran was "intolerable" and would be
dealt with, starting at the United Nations if necessary. He did not
repeat either phrase on Saturday, and the agreement with Europe appears
to have halted, at least temporarily, the administration's hopes of
taking the Iranian program to the United Nations Security Council this
month.
The president's comments also marked the second time this week that the
administration has made accusations that Iran, despite its protestations
that it has no intention of producing a nuclear weapon, is headed in
that direction. On Wednesday Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said
Iran was trying to modify its missiles to carry a nuclear warhead, and
was working on weapon designs that would fit those missiles.
But while he was talking about Iran in public, Mr. Bush focused much of
his private discussion here with leaders of the Pacific rim - the 21
members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum - on a North
Korean program that appears to have made significant progress while the
United States was tied down in Iraq.
In preparation for the meeting on Saturday morning with China's
president, Hu Jintao, American officials took the unusual step several
weeks ago of passing to Beijing a series of what one senior Asian
official called "classified packets" of data intended to convince the
Chinese that the North has two weapons programs under way.
Chinese leaders had few doubts that the North has been trying to produce
plutonium weapons, and they have not questioned unofficial American
intelligence estimates that the North has reprocessed enough plutonium
for four to six weapons since international inspectors were expelled
from the country nearly two years ago.
But until recently China expressed considerable doubts about a second
program that the United States believes the North started with help from
the head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons project, A. Q. Khan. Like the
Iranian program, which also received extensive aid from Mr. Khan's
network in the 1990's, the North's program involves enriching uranium to
make bomb fuel.
"The Chinese made their own inquiries from Pakistan, and we believe they
got confirmation there," said one senior Asian official involved in
Saturday's talks with President Bush. "They don't seem to be questioning
the validity of that intelligence anymore, at least in private."
But Mr. Bush was clearly concerned that South Korea's president, Roh Moo
Hyun, might diverge from the American strategy, and offer the North more
aid and investment even before it agrees to surrender its weapons, halt
its production of new weapons and allow open inspections.
Speaking on Nov. 12 in Los Angeles, Mr. Roh said: "The North Koreans
maintain that their nuclear weapons and missiles constitute a means of
safeguarding their security by deterring threats from the outside. By
and large it is hard to believe what the North Koreans say, but their
claim on this matter is" - and here he paused for several seconds -
"understandable considering the environment they live in."
Korean officials say his word "understandable" may also be translated as
"rational," and Mr. Roh told his audience that he used the worse because
his staff wanted a term that would sound more "acceptable."
Mr. Bush made no direct reference to the speech at his meeting Saturday,
according to officials who were familiar with the discussion. But he
stressed the need "for the countries to stay on the same page," one
official said.
Mr. Bush's comments on Iran came a day after American officials said
Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna that it
was speeding ahead with the production of uranium hexaflouride before
its suspension of nuclear processing activity begins.
Iran's intentions are unclear. If it is truly suspending the production
of all nuclear fuel, it is unclear why it would work so quickly to
finish production of the raw material that is fed into centrifuges and
enriched it. At low enrichment levels, the fuel could be used to produce
nuclear power; at high enrichment levels, it could make the core of a
bomb.
American officials said the president spoke out about the Iranian move
because he wanted to highlight the possibility that Iran is preparing to
cheat on its deal with the Europeans, and to raise the possibility that
it has a secret, undeclared complex of centrifuges that could keep
spinning, producing bomb fuel even after the suspension is in effect. A
dissident group operating outside of Iran charged this week that Tehran
is doing exactly that, but American officials say they cannot verify
those accusations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been visiting Iran regularly,
and issued a report recently saying it had yet to find evidence of a
weapons program. But it did not exclude the possibility. Mr. Bush's
comments appeared to be part of what the deputy secretary of state,
Richard L. Armitage, told Al Jazeera television on Friday was "kind of a
good cop-bad cop arrangement" with the Europeans: to keep the pressure
on Iran while Europe offers it incentives to give up the production of
nuclear fuels.
"If it works, we'll all have been successful," Mr. Armitage said.
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