Clinton warns Iran over nuclear progress

IRAN PRESIDENT: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Getty Images)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that international powers would not wait forever for Iran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs.

British foreign minister David Miliband, whom Clinton met in London, said Iran would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the rest of the world but that it had to start behaving like a "normal country".

Iran agreed at a meeting with six world powers in Geneva on Oct. 1 to allow UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom.

Clinton said the meeting was a constructive beginning but added that it had to be followed by action.

"The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence that Iran is prepared to live up to its international obligations," Clinton said at a news conference.

Iran suggested on Sunday that it may embark on further refining of uranium -- comments likely to add to concern among Western powers, which suspect Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear bombs. Iran denies the charge.

Negotiations are due on Oct. 19 in Vienna on a proposal to send Iranian uranium abroad for processing and then return it to Tehran.

The Islamic state has repeatedly rejected demands to halt its sensitive nuclear work, despite three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006.

Progress in the Geneva talks was seen as heading off calls for an immediate round of tougher sanctions in the near future.

Britain and the United States are part of a group of six world powers seeking to defuse the row with Iran over its nuclear programme. Miliband said Iran had to earn the right to be trusted on its nuclear programme.

"I think that Iran's history of covert, secret programmes ... explains why the international community does not have confidence in the Iranian regime's protestations about the purely peaceful aspects or purely peaceful purposes of their nuclear programme," he said.

Clinton criticised the Iranian leadership for the way it had handled protests over a presidential election in June.

"With Iran it is tragic that a country with such a great history, with so much to give to the rest of the world, is so afraid of their own people," she told reporters.

"The way that they are utilising secret prisons, and detentions and show trials, is a reflection of the discontent that they know people feel toward the current leadership."

Her comments follow a report on Saturday that an Iranian court has sentenced three people to death over street unrest that erupted after the election in June and links to exiled opposition groups. [ID:nLA65311]

ISNA news agency, citing the head of the publication relations office of the Tehran provincial court, did not identify those condemned, giving only their initials.

It was the first official statement of death sentences in connection with the presidential poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, and the huge opposition protests that followed. (Reuters)

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READERS' COMMENTS

Same Sad Story
Posted by nabiha, dubai, UAE on Monday 12 October 2009 at 13:20 UAE time


I couldn't agree more with you Mike! But I feel everyone has debated so long on it that they have all given up I guess..whilst the persistant Israelis have marched ahread as planned with US and European assistance.. How ironic but I feel sorry when these big shot call in meetings and conventions to discuss such ridiciulous matters and really created their own mockery. Pity how logic deperived the West and US could be! The link says all.

aw
Posted by Fawaz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Monday 12 October 2009 at 13:19 UAE time


You are absolutely right, but we live in a world that runs on "interest" and not truth. Whatever Israel does, the west will turn a blind eye on it as it matches with their interests. I believe that this is one of the main reasons for religious extremism in Muslim countries, as the people can not get justice from the west and they suffer greatly due to this bias. USA will always veto any resolution that criticises Israel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it me !
Posted by Mike Jones, Oxford, England on Sunday 11 October 2009 at 18:35 UAE time


I just want to know if it is only me who gets irritated by this kind of reporting. Why is it that Israel is not required to be inspected by IAEA, no one talks about its nuclear reactors. They serve no purpose for energy supplies, and are purely there for military purposes. They have not admitted that they are a nuclear nation, the location of Dimona is not on any map. The person who disclosed it to the world did not get applauded by any one. He was kidnapped , taken to Israel, put in to solitary prison and forgotten by the world. No one condemned Israel , for any of the above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev_Nuclear_Research_Center

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