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Mar 20th, 2007 12:50 PM

Preechr

Russia reportedly exits Iran nuke site
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer 56 minutes ago

Russia is pulling out its experts from the Iranian nuclear reactor site they were helping build, U.S. and European officials said Tuesday. The move reflected a growing rift between Iran and Russia that could lead to harsher U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.

The representatives — a European diplomat and a U.S. official — said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists have returned to Moscow in the past week, at about the same time senior Russian and Iranian officials tried unsuccessfully to resolve financial differences over the Bushehr nuclear reactor. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential.

"A good number of them have left recently," said the U.S. official, of the approximately 2,000 Russian workers on site of the nearly completed reactor outside the southern city of Bushehr. The European diplomat, who is accredited to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said a large number had left as recently as last week.

Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, confirmed that the number of Russian workers at the Bushehr plant had dwindled because of what he said were Iranian payment delays. He would not say how many had left.

The Russian departures are formally linked to a financial dispute with Iran but have a strong political component, linked to international efforts to persuade the Islamic republic to freeze activities linked to uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and the fissile material for nuclear warheads.

Although the reactor is 95 percent completed, Russia announced this month that further work would be delayed because Iran had failed to make monthly payments since January. It said the delay could cause "irreversible" damage to the project.

Because of the delay, Russia also indefinitely postponed delivery of enriched uranium fuel it had promised to provide Iran by this month.

Iran, which denies falling behind in payments, was furious, convinced Russia — which has long blunted a U.S.-led push for the U.N. Security Council sanctions — was now using the claim of financial arrears as a pretext to increase pressure for it to heed the council.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Mar 19th, 2007 11:52 PM

Abcdxxxx

Sounds like it's time for y'all to buy another book then. As if what we really need is a retired professor in the subject of Marxism advising out defense department.

Mar 19th, 2007 10:23 PM

Preechr

That book I've referenced (The Pentagon's New Map) was written by a military/intelligence analyst that counts himself a Democrat. Everybody on that ticket is very familiar with his work, not to say the NeoCons within the R camp haven't heard him many times as well. His follow up (A Blueprint for Action) is basically, surprisingly, the working blueprint for the Democratization/Globalization of the gap states. I see his work all over the place. I've said before it's THE only, real Liberal viewpoint to be had.

Mar 19th, 2007 03:40 PM

KevinTheOmnivore

For Preechr, from The Hotline:

Quote:

The New Hampshire Union Leader ed board writes, on 3/15 Edwards "presented his foreign policy vision, one that can be seen only through rose colored glasses." Edwards: "We know that terrorist thrive in failed states and in states torn apart by internal conflict and poverty."
"Perhaps, but poverty does not cause terrorism. Not one of the 9/11 hijackers was poor. Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants are not poor. Terrorism is fueled by ideology. The 'internal conflict' in Middle Eastern countries is the result of the same ideological forces that send terrorists to America, not the cause." Edwards "is stuck in a quasi-Marxist mind set in which social and economic conditions explain human behavior. However, human motivations are not so simplistic. If Edwards were to remove his rose colored glasses, maybe he could see that" (3/19).

That's right, you quasi-Marxist!

Mar 18th, 2007 05:03 PM

Abcdxxxx

We're living in a world where Ethiopea takes a hardline military stance while Israel makes whishy washy attempts at war. Who can guess? A few weeks ago I might have said Egypt in combination with another country, but then they decided they'd like a bomb of their own instead. I firmly believe that as the region errupts into assymetrical wars we're going to see more assymetrical alliances that only make sense for the moment if at all. I wouldn't be shocked if it happens and nobody takes credit for it at all.

Anyway all I said was that there are other nations with an interest in a strike, not that they might be able to carry it out themselves independently.

Mar 18th, 2007 10:15 AM

KevinTheOmnivore

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abcdxxxx

This whole assumption that the US/Israel are the only nations with a self interest in strikign Iran is incredibly naive.

Interest and means, however, are two different things. Maybe you can come up with one, but I can't think of another nation that right now has the means AND the political will (be it from the people or from the top) to attack Iran right now.

The UN writing a really nasty letter to Iran is one thing, but you won't see a green light o an attack, IMO. Who other than Israel ans America would do it? Would Pakistan, which doesn't even have control of its own internal borders, attack Iran..another muslim country?

Mar 17th, 2007 08:46 PM

Abcdxxxx

Quote: