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The Obama administration has accepted a long-awaited Iranian offer to negotiate, but responded skeptically to it. It was "not really responsive to our greatest concern," Iran's nuclear program, says a State Department spokesman. Tehran proposed talks on a range of issues last week but indicated it wouldn't discuss shutting down its uranium-enrichment program. Israel has signaled an end-of-year deadline for military action, but U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said last week that President Obama would be "taking stock" with permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (plus Germany) later this month.

Meanwhile, quarrels concerning the ultimate aim of Iran's secretive nuke program have become so heated that some U.N. officials are making comparisons to the proliferation of misinformation in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In a private e-mail sent last week to nuclear experts and obtained by NEWSWEEK, Tariq Rauf, a senior official with the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote that the mainstream media are repeating mistakes from 2003, when they "carried unsubstantiated stories on Iraq and WMD—the same mistakes are being repeated re IAEA and Iran." Rauf added that "the hype is likely originating from certain (known) sources." The message does not specify the sources, but U.S. and European officials have previously accused Israel of exaggerating Iran's nuclear progress. ("I think there's a growing understanding and awareness that Iran is a threat to world stability," says a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy.) Asked to elaborate on Rauf's accusation, an IAEA spokesperson says, "The comments in his e-mail were made in a private context."

Western intelligence agencies are sharing reports about Iranian efforts to acquire weapons-related technology but disagree about what they mean. Most officials doubt Tehran is pursuing nuclear technology entirely for benign purposes. Israel doubts it, too, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that his patience is limited. Rice said no one is giving up on diplomacy, adding, "We have other tools." U.S. options could include stepping up sanctions—among the senior Bush officials Obama kept on is Stuart Levey, the Treasury undersecretary who imposed tough restrictions on Iran—but the administration is likely to stall as it debates its policy.

© 2009

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: granny02@msn.com @ 09/17/2009 5:29:51 PM

    Israel wants to occupy the land of Syria and Lebanon, but fear Iran will step in, and for that reason wish to create a reason to strike Iran and drag the United States, and other countries in for back up. This is a deliberate act just like they pulled to gain the occupation of the Palestinians land. So I predict they will cause another castastrophe, and blame Iran. When will people wake up and take a good look?

  • Posted By: factsearcher @ 09/14/2009 3:12:04 PM

    Iran situation is a bit more extended....
    Chavez in Venezuela together with allies such as Correa from Ecuador are buying,trading and smuggling for the united purpose of making Irans dream of nuclear bomb come true.
    Whatever we can't find in Iran... we will find in their allies....
    food for thought... SO,
    when you hear that US, Israel and other countries are worried...they surely are!
    Now the question is...what to do about it!!!

  • Posted By: Cleverman @ 09/13/2009 8:22:56 PM

    We have already seen many times Iran's inability to be moderate about anything. The leadership is heavily into international mischief on an unprecedened scale. The regime supplied ied's to kill US troops in the middle east. The regime supports trains and nurtures Hezbollah. The regime murders dissenters in the strets of Tehran. Five of its top governmental officials are the target of arrest warrants issued by Interpol as a result of participation in a plot to murder Argentne citizens The countr has built extensive underground nuclear development and test facilities and vws to wipe Israel off the map. Can the world tust these lunatics with nuclear weaponry?.....I think not.

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