Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 1.13.2005:

Next Stop: an Emergency Meeting of the IAEA Board.

• Times Online reported that Britain, France and Germany agreed to request an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board.
• The Financial Times reported that European officials warned that Tehran would have to reinstate the seals at its Natanz research facility and refrain from all the activities it announced this week if it wanted to avoid a UN referral. “A half-step back will not stop us.”
• Times Online then reported that Iran will be referred to the United Nations Security Council within weeks.
• The New York Times reported that among the possible sanctions being discussed, various officials said, were a ban on travel by Iranian diplomats, restrictions on new commercial contracts or sports contests and other small steps.
• Vital Perspective published the full text of Condoleezza Rice Statement on Iran.
• MosNews reported that Russian officials have hardened their criticism of Iran’s decision to resume sensitive nuclear research, but analysts said the comments did not signal a major change despite a Washington Post report that the Bush administration had secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council.
• Monsters & Critics reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Annan offered to mediate in the dispute with Iran and the EU3.

What should we do?

• Farouz Farzami, The Wall Street Journal, an Iranian said: My country will not change without help from the West. I wish the only superpower in the 21st century would realize its full potential in diplomacy, economic leverage and, as a last resort, military action.
• Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian said that we face the next big test of the west: Iran. We in Europe and the United States have to respond. But how?
  
• Austin Bay Blog ponders what to do about Iranian nuclear brinkmanship?
• The Jerusalem Post reported on an internal IAF research paper shows that the feasibility of a successful military operation need not be total in order for Israeli leaders to order such a strike.

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• News24 reported that Ahmadinejad called for the exit of "evil" foreign forces from the Persian Gulf.
  
• DEBKAfile reported that Iranian sources claim that Thousands of P2 and P1 type centrifuges can go into action free of international curbs and within six weeks to two months, and the centrifuges will have produce enough enriched uranium to build a single nuclear weapon.
• The Counterterrorism Blog reported that on Monday, an Iranian military plane crash killed eleven top commanders in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and that his sources are convinced that this was an act of sabotage.
• Zerkalo.az reported on the problems with the memorandum signed by the Iran and Azerbaijan leaders.
• And finally, Reuters reported that U.S. Senator John Kerry said: "Iran has made a dangerous and silly decision of confronting not just the U.S. government but the entire international community."