Tuesday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 1.31.2005:

Permanent 5 Agree: Send Iran to the Security Council.

• Reuters reported that the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council agreed on Tuesday that this week's meeting of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog should report Iran to the Council.
• Reuters reported that Iran presented no major new proposals at talks with European Union countries on Monday.
• Reuters reported that the European Union called on the U.N. Security Council to step into the nuclear dispute with Iran.

Bill Clinton thinks we need more talks.

• Jenny Davey in Davos, The Times reported that Bill Clinton called for America to forge closer links with Iran, saying that talks had to allow Tehran to "preserve a sense of national dignity."

Americans Support Sanctions?

• Washington Post reported that Seven in 10 Americans would support international economic sanctions as a way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran already has the bomb?

• Middle East Newsline reported that Mansoor Ijaz, a U.S. nuclear scientist, said Tehran obtained an atomic bomb about a decade ago from the nuclear black market.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel intelligence notable, Rafi Eitan, suspects that Iran already has enough enriched uranium fissionable material to manufacture at least one or two atom bombs.

Another Tehran Bus Strike, Friday.

• SMCCDI reported that hundreds of "Tehran's Collective Bus Company" (TCBC) drivers, technicians and workers will stay home, this upcoming Friday, in order to protest.
  

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

• ExpressIndia reported that Iran had detained dozens of suspects in two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz last week.
• Reuters reported that India has replaced its pro-Iranian oil minister with Murli Deora known to have "deep contacts" in the US Senate and business circles. The Iran gas pipeline now appears dead.
• Michael Karpin, The American Enterprise Online examined the question: Will Israel Blast the Iranian Bomb?
• And finally, Jonathan Gurwitz, San Antonio Express-News reminds us that occasionally, madmen make good on their threats.