Friends, We could be seeing a real turning point here. Fingers crossed. I couldn't believe this report, so I searched and found two sources, one from India and another from China. Both indicate a major backdown on Washington's heretofore aggressive stance against Iran. The Chinese version goes so far as to say, "U.S. officials 'have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program...'". Both versions are below. Note: I couldn't find this report in any Western source. Below those two, we have a report that seems to be all over the Western media, about Congress passing trade sanctions against Iran. These kind of sanctions are likely to do more harm to the US than to Iran. They will surely cause Iran to draw even closer to Russia and China. It seems that Bush wants to appear strong against Iran to the American public, while he is actually in the process of backing down. What this means in the global scheme of things is not clear. It could simply be a deep game, with Washington showing a conciliatory face, while still planning a second 911 to be followed by an all-out attack on Iran. Or it could mean that the 'realists' have finally put their foot down and forced the neocons to cool it as regards their aggressive project of world conquest. It's a good time for us to keep our eyes open. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- http://www.dailyindia.com/show/64515.php/US-eases-demand-for-Iran-sanctions U.S. eases demand for Iran sanctions WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Acting on EU advice, the United States has postponed its call for immediate U.N. sanctions against Iran over nuclear policy. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she spoke with the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and said he assured her talks with Tehran were going well, The Washington Times reported. Solana met with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Berlin Wednesday, and again Thursday. Rice said Solana told her Larijani "seems to be sincere" in an effort to end the impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment program. Thursday's talks ended inconclusively, and Solana and Larijani scheduled more discussions next week. Tehran claims the program is only to produce reactor fuel to make electricity, but various countries are concerned it will result in nuclear weapons. Rice said the administration could wait a few more weeks for Iran to stop enriching and return to international negotiations, but "clearly this won't go on very much longer." Copyright 2006 by United Press International -------------------------------------------------------- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/20/content_5117320.htm U.S. backs off on Iran's nuclear sanctions www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-20 23:26:35 WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United States, which warned time and again to impose sanctions against Iran, has softened its tone on Iran's nuclear program, the Washington Post said on Wednesday. Slowly but surely, the White House has muddied what was once clear lines in pursuit of diplomacy, the newspaper said. As recently as a month ago, U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration firmly demanded that Iran first suspend its nuclear activities before the U.S. would join negotiations on the nuclear program, "but now U.S. officials have quietly acquiesced in a European-led effort to find a face-saving way for the talks to begin," the article said. "With allies balking, negotiations appear more likely than punishment," the article said. Bush, in his speech on Tuesday to the UN General Assembly, "used notably mild language when he discussed Iran, suggesting that the two countries one day will 'be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace.'" Referring Bush's latest speech that U.S. officials "have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program," the article said "this is a reversal from the policy in the first term, when U.S. officials loudly proclaimed that a country with such vast oil and gas reserves has no need for a nuclear program." Under pressure from Europeans, the Bush administration dropped that argument late last year, the article said. -------------------------------------------------------- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/01/content_5160934.htm Bush signs sanctions bill against Iran's partners www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-01 11:06:12 WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a new set of sanctions on Saturday that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities or countries that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs. "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act," Bush said in a statement. The U.S. Senate passed the new sanctions bill earlier Saturday, which was passed by voice vote and cleared by the House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill, the Iran Freedom Support Act, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran's capability of acquiring chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The bill states that the U.S. policy was meant "not to bring into force an agreement for cooperation with the government of any country that is assisting the nuclear program of Iran or transferring advanced conventional weapons or missiles." The U.S. sanctions against Iran have remained since the takeover of the U.S. embassy by Iranian radicals in 1979. Moreover, Washington has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council on the grounds that Iran develops a nuclear weapon program under the cover of a civilian program. Iran, however, has denied the charge, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. -------------------------------------------------------- -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
