President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN, Dec. 5--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad termed the recent National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies a victory for Iran.
Addressing a public gathering in Ilam on Wednesday, the chief executive said the NIE report is aimed at resolving problems of the US government and bringing the US out of the present deadlock which it has been entrapped in, Mehr News Agency reported.
He enumerated two reasons for the West’s opposition to Iran becoming a nuclear power.
“Firstly, the westerners are against Iran’s progress, because they know that if Iran captures the peak of scientific progress, it will become a model for other countries. Secondly, the West is aware that fossil energy is coming to an end and Iran will not have oil and gas in the next 50 to 60 years,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that for the same reason global powers falsely express concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
“They want to sell their nuclear energy in future at a very high price. That is why they do not want other countries to have access to nuclear energy and technology,“ he said.
The president pointed out that when the incumbent government came to power, enemies argued that Iran should be threatened with sanctions and military attacks.
“However, God willing, due to the persistence of Iranian nations and within 27 months, developments took place which turned Iran into a nuclear country,“ he said.

MOSCOW, Dec. 5--Russia on Wednesday joined China in suggesting that a new US intelligence report on peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program lessens the need for further UN sanctions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the shock US report would weigh against a third UN sanctions resolution against Tehran, which Washington is pushing hard at the Security Council.
“We will judge the situation around the idea of a new UN Security Council resolution on the basis of all factors, including, of course, on the basis of public confirmation of the US information,“ he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.
Lavrov’s statement echoed the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, who on Tuesday said, “We will study the contents and also think about the implications for the (UN Security) Council’s action here.“
Pressed by reporters on whether the assessment might make new sanctions against Iran less likely in the near term, the Chinese diplomat said, “I think Council members will have to consider that, because...now things have changed.“
Russia and China are two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and can veto any resolution. They have both been reluctant to back previous measures against Iran.
Moscow, which is close to completing construction of Iran’s first nuclear power station in Bushehr, rejects US claims that Iran presents a military threat.
Lavrov rejected the US intelligence report’s claim that Iran once had an active military atomic project. He said that there was no proof that Iran has ever run a nuclear weapons program.
“Data that we have seen don’t allow to say with certainty that Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons program,“ Lavrov said.
“We have no information that such efforts had been conducted before 2003, even though our American colleagues said it was so.“
Lavrov said that the International Atomic Energy Agency should continue its work in Iran to clarify all outstanding issues related to Tehran’s nuclear program.

VIENNA, Austria, Dec. 5--A new US intelligence review on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is consistent with the UN atomic watchdog agency’s own findings and “should help to defuse the current crisis“, the organization’s chief said.
“Although Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran,“ International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement, AP reported.
ElBaradei said he viewed “with great interest“ Monday’s release of a US National Intelligence Estimate that said Tehran halted nuclear weapons development in late 2003.
The chief US envoy to the IAEA, Gregory L. Schulte, said the US assessment contained “some positive news“ and raised hopes of a peaceful and diplomatic end to the standoff.
ElBaradei, who was traveling in South America on Tuesday, said the new assessment “should help to defuse the current crisis“ over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and growing fears that Washington may be gearing up for a possible conflict with the Islamic Republic.
“At the same time, it should prompt Iran to work actively with the IAEA to clarify some aspects of its past and present nuclear program,“ he said. “This would allow the agency to provide the required assurances regarding the nature of the program.“
In his statement, ElBaradei called on Iran to ’accelerate’ its current constructive cooperation with the IAEA and for all parties “to enter into negotiations“.

TEHRAN, Dec. 5--The sixth session of Iran-Oman Military Commission concluded in Tehran on Wednesday with a memorandum of understanding on bilateral military cooperation.
The two delegations participating in the meeting reached an agreement on military cooperation, joint marine rescue operations, campaign against drug and human trafficking, and exchange of experiences in the fields of marine security and training affairs, IRNA reported.
Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Rahmani, heading the Iranian delegation to the three-day meeting, said Iran’s capabilities are not for competing with regional countries.
“Tehran has always respected the sovereignty of Muslim nations and called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Middle East,“ he said.
Rahmani noted that the presence of American and European troops in the region is unjustifiable and “an insult to regional nations“.
Brigadier General Saud bin Soleiman bin Nassir Al-Hosbi, who headed the Omani delegation, thanked Iranian commanders and officials for the hospitality extended to the Omani delegates.

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 5--Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the US to follow his country’s lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, while rich and poor nations appeared divided on Wednesday over what a future climate change pact should look like.
Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the accord that caps greenhouse gas emissions, reversing a decade of Australian resistance and leaving the US as the only industrialized country to refuse to sign on, AP reported.
“Our position vis-ˆ-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution,“ the newly elected prime minister told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network in Australia.
“And therefore we do need to see the US as a full ratification state.“
His comments put further pressure on the US at the UN Climate Change conference in Bali, where nearly 190 nations hope to launch a two-year negotiating process that will result in a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Failure to continue reducing emissions, experts warn, will almost certainly lead to catastrophic droughts and floods, and deaths linked to heat-waves and disease.
The 175-nation Kyoto agreement of 1997 requires 36 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of heat-trapping “greenhouse gases“--carbon dioxide and some other industrial, agricultural and transportation byproducts--by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The US refuses to endorse mandatory cuts in emissions favored by the European Union, choosing instead to focus on funding renewable energy projects and improving energy efficiency.
While the conference is in its early days, differences already were emerging, mostly over what should go into the “Bali roadmap“, which will lay out the subjects for discussions in the years to come.
Japan, for example, offered up a proposal that does not include targets, while the EU has come out with a detailed wish list that includes demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in approving mandatory cuts, strengthening the carbon market and boosting funding to help poor countries adapt.
Meanwhile, delegates and activists say poor countries led by the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, have demanded that rich countries speed up the process of providing them with technologies that would help reduce pollution or improve energy efficiency. They also want funds to adapt to the impact of global warming.

TEHRAN, Dec. 5--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council’s summit in Doha, Qatar, has been fruitful and will help strengthen cooperation among regional states.
Hosseini noted that Iran believes PGCC should be used instead of GCC, Mehr News Agency reported.
Asked about the benchmark for the government’s nuclear policies, he said different countries might have certain priorities for their nuclear activities, but the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei sets the macro policies for Iran’s nuclear case and the Supreme National Security Council is also responsible for other aspects of the case.
Hosseini pointed out that more time is required to consider different aspects of the recent report by 16 US intelligence agencies known as National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.
“The most important point in NIE report is that it contradicts a report published two years ago by other US spy agencies,“ he said.
The spokesman noted that reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency have sufficient legitimacy and reports by intelligence agencies are not needed.
“The recent statements by US President George W. Bush about Iran are quite irrational. What Bush said shows that he gives little credit to the reports of his own intelligence agencies,“ he said.
Hosseini noted that Bush is still insisting on his adventurous standpoint toward Iran by again claiming that Iran is a dangerous country.

DES MOINES, USA, Dec. 5--US Democratic rivals criticized front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday for a vote against Iran that they portrayed as misguided and dangerous in light of a new intelligence report that says the Iran’s program is peaceful.
One month before Iowa’s leadoff caucuses--in a debate broadcast only on radio--the presidential candidates stood together in welcoming the report’s assessment and criticizing President George W. Bush’s assertion that “nothing’s changed“ because of it, AP reported.
They were divided on the three-month-old Senate vote to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization--a resolution that only Clinton supported among the Democratic candidates.
She said her vote was meant to encourage diplomacy, but several of her foes were having none of that, and John Edwards said it sounded like war.
Their interaction with each other was relatively civil compared with the sniping between the campaigns of Clinton and rivals Barack Obama and Edwards in recent days.
Edwards did confront Clinton on her characterization of her Iran vote.
“Declaring a military group sponsored by the state of Iran a terrorist organization, that’s supposed to be diplomacy?“ Edwards interjected. “This has to be considered in the context that Senator Clinton has said she agrees with George Bush terminology that we’re in a global war on terror, then she voted to declare a military group in Iran a terrorist organization. What possible conclusion can you reach other than we are at war?“
Clinton objected. “You know I understand politics and I understand making outlandish political charges, but this really goes way too far,“ she said.
She is locked in a three-way race with Edwards, a former senator, and Obama, a senator, in this first-voting state.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 5--FIFA and the AFC reemphasized the necessity of separating the Iranian football entity from any state interference and set a 48-hour deadline for the same.
The decision was made during a meeting on Tuesday of representatives from FIFA, the AFC, Physical Education Organization (PEO) of Iran and Iran Football Federation’s (IFF) Transitory Committee, under the chairmanship of Mohamed bin Hammam, AFC president and FIFA Executive Committee member, Fifa.com reported.
The PEO and IFF’s Transitory Committee shall communicate to FIFA and AFC within 48 hours on the topics discussed at the meeting, mainly regarding objections to PEO President Mohammad Aliabadi becoming a candidate for the IFF’s presidency.
The IFF presidential election, originally scheduled for Dec. 6, has been postponed.
FIFA had informed the IFF last week that if the candidacy of PEO president for the IFF presidential election was confirmed, the world’s football governing body would not recognize this election.