NEWS
6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2004
Iran likely to stop producing nuclear power fuel
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria — Iran is expected to announce this week a full suspension of activities that can be used to make nuclear arms as part of a deal with European powers, diplomats said yesterday.
Iran's foreign minister also indicated the preliminary agreement negotiated with France, Germany and Britain could be signed soon, but Iranian hardliners criticized the deal and urged the government to ignore calls to continue the suspension
"The trend of negotiations was a positive trend." Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Iranian state-run television yesterday. "We hope the deal between Iran and Europeans can be finalized and create the necessary confidence."
Outlining for the first time the contours of a confidential agreement hammered out over the weekend, the diplomats told The Associated Press on condition of
"The trend of negotiations was a
Kamal Kharrazi Foreign Minister
positive trend. We hope the deal between Iran and Europeans can be finalized and create the necessary confidence."
anonymity that the deal still could collapse because of resistance to cooperation with the Europeans by conservative leaders in the Islamic Republic.
ers in the laboratory Iran suspended uranium enrichment last year but has repeatedly and at high levels refused to stop other related activities such as reprocessing uranium or building centrifuges, insisting its program is intended
purely for the production of fuel for nuclear power generation.
"We came very close to agreement but we still need to hear the final word" from Iran, said Cristina Gallach of a conversation Sunday, a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief.
One of the diplomats, who was briefed on the substance of the weekend talks in Paris, agreed, saying "We think it will be a yes — the noises are positive but we are not sure."
Any such deal would be significant because it would commit Iran not only to continue its voluntary freeze on enriching uranium — which can be used to make nuclear weapons — but also to stop related activities.
Uranium enriched to a low level can be used to produce nuclear fuel for reactors to generate electricity. If enriched further it can be used to make nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously
passed a resolution in September demanding Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment and related activities, and the U.N. nuclear watchdog is to judge Iran's compliance at a Nov. 25 meeting.
But Tehran has defied the agency by continuing to build centrifuges, which are used in the enrichment process and uranium reprocessing, and by converting a few tons of raw uranium into hexafluoride gas — a stage before enrichment. In a provision sure to be opposed by the United States, the weekend deal would only commit Iran to suspending its work until it reaches agreement with the European Union that would give it economic and technological assistance, including help in building a peaceful nuclear industry, the diplomats said.
Washington wants a guarantee of indefinite suspension if not an outright scrapping of Iran's enrichment plans and says Iran should be referred to the U.N. Security Council to face possible sanctions if it does not.
If Iran accepts the deal, U.S. hopes of building consensus on referring the case to the 15-nation Security Council at the IAEA's 35-nation board meeting are unlikely.
One of the diplomats acknowledged approval of the deal by the Iranians could lead to tensions between the Europeans and Washington.
"If we solve a problem with the Iranians we hope there will not be a problem with the Americans," the diplomat said.
But hard-liners in Tehran called on the government to ignore demands it suspend nuclear activities.
"Despite the fact that the Europeans cannot be trusted has been proven to all, unfortunately these people have again reached agreement with these three traitor European countries," the daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami newspaper said on its front page of Iranian negotiators.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the Vienna-based IAEA, called the agreement 'a step in
the right direction. Speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on nuclear security in Australia, ElBaradei said he hoped the deal would be finalized in "the next few days" and would lead Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment and reprocessing programs.
The U.S. State Department reacted cautiously. Spokesman Richard Boucher said the Europeans had not yet provided Washington with a full readout of the talks, but they agreed that Tehran must fully and immediately suspend all nuclear weapons activities. Repeating the U.S. stance, Boucher said Washington believes if Iran does not comply, its behavior should be referred to the Security Council.
Iran is not breaching its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligations by seeking to enrich uranium, but is under strong international pressure to drop such plans as a good faith gesture to prove it is not seeking atomic weapons.
Bin Laden's driver to have day in court
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GUANTANAMO BAY
NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A U.S.
federal court ruled yesterday that
Osama bin Laden's driver was
entitled to a legal hearing on
whether he is a prisoner of war
— a landmark opinion that
could prevent military trials of
alleged enemy combatants held
at Guantanamo Bay.
The government said it would immediately seek a stay of that ruling and file an appeal.
It was the first time a federal court halted legal proceedings before U.S. military commissions, resurrected from World War II, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. No trials have been held, although tentative trial dates for four detainees had been scheduled.
A U.S. District Court judge in Washington halted the pretrial
proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 34, of Yemen, after his lawyers filed a petition. Hamdan who is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism and says that he never supported terrorism was to be the first detainee tried, on Dec. 7.
The judge rejected the U.S. government's contention that Hamdan and other detainees were not prisoners of war but enemy combatants, a classification affording fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions. Hamdan was declared an enemy combatant last month by a review tribunal during a hearing his lawyer was barred from.
"Unless and until a competent tribunal determines that petitioner is not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war under Article 4 of the Geneva
"T here is nothing in this record
to suggest that a competent tribunal has determined that Hamdan in not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions."
Judge James Robertson U.S. District Judge
Convention ... of Aug. 12, 1949, he may not be tried by military commission for the offences with which he is charged," U.S. District Judge James Robertson said.
"There is nothing in this
record to suggest that a competent tribunal has determined that Hamdan is not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions."
The court also ruled that unless the military commission guidelines were changed to conform to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Hamdan could not be tried by the commissions and would be moved from the pre-commission wing at the Camp Delta prison camp to the general population.
Four terror suspects set to go before the commissions were moved out of solitary cells recently to a pre-commission wing.
Fire in the sky
In Washington, U.S. Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the government would appeal the ruling on the grounds that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to members or affiliates of Al Qaeda.
Andrew VaupeI/KANSAN
The Northern Lights dance through the skies north of Lawrence early yesterday morning. The light show, the result of solar flare particles interacting with the earth's atmosphere, is rarely seen as far south as Kansas. Although the aurora borealis was visible to the naked eye outside the city lights, the colors were not as strong as in the photo which was taken over 45 seconds. Chances for catching another glimpse of this aurora borealis are almost non-existent; The solar storm that helped create the views has weakened.
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