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US dismisses Iranian president’s nuclear offer
WASHINGTON - The United States scoffed on Tuesday at an offer by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to suspend uranium enrichment work if Western countries do the same. The Iranian president said Teheran would refuse to meet a deadline Friday imposed by the UN Security Council to halt sensitive uranium enrichment efforts. But he told a rally in Rasht that Iran would be willing to stop the enrichment program if other nuclear powers were willing to do the same.

“Do you believe that’s a serious offer?” White House spokesman Tony Snow scoffed said when asked about Ahmadinejad’s comments. Snow declined to comment on whether Iran might face additional sanctions if it failed to meet the UN deadline and said Washington was waiting for a report from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei.

Snow said the international community was not opposed to Iran having a civilian nuclear program to generate electricity. “We understand that Iran wants to have civilian nuclear power and we certainly have no problem with that,” he said. “What we do have a problem with is an Iran that has the ability to develop nuclear weapons.”

Snow and a Pentagon spokesman stressed US commitment to dealing with Iran through diplomacy, dismissing a BBC report that the US military has drawn up fall-back contingency plans for air strikes against Iran.

“The report is ludicrous,” said Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman. The United States has “significant concerns” about Iran’s nuclear programs and its meddling in Iraq, Whitman said. “But we’re addressing those issues on a diplomatic track.”

“Why try to whoop up suspicion and scepticism about an administration right after we’ve demonstrated the success of diplomacy in North Korea using the same means and methods that we’re trying to employ with the Iranians,” said Snow.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-02-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=181055