Bush: Iran has right to civilian nuclear program

[NNN0LHI]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-13T181702Z_01_DIT363311_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAN-USA-DC.XML&archived=False

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Tuesday said Iran had a right to a civilian nuclear program if it did not gain expertise or materials to build an atomic weapon.

The United States is concerned that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons, and Bush said he would be "speaking candidly about Iran" with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are gathering in New York for a United Nations world summit.

Iran says it has every right to develop nuclear technology to generate electricity, while the United States and the European Union want the U.N. Security Council to take up Iran's case after it resumed uranium processing last month.

"They have insisted that they have a civilian nuclear program, and I thought a rational approach to that would be to allow them to receive enriched uranium from a third party under the guise of international inspections that will enable them to have civilian nuclear power without learning how to make a bomb," Bush said at a press conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

[Roland99]

1. How kind of him to declare what rights Iran has.

[pinniped]

5. * must think he holds the Iranian "sovereignty" napkin.

.

[54anickel]

2. W-w-w-w-w-hat? What is going on? That's the 2nd bizarre headline

(coming from Bush anyway" that I've seen today. The other was,
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13939543


Whaz-zup? They've got to be up to something here, my BS meter is pegging.

[Lecky]

13. That's what I wanna know...

I have a hard time believing that Bush and the neocons really think that.

I'm calling BS and this makes me uneasy for some reason...

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. Either a Rovian strategy

Or he's hit his head on something

[pinniped]

3. Did this asshole "approve" China's nuke program?

India?

Pakistan?

North Korea?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Bush is beginning to realize that Iran is about to become a nuclear power

This is completely different from his past mumblings about Iran. He is softening his base up for the truth. They won't be happy.

Don

[Charles19]

17. What's changed is Iran is going to do what they want and

Bush isn't going to be able to do anything about it.

Only thing Bush and Co. can do now is pretend they are "letting" them continue with their plans.

[hadrons]

6. flip-flop

[Megahurtz]

8. Sounds like it. n/t

[jpak]

11. I disagree

It's the same policy they've always had - Iran can build nuclear power reactors but can't acquire the capability to enrich uranium or extract plutonium from spent fuel.

With regard to Iranian uranium enrichment capabilities - that cat is outta the bag. Whether they have a capability to reprocess spent fuel and produce plutonium is not known.

This changes nothing - they are still planning to bomb those facilities...regardless of the Chimp's blathering today....

[CottonBear]

7. Well. I'll be damned. Is this just a Rovian ploy of some sort? n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Next thing you know, he'll say that black people have rights

...just to show the world what a radical he is. :eyes:

[MetaTrope]

10. This way, his intelligence operatives can do better than aluminum tubing

when it comes time to proclaim evidence of WMDs...

[David__77]

12. This is a ploy.

It's a matter of clear fact and international law that Iran has that right. Bush wants to "acknowledge" that right in order to goad them into surrendering the essence of it. Iran should not negotiate over its sovereign energy and development rights, not with anyone, including the UN.

[Lecky]

14. Good call n/t

[yurbud]

16. two possibilities....giving up on war on Iran or

there's an unpleasant surprise in the pipe that will be blamed on Iran.