Nuclear retaliation is still an option

That meeting ended without any substantial results, a source close to the negotiations told Interfax late on Tuesday.

Iran’s defiance of world pressure to halt the program drove oil prices to a record high of $72.64 a barrel, raising fears of a cut in supplies from the world’s fourth biggest crude exporter.

Bush said in Washington he would discuss Iran’s nuclear activities with China’s President
Hu Jintao this week and avoided ruling out nuclear retaliation if diplomatic efforts fail.

Asked if options included planning for a nuclear strike, Bush replied: “All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we’re working hard to do so.”

Speculation about a U.S. attack has mounted since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that Washington was mulling the option of using tactical nuclear weapons to knock out Iran’s subterranean nuclear sites.

The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking atom bombs, had been expected to push for targeted sanctions against Tehran during the Moscow meeting with the
U.N. Security Council’s other permanent members — Britain, France, China and Russia — plus Germany.

Russia and China oppose sanctions and five of the six states oppose the use of force. The U.S. has left it open as an option.

DEADLINE

Deputy foreign ministers met in Moscow ahead of an end-April deadline for the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on whether Iran is complying with U.N. demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

“Whatever the result of this meeting might be, Iran will not abandon its rights (to nuclear technology),” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said before the meeting ended.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that preliminary discussions in Moscow had indicated “there is wide agreement on the fact that Iran can’t be allowed to possess the means to develop a nuclear weapon.”

But McCormack made a point of stressing no major decisions would be taken in Moscow and the meeting’s goal was to make preparations for decisions to be taken in various capitals.

UnderSecretary of State Nicholas Burns canceled a news conference that had been scheduled to take place after the talks ended. No reason was given.

Iran defied U.N. demands by declaring last week it had enriched uranium to a level used in power stations and was aiming for industrial-scale production, ratcheting up tensions.

The United States, which already enforces its own sweeping sanctions on Iran, wants the Security Council to be ready to take strong diplomatic action, including so-called targeted measures such as a freeze on assets and visa curbs.

Washington says it does not want to embargo Iran’s oil and gas industries to avoid creating hardship for the Iranian people.

CHINA, RUSSIA OPPOSE SANCTIONS

China, which sent an envoy to Iran on Friday to try to defuse the standoff, repeated a call for a negotiated solution.

“We hope all sides will maintain restraint and flexibility,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing.

Russia restated its opposition to punitive action. “We are convinced that neither the sanctions route nor the use of force route will lead to a solution of this problem,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Iran to suspend its research and development efforts to enrich uranium in a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki on Monday, Interfax said.

U.S. Senator
Joe Lieberman, a member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, told
Israel’s Jerusalem Post the United States probably could not destroy Iran’s nuclear program but could attempt to set it back by strikes as a last resort.

“I think the only justifiable use of military power would be an attempt to deter the development of their nuclear program if we felt there was no other way to do it,” he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at an annual military parade, said the army was ready to defend the nation.

“It will cut off the hands of any aggressors and will make any aggressor regret it,” Ahmadinejad declared.

Iran says it will not drop its right to enrich uranium for peaceful use but that it will work with the IAEA.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog says it has been unable to verify that Iran’s nuclear program is purely civilian but has found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic weapons.

IAEA inspectors are due in Iran on Friday to visit nuclear sites, including one at Natanz where Iran says it has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent, the level used in nuclear power plants.

IRNA news agency said Olli Heinonen, ElBaradei’s deputy for safeguards issues, would lead the team. One diplomat said his presence suggested Iran might provide some missing information.

Experts say it would take Iran years to produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb from its current 164 centrifuges. But Iran says it will to install 3,000 centrifuges, which could make enough material for a warhead in one year.