Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations

WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations.The trip, featuring Clinton’s first stops in South America as secretary of state, includes a visit to Chile on Tuesday, although officials said they were assessing the situation after Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.Brazil is the centerpiece of Clinton’s five-day visit and she will use her March 3 stop there to seek support for the drive on the U.N. Security Council to put new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.Brazil  a non-permanent member of the council  has been reluctant to get tough on Iran and analysts say Clinton faces a diplomatic test as she seeks to bring President Inacio Lula da Silva on board in the final weeks before U.N. diplomats unveil the sanctions strategy in New York.But the trip also marks a fresh U.S. start in Latin America, which saw early hopes for better ties with the Obama administration fade amid disputes over last year’s Honduras coup and the continued U.S. embargo on communist-ruled Cuba.That disappointment was underscored this week when the “Rio Group” including Mexico and Brazil agreed to form a new regional bloc that explicitly leaves out the United States  a thumbed nose at a power many feel is still too cavalier in its dealings with its southern neighbors.”Their early expectations were very large, and probably impossible to meet,” said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There has been a lot more continuity in policy than people expected.”Latin America-watchers say Clinton’s itinerary speaks volumes. The first two stops on the trip, Uruguay and Chile, have both recently held smooth elections and are regarded as models of moderate, market-oriented economies.She winds up with stops in Costa Rica, another stable longtime U.S. ally, and Guatemala, which has seen its strategic importance skyrocket as a major new front in the battle against international drug traffickers.”She is making the right stops,” said Roberto Izurieta, head of the Latin America Department at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.”She is supporting moderate economic policies and democratic principles. It is the right message.”

TOUGH SELL ON IRAN

Despite the Latin America focus, Iran will top the agenda as the United States and other veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany, seek to agree on a resolution calling for new sanctions on Tehran.Russia has sounded more positive about possible sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but which western powers fear is a cover for building atomic weapons.But China has called for more talks, and Brazil which hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November is also reluctant, a position Clinton may not be able to change.

Julia Sweig, director of the Latin American program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Brazil’s own experience with both nuclear energy and democratic transformation made it leery of U.S. saber-rattling over Iran’s current crisis.”They see themselves as having had an experience both in shifting toward a peaceful nuclear program and in shifting to democracy that Iran might have the potential to undergo right now,” Sweig said.

“They are still insisting on not isolating Iran, though I don’t know how long they will be able to play that out.”Brazil has also pushed for a change in U.S. isolation of Cuba Lula payed an “emotional” visit to the island last week and those calls are likely to be repeated during Clinton’s two stops in Central America.While the Obama administration resumed migration talks with Cuba that had been suspended by former President George W. Bush in 2004, it has been cautious on any broader policy change despite repeated prodding by its Latin American neighbors.

Clinton is also likely to be pressed on Honduras, which is struggling to return to stability and legitimacy after a coup last year toppled President Manuel Zelaya.The United States helped to broker new democratic elections in November that brought President Porfirio Lobo to power. But Washington was widely accused of failing to take a strong enough line on Zelaya’s ouster  raising bitter memories of U.S. support for past military coups in the region.”She’s got to make up for lost time, especially over Honduras,” Sweig said. “American credibility has really taken a hit.”(Reuters)

Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own

Manouchehr Mottaki

TEHRAN,  Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own if there is no deal to have the West deliver the fuel in exchange for Tehran’s enriched uranium by the end of January.Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state TV on Saturday the West must “make a decision” whether to accept the Iranian counterproposal to either sell Tehran the fuel or swap it for Iran’s enriched uranium.Mottaki says this is an “ultimatum.”He says the international community “has one month left” to decide – or Tehran will enrich uranium to a higher level, needed for the fuel.Iran dismissed an end of 2009 deadline on a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would have reduced Iran’s capabilities to make nuclear weapons.(AP)

Force must be option for Iran

nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON Military force would have only limited effect in stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons but must remain an option, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.Tehran shows no signs of backing down in the standoff over what the United States and other countries say is its drive for a nuclear bomb, Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, told his staff in an annual assessment of the nation’s risks and priorities.

“My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results,” Mullen wrote. “However, should the president call for military options, we must have them ready.”

Iran denies that its nuclear program is aimed at producing a weapon. The Mideast nation says it is developing nuclear energy.In the past two or three years the United States had all but ruled out an attack on Iran’s known nuclear facilities as too risky, because of the backlash it might unleash.

“Most critically, Iran’s internal unrest, unpredictable leadership and sponsorship of terrorism make it a regional and global concern,” heightened by what Mullen called “its determined pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Mullen and other military leaders have suggested that if Iran was determined to build a weapon, an attack would probably fail to completely stop that effort. Mullen has tried to dissuade Israel from launching its own attack on Iran, whose leaders have called for Israel’s destruction.

Mullen’s annual review says nothing about what kind of military force he wants at hand, but any attack would presumably be done by air.

President Barack Obama has set a rough deadline of the end of this year for Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue and to show that it will allay fears of weapons development. The Obama administration is working with allies to ready a new set of international economic sanctions on Iran for repeatedly defying international demands to halt questionable activities and come clean about the nature and extent of the program.

On Monday, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona voiced support for attempting economic pressure against Iran before considering military action. “Sanctions have to be tried before we explore the last option,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

But McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wondered whether other countries such as Israel have the patience to see if sanctions will work.

Mullen, the president’s chief military adviser, had said separately on Sunday that he is worried about Iran’s intentions and said the clock is running on Obama’s offer of engagement.

“I’ve said for a long time we don’t need another conflict in that part of the world,” he told reporters traveling with him on a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. “I’m not predicting that would happen, but I think they’ve got to get to a position where they are a constructive force and not a destabilizing force.”

In his assessment released Monday, Mullen also wrote that the main effort in Afghanistan must be to push forces into the war zone quickly, including the shifting of some personnel from Iraq. His year-end message serves as general marching orders for the coming year for his large staff of planners and others.

“Afghanistan has deteriorated in the last year, but reversing the Taliban ‘s momentum is achievable,” Mullen wrote.

As to Iraq, he said security improvements mean the planned U.S. withdrawal can go ahead.

“We must finish well in Iraq,” he wrote.

Mullen listed several other threats and concerns, including threats that aren’t identified with a given country such as terrorism, piracy and cyber attacks.

“The United States has given more thought and resources to the cyber threat,” he wrote, “but “impeded progress here is a serious risk to our national security posture.”

1,200 kilograms of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods

uranium

Iran’s foreign minister says the country is ready to swap up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods), as proposed by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Manochehr Mottaki told reporters in Bahrain Saturday that Iran suggested exchanging 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of its enriched uranium on Kish island in the initial phase.

The International Atomic Energy Agency proposed in October Iran ship out its 3.5 percent enriched uranium to be further refined by France and Russia into fuel rods for a research reactor.

The U.S. and its allies fear Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at making a bomb, while Tehran maintains it’s for peaceful purposes.Mottaki said Iran agreed with the deal in principle, there were only differences over the mechanisms of the swap.

UN nuclear agency (IAEA) that called for Iran to stop uranium enrichment activities

Robert Gibbs

China says dialogue is more effective than sanctions to resolve Iran’s nuclear program is controversial, but the United States emphasizes the possibility remains to be considered.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang China Affairs in a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday said that the sanctions is not the goal. He said the dispute should be resolved through dialogue.

In Washington, on Tuesday, the Press Spokesman Robert Gibbs White House told CNN that some steps may be taken against Iran, including sanctions and possibly military action.

Head of Iran’s nuclear program Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran’s claim last Sunday that Iran plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment center is a direct response to the statement of the UN nuclear agency (IAEA) that called for Iran to stop uranium enrichment activities.

A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said Iran planned to take legal action after being reprimanded by the IAEA.

Iran plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants

Iran announced earlier today that it plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants. Iranian media reported that the Cabinet approved the construction of the plants just two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) censured Iran for its nuclear activities.The proposed facilities, reported to be similar to Iran’s main nuclear plant at Natanz, would vastly increase the nation’s capacity to produce enriched uranium. Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that Iran should get to the point where it can produce 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel each year.”We should reach a position where we can produce from 250–300 tonnes of nuclear fuel a year. To do this we must employ new centrifuges with a higher speed,” he commented.Ahmadinejad said the new Iranian-designed centrifuges used to enrich uranium will have higher speeds than those currently being used. He added that Iran “is not joking around with anyone” when it comes to defending its nuclear rights.

The announcement seems to make good on a warning earlier in the day that pressure on Iran would force it to reduce its cooperation with the IAEA. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said western pressure may force parliament to review the country’s stance toward the UN nuclear agency.Iranian Members of Parliament said that “we consider the behaviour of the IAEA to be that of double standards and political. We want it to give up this double standard which has tarnished its reputation.”

The five-plus-one group of nations working on the Iran nuclear issue – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – all voted Friday for the IAEA censure of Iran for defying international demands to freeze uranium enrichment and for secretly building a nuclear facility. The move appeared to take many officials in Tehran by surprise.The tensions coincide with problems over an IAEA proposal to send Iran’s uranium abroad for enrichment, part of a plan to ease some concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying that the programme is for civilian purposes only. The country has offered counter-proposals to the deal, but the IAEA has not accepted any of them.An unnamed US official said that “if [the plant construction is] carried out, [it] would constitute yet another violation of Iran’s continuing obligation of suspension of all enrichment-related activities. There remains a fleeting opportunity for Iran to engage with the international community, if only it would make that choice.”

the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium

The members of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is expected to vote Friday on a draft condemning Iran’s nuclear activities, while the Western countries suspect the country is developing nuclear weapons.The diplomats from the United States, England, France, Germany, Russia and China proposed that the draft UN resolution demanding that Iran halt uranium processing building where previously secret and asks Iran confirm that Iran has no other hidden nuclear activities.The IAEA board of commissioners consisting of 35 countries, which met in Vienna on Thursday, is expected to continue to debate and vote on the draft last Friday. If agreed, the draft will be the first act of the IAEA on Iran since 2006.Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, warned on Thursday that Iran would not cooperate with the IAEA if the resolution is approved.In a meeting Thursday, the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium processing near the city of Qom to early September. ElBaradei also said his investigation of allegations that Iran has tried to make nuclear weapons had reached a dead end street, because Tehran does not want to cooperate.