The best news I have heard in recent months. -- Yoshie
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/world/middleeast/26russia.html> August 25, 2006 Russia Says Iran Sanctions Are Premature By STEVEN LEE MYERS
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=================================== Agreed. The Russian response is not only owing to the economic ties between the two countries, but also because Russia as well as China - and probably also the US's European allies, though they won't say so publicly - understand that Iran's negotating position is a reasonable one under the circumstances and should be the basis for more discussion. Iran has indicated it is prepared (under pressure) to consider a measure of international supervision and control over its nuclear program provided it first receives a guarantee (inasmuch as this is possible) that it won't be threatened or attacked by the US as well as a timetable when US sanctions will be lifted and it will be supplied with nuclear reactors and other assistance from the West to develop its energy resources. So far it has received only promises. Articles like the one below from the Guardian are useful in helping to counter US propaganda that the Iranians are only "stalling for time" - propaganda whose purpose is to end the negotations in favour of immediate sanctions as a possible prelude to air strikes.
Iran nuclear response leak reveals demands Ian Traynor Friday August 25, 2006 Guardian
The US would have to lift decades-old sanctions against Iran and probably give assurances that it has no policy of regime change towards the Islamic republic to settle Iran's nuclear dispute with the west, according to leaks of the Iranian response.
Iran is demanding firmer guarantees on trade and nuclear supplies, a tighter timetable for implementing agreements and clearer security pledges from the west before it decides whether to freeze its uranium enrichment programme and explore an offer of a new relationship.
Details of its response delivered this week to diplomats, disclosed yesterday by two well-connected Iranian political scientists, claimed moderates in Tehran had won an important power struggle and were offering a negotiated settlement of the nuclear row.
If the US spurns the Iranian olive branch and forces through sanctions from the UN security council, "the stage will be set for a full-scale international crisis", the response's authors stated.
Under the terms of a UN resolution the Iranians have until Thursday to freeze all uranium enrichment activities or face the prospect of sanctions. The same day the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, is to tell the security council that Iran has not suspended uranium enrichment. He is also likely to report additional frustrations in the agency's effort to penetrate the details of Iran's nuclear programmes.
In June the Europeans, the US, Russia and China offered Iran an extensive package of incentives if it delivered a verifiable halt to uranium enrichment, a process that can deliver the wherewithal for nuclear bombs.
But the negotiations on that package - everything from the fine print of Iran-EU trade agreements to a pact on "regional security arrangements" and the details of European supplies of nuclear reactors for a civil nuclear programme - could take at least 10 years.
The Iranians are balking at having to pay up front, by freezing uranium enrichment now, for a set of contracts and agreements that may - or may not - deliver years down the line.
The Iranian response to the international offer tabled in June is said to contain about 100 queries. The Iranians want more explicit international recognition of and support for Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy.
American sanctions in place against Iran would prevent, for instance, European firms supplying nuclear technology to Iran because the companies would imperil their trade in America.
"Is the United States willing to lift some if not all of those sanctions?" Tehran has asked, according to the leak.
The response's authors suggest Iran will freeze uranium enrichment if it is persuaded the deal on offer is iron-clad. But European diplomats see the Iranian move as a stalling tactic, while international reaction to the response has been mixed.