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Blix warns against regime change

Various | 03.06.2006 01:58 | Anti-militarism | World

While careful to watch their words, both the UN and EU have sent clear warnings to the criminal Extremists in DC, that their plans for military aggression are well-known, and foolhearty.

Blix warns against regime change
From correspondents in the United Nations
02jun06

THE former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, today warned against any military attempt at regime change to resolve the nuclear crises surrounding Iran and North Korea.

Both countries figured prominently in a report from the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission that Mr Blix presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The 14-member international commission - set up by Sweden in 2003 to probe ways of reducing the dangers from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons - argued that any negotiations with Iran and North Korea had to consider their security concerns.

"In such states, incentives to acquire nuclear weapons may be reduced by offers of normal relations and assurances that military intervention or subversion aimed at regime change will not be undertaken," the report said.

In the case of Iran, Mr Blix, who chairs the commission, said it was also important to recognise the depth of national pride in nuclear accomplishment.






"There is very much a question of prestige here ... and I think that the other side negotiating with them would do well to take that into account, as well as issues of security," he told reporters at the UN's New York headquarters.

The commission report generally decried the stagnation of global nuclear disarmament efforts and offered a list of 60 recommendations, topped by a call for all governments to accept the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that was agreed 10 years ago.

It also urged all nuclear states to reduce their arsenals and halt the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

And it firmly rejected the idea that nuclear weapons were only dangerous in the hands of rogue governments.

"The commission does not accept that argument," Mr Blix said.

"These weapons are dangerous in anybody's hands, although that doesn't exclude that some could be more reckless than others."

In his preface to the report, Mr Blix urged Washington to take the initiative in bringing the CTBT into force and negotiating a treaty to halt fissile material production.

"In both these areas, the US has the decisive leverage," he said.

"If it takes the lead, the world is likely to follow. If it does not take the lead, there could be more nuclear tests and new nuclear arms races."

The report was welcomed by several non-governmental organisations dealing with disarmament issues.

John Burroughs, executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, welcomed the case made for a return to multilateralism in US policy on nuclear weapons.

"The problems of existing arsenals, potential spread and potential acquisition by terrorists are all linked," Mr Burroughs said. "The problems can be solved only by a comprehensive approach leading to elimination of all weapons."

 http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19337405%255E1702,00.html

Blix warns of WMD vicious circle

David Batty
Friday June 2, 2006

Hans Blix warned the "war on terror" is leading to another arms race. Photo: AP.

The US must abandon its "war on terror" to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, according to the former United Nations' chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix,.

The US foreign policy of pre-emptive strikes against any perceived weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat, its development of new types of nuclear weapons and the "Star Wars" missile defence shield risked fuelling a new global arms race, said Dr Blix.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1788907,00.html?gusrc=rss

Britain rules out force against Iran
Mark Tran
Friday June 2, 2006

Margaret Beckett said Iran should expect "further steps" if it refuses to negotiate. Photograph: Getty Images

Military force is not on the agenda in the international impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, Britain said today.

The comment from the Foreign Office followed last night's agreement in Vienna on a package of proposals to be presented to Iran.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1788821,00.html

With Britain sending a signal that they do NOT wish to be involved in another of Bush's Mideast disasters, the Neocon warhawks are left with no other choice than another fake terror attack.

So, here is something to keep in mind and share with your friends. Right now, Iran is winning the public relations war. It is obvious that Bush lied us into Iraq, and the presumption is that he is trying to lie us into Iran. Support for another war is plunging both domestically and internationally. Iran is getting what they want, their right under treaty to build nuclear power stations. There is no reason for Iran to do anything to change how the situation is evolving.

So if something goes "bang", remember that your first question should be, "who benefits"? Who gets the war they want?

Big power deal on Iran excludes use of force - Lavrov
Fri Jun 2, 2006 12:25 PM GMT14

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An offer to Iran worked out in Vienna by major world powers to persuade Tehran to halt work that could produce nuclear weapons excludes the use of military force, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

 http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-02T102517Z_01_BAN237528_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-NUCLEAR-IRAN-RUSSIA-20060602.XML

The International Community, while indulging Washington in its game of Creat-A-Crisis, signals that this process will not be permitted to deteriorate into a "justification" for Military Aggression.

Endgame in Iran

By Mike Whitney

06/01/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- “The US is updating contingency plans for a strike to cripple Iran’s atomic weapon program if international diplomacy fails….The plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.” Ian Bruce, “US spells out plan to bomb Iran”, The UK Herald

 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13458.htm

Former CIA Analyst Says Iran Strike Set For June Or July
McGovern: Staged terror attacks across Europe, US "probable" in order to justify invasion

 http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2006/010606iranstrike.htm

Will the Security Council Go Along for the Ride Again?
Iran: a Manufactured Crisis

By DAVID PETERSON

Is it within the right of the Security Council to impose demands upon UN member states that not only violate treaties and conventions, international law and World Court decisions"but also the UN Charter according to whose "functions and powers" the Security Council presumably acts?

The answer, of course, is no. Nor is the question merely academic. Because at a meeting of six global powers scheduled to be held in Vienna perhaps as early as June 1, representatives of the five Permanent Members of the Council (Britain, China, France, the Russian Federation, and the United States) plus Germany very well could finalize an agreement on Iran's nuclear program that makes UN Charter- and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-violating demands on Iran. Should this or any subsequent meeting among these powers produce a draft Security Council resolution that calls upon Iran to surrender its "inalienable right" under Article IV.1 of the NPT "to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discriminati on" (1970),[1] along with enforceable, Chapter VII-type penalties in case Iran resists their orders, the UN Charter and the NPT will have been overthrown, and the current crisis greatly heightened"all in the name of maintaining "international peace and security."

 http://www.counterpunch.org/peterson06012006.html

Iran bomb 'within next 10 years'

Iran is determined to have a nuclear weapon and could possess one within 10 years, according to the top US intelligence chief.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5039956.stm

Iran 'could develop nuclear weapons in just five years'
BILL JACOBS WESTMINSTER EDITOR

IRAN could develop a nuclear bomb in as little as five years, the man in charge of American intelligence warned today.

 http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=815232006

Note the careful wording, and the ommission of any mention of this man's past crimes and dishonesty.

"We don't have a clear cut knowledge but the estimate we have made is some time between the beginning of the next decade and the middle of the next decade they might be in a position to have a nuclear weapon, which is a cause of great concern."

Which, loosely translated, means "We have no evidence whatsoever to back up what we are saying".

Hardly worth slaughtering innocent people over ...

Keep in mind that the ONLY people making such claims are the same Israelis and American "Neo-Cons" who LIED about the dire threat posed to the world by Saddam Hussein's WMD.

Various

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