Pressure Grows on Obama to Engage Iran Directly

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry praised President Barack Obama’s desire to have direct negotiations with Iran, but warned Tuesday that he must be prepared to do more than talk as Tehran forges ahead with its nuclear program.

“While Iran was just talking to the world, it moved to the threshold of becoming a nuclear state,” Kerry, D-Mass., said during a hearing on Iran. “I point this out because we cannot move forward to a solution without understanding how we got to this dangerous juncture in history. The time for incremental steps and unanswered questions is over.”

Tuesday’s hearing came amid growing concerns about Iran’s nuclear program after the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report two weeks ago revealing that Iran has enough low-enriched, or reactor-grade nuclear fuel to build a weapon …

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Obama May Embrace Emirates Deal as Model for Nuclear Agreements

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan | Bloomberg.com

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — In her final days as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice signed a nuclear-energy accord with a Persian Gulf ally 50 miles from Iran, calling the measure “a powerful and timely model for the world.”

President Barack Obama is likely to agree.

The deal with the United Arab Emirates is designed to assist the Arab nation in starting a nuclear-power industry that can’t be converted into a weapon-making enterprise. The agreement may help Obama keep his pledge to crack down on the production and smuggling of nuclear materials.

He has called the spread of nuclear weapons “the gravest danger we face.” That threat is increasing: With global electricity demand projected to double by 2030, dozens of countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have expressed interest in nuclear power — and with any nuclear program comes the risk of proliferation.

“The U.A.E. is doing it absolutely the right way,” says Jon Wolfsthal, a former U.S. government monitor at North Korean and Russian nuclear facilities will be advising Vice President Joe Biden on proliferation. “We should not only support the U.A.E. deal, but it could be used as a model” for other countries to pursue nuclear power in a way that doesn’t raise fears of clandestine weapons programs.

A federation of Arab sheikdoms that borders Saudi Arabia and produces as much oil as Iraq, the U.A.E. has committed to buy nuclear fuel from foreign countries and send back spent supplies …

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