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03/14/2006:

"Nuclear expert: Too late to stop Iran"

A former top UN and US arms inspector on Iraq has said it may be too late to stop a nuclear-weapons determined Iran, noting that there is no consensus on taking military action against Tehran.

"I'm afraid that we probably are past the point where there is any meaningful alternative other than military action to stop the Iranians if they are determined to go ahead. And I don't see that as a possibility," David Kay, who led the US search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following the 2003 invasion, said on Sunday.
aljazeera.net


McCain: If Iran Gets Nukes, U.S. 'In Trouble'
Where Iran is concerned, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, believes President Bush was right in keeping military leverage on the table and considering U.N. sanctions.

"Iran may be the greatest single threat to America since the end of the Cold War,"McCain told an audience at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn. "If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, then my friends, we are in trouble.”


Bush ties Iran to roadside bombs in Iraq
US President George W. Bush directly linked Tehran to roadside bombings against US forces in Iraq, stepping up his criticisms of Iran amid a tense standoff over its nuclear program.

"Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Bush said in a speech.

He cited recent congressional testimony from John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence.

The president's comments came as he launched a public relations offensive to bolster support for the war in Iraq some three years after he ordered the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Bush also charged that "some of the most powerful IEDs we are seeing in Iraq today include components that came from Iran."


U.S. denies asking for Iranian help in Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad denied on Sunday seeking Iran's help to calm violence in Iraq and said there were still concerns about the Islamic Republic's links with militias in Iraq.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said journalists in Tehran had been shown a letter by a senior Iranian intelligence agent that was purportedly from U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, and which invited Iran to send representatives to talks in Iraq.
The newspaper said the letter was written in Farsi, which the Afghan-born ambassador speaks.

Khalilzad told CNN there had been no meetings between Iranian and U.S. officials.
"We have concerns about their relations with militias and extremists," said Khalilzad.
Earlier, the U.S. embassy denied such a letter existed.