(Los Angeles Times) - Robin Wright Despite growing concern about the regime's suspected nuclear weapons program, Iran's assistance in the war on terrorism and the gradual evolution of liberal thought there puts it in a different category from Iraq or North Korea, said Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage. The deepening U.S. involvement on all of Iran's borders - in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Central Asia, along the Persian Gulf, and now in Turkey and Iraq - has nudged the two countries into increasingly frequent discussions since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. officials. Yet Iran's announcement last week of plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and to mine uranium "clearly indicate Iran's intention to build the infrastructure for a nuclear weapons capability," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
2003-02-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive