The Washington Post reported that the US has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington’s envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran. Dan Shapiro’s message resonated Thursday far beyond the closed forum in which it was made: Iran should not test Washington’s resolve to act on its promise to strike if diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its disputed nuclear program. Israel, while saying it would prefer a diplomatic solution, has expressed skepticism about these talks and says time is running out for military action to be effective. President Barack Obama has assured Israel that the US is prepared to take military action if necessary, and it is standard procedure for armies to draw up plans for a broad range of possible scenarios. But Shapiro’s comments were the most explicit sign yet that preparations have been stepped up. In his speech, Shapiro acknowledged the clock is ticking.
The same agency reported that Iran has summoned Bahrain’s top diplomat in the country to relay its concerns over the unrest in the tiny island nation. The late Thursday report by the official IRNA news agency says an official in Iran’s foreign ministry met the Bahraini charge d’affaires to express the concerns and also to relay a rejection of Bahraini claims of Iran’s meddling in Bahrain’s affairs. Iran and Bahrain occasionally summon each other’s envoys in protest since the beginning of the unrest in the island kingdom last year, inspired by other Arab Spring uprisings. Bahrain’s Sunni rulers claim Shiite powerhouse Iran seeks to widen its influence in the region by supporting the island’s Shiites in the unrest — a charge Iran denies. Bahrain’s majority Shiites insist they have no political links to Iran.
The Washington Post reported that the United States and other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations say they are ready to respond to oil supply disruptions as Iran faces sanctions aimed at crippling its oil exports. The G-8 leaders say increasing disruptions in the world oil supply “pose a substantial risk” to the global economy. But they stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to ensure that the oil market “is fully and timely supplied.” World leaders have warned Iran that misusing its nuclear energy program to develop a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. Iran says it is enriching uranium only to create nuclear fuel. But its refusal to stop enrichment has led to sanctions aimed at crippling its oil exports — penalties expected to take full effect in a few weeks.
The New York Times reported that if Iran makes credible gestures, sanctions should be eased, but not significantly until it takes irreversible steps to roll back its nuclear activities. The international community must make that clear before the Iranians start making promises. The initial talks in Istanbul last month were encouraging enough for both sides to agree to meet again. This time, Iran will have to offer concrete proposals to address core concerns. It could move significantly toward a solution by suspending all its uranium enrichment activities, which the United Nations Security Council first demanded in 2006. At a minimum, it needs to stop enriching to 20 percent purity (well beyond the 5 percent needed for civilian nuclear programs and a few steps from bomb grade) and to close its Fordo nuclear facility.
Iranian oil production, “the backbone of the Islamic republic’s economy,” fell by 12 percent in the first three months of the year and “is likely to fall even more, industry experts say, as sanctions make it increasingly hard for the country to find markets for its crude,” Thomas Erdrink writes in The New York Times. “At a rate of more than 3 million barrels a day, Iran is still the second-largest producer of crude oil in OPEC after Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Erdrink writes. But its production levels have been in gradual decline for years, “hampered by sanctions that have starved the industry of spare parts and new investment,” he writes. Its more immediate problem now is a “lack of buyers, after new sanctions on financial institutions and pressures by the Obama administration on reliable customers” like India, China and the Southeast Asian nations.
The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published the article headlined “Turkey seeks explanation for Israel violation.” It says that Turkey and Turkish Cypriots accused Israel of violating the airspace of Turkish Cyprus in a controversial oil and gas exploration area yesterday and sought an explanation over the incident. A senior foreign ministry official expressed Turkey’s reaction over the airspace violation to Yosef Levi Sfari, chargé d’affair of the Israeli Embassy in a telephone conversation yesterday. The Israeli diplomat took note of the Turkish reaction but did not offer an explanation. An Israeli aircraft violated the Turkish Cyprus airspace five times on May 14 before Turkish fighter jets chased the intruder out, a Turkish high command said in a statement, Agence France-Presse reported.
