TEHRAN, Dec. 4--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini reacted on Tuesday to the recent report known as National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) by 16 US intelligence agencies, as well as statements by the US national security advisor, Stephen Hadley.
Hosseini noted that the US intelligence report indicates that Iran’s nuclear program is pursuing peaceful activities and Iran’s performance, as well as reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), shows no deviation from its peaceful path, Mehr News Agency reported.
“The US intelligence report shows that Bush’s statements and what other US officials have said about Iran’s nuclear activities are false and untrustworthy,“ he said.
By comparing the recent and previous US reports, Hosseini pointed out that the US intelligence reports in 2005, which alleged that Iran is building nuclear weapons and the current report rejecting the same shows the contradictory nature of these reports.
He noted that this report can convey a message for the European allies of the US to reconsider their unrealistic policies toward Iran.
Sixteen American intelligence organizations in a 100-page report on Monday emphasized that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
The US intelligence community, in an unexpected reversal, has said that US charges about Iran’s nuclear goals have been overblown for at least four years.
The National Intelligence Estimate raised fresh questions about the White House’s battered credibility five years after the US drive to invade Iraq based on dire, but false, warnings.
In October, President Bush raised the specters of “World War III“ or a “nuclear holocaust“ if Iran gets an atomic arsenal and wrongly claimed that Tehran had openly ’proclaimed’ its desire for one.
The NIE, the consensus view of all 16 US spy agencies, said it was unclear whether Iran sought nuclear arms and claimed that the country had halted nuclear weapons program in 2003.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the latest US intelligence report backs up the findings of IAEA inspectors over the past few years.
“This validates the repeated assessment of the director general that the inspectors’ findings represented no clear and present danger, and that there was ample time for negotiations,“ a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency told Reuters.
“This is in sync with IAEA statements over the past few years that we had no evidence nor had been given any intelligence information of an undeclared nuclear weapons program anywhere.“
IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei reported last month that Iran was making “good progress“ in solving questions about its plans.
The report should bolster those who say President Bush has overstated the threat posed by Iran and weaken the argument for military action.
Rand Beers, who resigned from Bush’s National Security Council just before the Iraq war in 2003, said the report should derail any appetite for war on the administration’s part and should reinvigorate regional diplomacy.
“The new NIE throws cold water on the efforts of those urging military confrontation with Iran,“ Beers said.
Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, said that the estimate proved that the intelligence community has learned its lessons from the Iraq debacle.
“It has issued judgments that break sharply with its own previous assessments, and they reflect a real difference from the views espoused by top administration officials,“ he said in a statement.
And Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid called on Bush to emulate former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s dialogue with the Soviet Union, pushing for “a surge of diplomacy“ with Tehran.
The NIE report found that “the earliest possible date“ Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon was late 2009, “but that this is very unlikely“.
Asked about the report, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, “It’s natural that we welcome it when countries that in the past had questions and ambiguities about this case...now amend their views realistically.“
“The condition of Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities is becoming clear to the world,“ he said.

DOHA, Qatar, Dec. 4--Arab states of the Persian Gulf leaders on Tuesday wrapped up a two-day summit that agreed to launch a pan-Persian Gulf common market in January next year and to maintain their currencies’ peg to the US dollar.
The six monarchies also agreed to maintain a 2010 target date for the launch of a single currency, AFP reported.
But the highlight of the two-day gathering of oil-rich Persian Gulf states was the presence here of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to attend a Persian Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
In a speech to the summit on Monday, Ahmadinejad offered his Arab peers a regional security pact and 12 proposals to boost cooperation, including on free trade and joint investments in oil and gas.
The Qatari presidency of the summit welcomed Ahmadinejad’s proposals in a statement Tuesday.
“They will be examined by the PGCC in a way to reinforce the relations of good neighborhood and mutual respect...and to contribute to strengthening security and stability in the region,“ it said.
Ahmadinejad’s presence at the summit appeared to be in response to an invitation from Qatar, the host of the summit.
The final declaration of the summit reiterated the PGCC position of demanding a “peaceful solution“ to Iran’s nuclear issue.
The PGCC has already announced plans to launch its own nuclear program, for civilian purposes only.
PGCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah said the leaders at the summit decided to stick to a 2010 date to launch their single currency.
The decision was effectively made ahead of the summit, when PGCC foreign and finance ministers decided to stick to the date despite worries of high inflation.
A delegate said the decision was taken at the insistence of Saudi Arabia, although some member-states, notably the UAE, had openly said the 2010 launch was not possible because of technical, legislative and fiscal hurdles.
Leaders also decided to keep pegging their currencies to the sliding dollar, and not follow Kuwait’s move to peg its dinar to a basket of currencies.
“Right now, the policy is to stick to the dollar ... The PGCC is concerned about the (weakening) dollar. No decision on the currency for the moment,“ Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani told reporters.
The next annual summit will be held in the Omani capital Muscat.

TIPAZA, Algeria, Dec. 4--President Nicolas Sarkozy’s comments denouncing colonialism as unjust still do not go far enough, Algeria’s interior minister said Tuesday on day two of a state visit by the French leader.
“This marks a progress,“ Yazid Zerhouni, said in the first official reaction to Sarkozy’s remarks made late Monday. “It is a step in the right direction, but we still say it is not enough when his remarks are taken in context,“ AFP reported.
Speaking in the Algerian capital late Monday, Sarkozy said that “the colonial system was profoundly unjust, contrary to the three founding words of our Republic: freedom, equality, brotherhood.“
But he steered clear of bending to Algerian demands to say sorry for atrocities allegedly committed by French troops and settlers during the North African country’s bitter and bloody 1954-62 war of independence.
Sarkozy said that “terrible crimes“ were committed on both sides and that all of the war’s victims should be honored.
“I do not know whether an apology is necessary, but it would always be useful,“ Zerhouni told reporters ahead of a visit by Sarkozy to the World Heritage archaeological site of Tipaza, 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of Algiers.
He said, however, that the absence of an apology “will not prevent there being a new vision of our relations. In both France and Algeria, we are condemned to believe that friendship is possible.“
France ruled Algeria, the second biggest country in Africa, from 1830 to 1962, turning the country into one of its empire’s proudest possessions and populating it with tens of thousands of settlers.
Paris and its former colony have maintained an uneasy relationship since 1962 and 45 years later plans for a friendship treaty remain on ice over France’s refusal to apologize for past events.

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TEHRAN, Dec. 4--Iran has not received the credentials of the new Canadian ambassador to Tehran, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Tuesday.
The spokesman made the remark in reaction to recent allegations by Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, IRNA reported.
Hosseini stressed that the Canadian Foreign Ministry’s assertions are contradictory to diplomatic norms with respect to exchange of ambassadors.
“According to diplomatic norms, the two sides should observe each other’s principles for determining the level of activities and the presence of diplomats, and avoid any unilateral approach,“ he said.
Bernier had said Iran has ordered Canada’s ambassador to leave the country after Canada rejected candidates Tehran had proposed to represent the Islamic Republic in Ottawa.
The two countries have tried to come to an agreement on an exchange of ambassadors for some time.
“Unfortunately, we have as yet been unable to accept the candidates Tehran has submitted,“ said in a statement late Monday.
“We believe that the expulsion of our ambassador is an unfortunate and unjustified consequence of this situation. As always, Canada remains prepared to receive an Iranian ambassador provided a suitable candidate is presented,“ he said.
The statement did not explain why the Iranian candidates had been unacceptable to Canada.
Canadian ambassador to Iran, John Mundy, was appointed recently but his credentials had not yet been accepted.
Bernier said the Canadian Embassy in Iran now will be headed by the charge d’affaires.
Both countries will continue to maintain embassies in the respective capitals and conduct normal operations, the statement said.
The diplomatic slap came one day after the Iranian charge d’affaires expressed frustration that his country’s overtures were being ignored by the Canadian government.
Mehdi Mohebi said in an interview with the Canadian press that he has twice asked for resumption of high-level contacts up to the foreign ministerial level.
Calls to the Iranian Embassy were not immediately returned on Monday.

BERLIN, Dec. 4--German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her Christian Democratic Union opposes Turkey’s bid to become a full member of the European Union, the first time she has articulated outright opposition to Turkish EU membership.
“We are, have been and will remain in favor of a privileged partnership with Turkey, but we’re against full membership in the European Union,“ Merkel said in a speech to the Christian Democrats’ annual convention in Hanover today, Bloomberg reported.
Merkel’s CDU party has until now said that accession talks between the EU and Turkey must not rob Turkey of the eventual possibility of becoming a full member.
The CDU is now “right to clarify“ its opposition, Merkel said.
Turkey has made little headway toward joining the EU since it started membership talks in October 2005. Rising European opposition to admitting the predominantly Muslim nation has triggered a backlash against the 27-nation EU in Turkey. Sixty-eight percent of Germans oppose Turkey’s EU entry, according to a Forsa poll on Aug. 10.
However, the European Union should pursue negotiations with Turkey for membership of the 27-bloc despite Merkel’s reaffirmation of opposition to that goal, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
“We think we should stick to this commitment. The European Commission advocates pursuing these negotiations,“ Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told a regular briefing.
Laitenberger recalled that EU states had agreed unanimously in Oct 2005 to open negotiations with Ankara with a view to membership if it fulfilled criteria. The time to decide on membership would be at the conclusion of those talks, he said.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4--President George W. Bush and congressional Democrats are locked in a struggle over Iraq spending, with neither side budging and each calculating that their argument will be the one to resonate with American voters.
For both sides, this rhetorical tug-of-war has become a question of leadership on national security issues and who is more committed to the US troops, AP reported.
“It’s unconscionable to deny funds to our troops in harm’s way because some in Congress want to force a self-defeating policy, especially when we’re seeing the benefits of success,“ Bush said in a Rose Garden speech on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, wasted no time in responding.
“We could have already given our troops what they need in Iraq and funded our critical needs at home if not for the stubborn refusal of President Bush and his Republican enablers to work with us,“ he told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.
The tussle could be on display this week, if the Senate revisits a $50 billion bill to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also call for most troops to come home by Dec. 15, 2008.
The bill is doomed to fail. It is identical to one blocked last month by Senate Republicans, who said Democrats were trying to limit the flexibility of military commanders. The bill failed 53-45, falling seven votes short of the 60 needed to overcome procedural hurdles.
But with Bush blaming Democrats for failing to provide money needed by the troops, party leaders are on the defensive and hoping to switch the public message.