Iran
Leader weighs retreat on nuclear agreement
Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that “excessive demands” from abroad could prompt Tehran to retreat from a recent commitment to give inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog more access to its atomic facilities.
The warning by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency evaluates a dossier on Iran’s nuclear program that Tehran supplied to meet Friday’s deadline to prove it was not developing atomic weapons — as U.S. officials believe.
Iran agreed last month to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities and to stop enriching uranium — a process that creates fuel for nuclear plants but also can be used to build weapons.
“If parties to the talks with us or centers of global power come up with excessive demands and we feel that our interests and values are harmed, we won’t hesitate to end this trend (of cooperation),” Khamenei said in a speech on state-run television.
Moscow
U.S. view of oil case angers Russian official
Russia’s foreign minister criticized the United States on Sunday for expressing concern about actions against the oil giant Yukos, but President Vladimir Putin’s new chief of staff said he doubted the wisdom of freezing a large chunk of the company’s shares.
Last week, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration regarded the arrest and jailing of Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the freezing of 44 percent of the company’s shares, as raising “serious questions about the rule of law in Russia.”
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking on state television, reacted angrily.
“The United States is trying to place the actions of the judicial organs of Russia in doubt,” he said. “This is interference in the judicial affairs of another state that is not acceptable, and should not be, in the normal terms of democratic society.”
Congo
Leader to meet Bush, discuss aid
Peace is paying off in some parts of eastern Congo. Towns ravaged by five years of civil war are slowly coming back to life, and farmers and fishermen say business is brisk.
But elsewhere, tribal militias fight on, complicating efforts to rebuild the vast central African country. Many in Congo say the transitional government needs help from abroad if it is to succeed in bringing peace to the entire country.
With that in mind, President Joseph Kabila heads to Washington this week. He is scheduled to meet with President Bush on Wednesday.
The United States has already earmarked $77 million for humanitarian aid to Congo this year, and Kabila is expected to push Bush to maintain that support.
At least some of the money will help the millions of people in eastern Congo left homeless and destitute by the war.
