The U.S. and five other world powers on Wednesday resumed negotiations with Iran Wednesday to try to resolve concerns over its nuclear program, as signs emerged that the sanction-plagued Islamic republic might seek a face-saving deal.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "categorically" denied Wednesday any U.S. involvement in the car bombing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran, the fourth in a series of attacks over the past two years apparently aimed at disrupting Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Israel's cutting-edge missile defense called Iron Dome scored an 85 percent success rate in knocking out rockets launched against Israel's southern cities in recent clashes with Gaza.
Israel and the United States recently revised their estimates of when Iran will field a nuclear weapon, reflecting difficulties inside Tehran's program of building large numbers of centrifuges to enrich uranium.
A leaked report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog indicated Tuesday that Iran's nuclear program experienced a one-day shutdown last week, indicating a slowing of Tehran's nuclear progress, analysts said.
The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the benefits of bombing Iran's nuclear program outweigh the short-term costs such an attack would impose.
If the new sanctions imposed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by the Bush administration are to have any meaningful, positive effect on Iranian behavior, they have to be seen as a first step toward pressuring Europe and Japan to curtail their financial relationships with the Iranian regime. Already confusion has emerged through leaks to The Washington Post and New York Times about how far the sanctions actually go.
