Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WESTERN EUROPE
IRAN PLANS URANIUM PROCESSING
VIENNA, Austria – Iran plans to process tons of raw uranium and restart its centrifuges – two activities that can be used to make nuclear warheads, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency and diplomats said yesterday.
America – which accuses Tehran of running a weapons program – said the disclosures provided further evidence Iran’s nuclear activities pose “a threat to international peace and security.”
A confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed that Iran planned to process more than 40 tons of uranium into uranium hexafluoride. Uranium hexafluoride is spun in centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, which in turn can be used to generate power or make nuclear warheads, depending on the degree of enrichment.
A senior diplomat familiar with the agency declined to say how much hexafluoride could be obtained from 40 tons of raw uranium, also known as yellowcake, beyond saying it was a “substantial amount.”
But former nuclear weapons inspector David Albright, who now heads the Institute for Science and International Security, said it could theoretically yield more than 200 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium.
“Hypothetically, that’s enough to make five crude nuclear weapons,” he said.
The report was circulated to diplomats ahead of the agency’s board meeting, which starts September 13. It did not specify what plans Iran had for the uranium hexafluoride. But two other diplomats, speaking separately, told AP that Iran had also informed the agency that it planned to introduce a “substance” into its 64-cascade centrifuge facility at Natanz as early as next month. Iran appeared to be alluding to uranium hexafluoride, they said.
– Associated Press
MARGARET THATCHER POSTS BAIL FOR SON
LONDON – The former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, has posted bail for her son Mark, who is accused of involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, an aide to Lady Thatcher said yesterday.
Lord Bell, Lady Thatcher’s spokesman, declined to confirm or deny the report, which also appeared in the Times newspaper and on Britain’s Press Association news agency.
However, the aide confirmed that she had provided the bail money. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Mark Thatcher was under house arrest at his residence in Cape Town, South Africa, pending the posting of a bond set at $300,000.
Equatorial Guinea wants to question him and his alleged co-conspirators on charges of plotting to overthrow the president of the tiny but oil-rich African nation. – Associated Press
N. IRELAND GOVERNMENT TALKS BEGIN BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Rival negotiators began talks yesterday on reviving a joint Catholic-Protestant administration for Northern Ireland, a major goal of peacemaking inspired a decade ago by an Irish Republican Army cease-fire.
The effort, all sides agree, will require bold new peace commitments from the outlawed IRA. The hard-line Democratic Unionists, who represent most of the province’s British Protestant majority, say they will form a coalition with the IRAlinked Sinn Fein only if the IRA renounces violence and fully disarms.
Democratic Unionist chief Ian Paisley, who for the past three decades has led Protestant opposition to compromise, proclaimed yesterday he wouldn’t even talk directly to Sinn Fein “until the IRA has disbanded and Sinn Fein ceases to carry on its alignment with the IRA.”
Mr. Paisley, 78 and in ill health, compared the IRA to a load of garbage. Talks on reviving power-sharing “cannot be discussed properly until we know that the rubbish has been removed,” he said. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, a reputed veteran IRA commander, said he wouldn’t respond to Mr. Paisley’s insults.
“The big challenge for the DUP would be to start to talk to Sinn Fein and then we can start taking these matters seriously,” Mr. Adams said.
Ten years ago, Northern Ireland was waking up to its first day in a generation without the threat of IRA bombings and shootings.
The Belfast Telegraph newspaper blared a banner headline “IT’S OVER,” reflecting the hope that the secret organization responsible for 1,800 killings was finally going out of business.
– Associated Press
EAST ASIA
U.S. DESERTER SAYS HE WILL SURRENDER ‘SOON’
TOKYO – Alleged American Army deserter Charles Jenkins said yesterday he would surrender to American military authorities to face charges he deserted his post along the demilitarized zone dividing north and south Korea in the 1960s.
Separately, in an interview published in the Hong Kong-based magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, Mr. Jenkins was quoted as saying he detested the North Korean government and tried to escape shortly after he arrived.
Mr. Jenkins, who left North Korea two months ago for the first time since he allegedly defected in 1965, said in a statement issued through his military counsel that he hoped “very shortly” to leave his Tokyo hospital room to go to an American Army base outside the Japanese capital. He didn’t provide a time frame.
“It is my intention,” he wrote, “to begin the process that will bring closure to my pending legal situation.”
The 64-year-old North Carolina native faces allegations he deserted the Army, a charge carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. He also could be prosecuted for charges ranging from aiding the enemy to encouraging other soldiers to desert their posts. His offer to surrender was a major step toward solving a diplomatic quandary between American military officials eager to prosecute him and Tokyo, which hopes to win him leniency so he can live in Japan with his Japanese wife.
– Associated Press
CHINA SHOWCASES SECRET SPACE PROGRAM
JIUQUAN, China – Rising space power China provided a rare peek into its top-secret launch center yesterday, capitalizing on its recent success in orbit to promote the military-funded project as a lure for foreign investment and a key to growing prosperity.
A police car with flashing lights led busloads of international journalists across northwestern China’s vast Gobi Desert to the Jiuquan space center, past armored patrol vehicles and a sign, in English: “Foreigners are not allowed to enter without permission.”
It was the first time China let foreigners enter, though officials forbade photographs of the command-and-control center, with its rows of computer screens, or the mammoth assembly hall where workers built the spacecraft that lifted China’s first astronaut into orbit last October.
For the secrecy-conscious national government, Jiuquan houses treasures to be guarded closely. But to local officials, Jiuquan is a blue-ribbon brand name just waiting to be marketed far and wide.
“No matter what products are named after Jiuquan, they will sell,” said Hao Yuan, assistant to the governor of Gansu province, where part of the space center is located.
– Associated Press
CENTRAL AMERICA
PANAMA’S NEW LEADER TAKES REINS
PANAMA CITY, Panama – Martin Torrijos, the son of a former dictator, took office as Panama’s president yesterday promising jobs, better relations with Cuba, and a referendum on a proposed $8 billion expansion of the Panama Canal.
Mr. Torrijos said Panamanians should decide on the proposal to widen the canal for a new generation of bigger ships because of its high cost for this poor nation, where 40% of the people live in poverty.He also promised an investor-friendly government that is concerned for the poor. “Doing business in Panama has become a headache,” he said.
Mr. Torrijos had tough words for his predecessor, Mireya Moscoso, calling her term “five years of wasted opportunities.” “We receive a country full of youth without hopes,” he added.
He also criticized Ms. Moscoso for last week’s pardon of four Cuban exiles who had been accused by the Cuban government of trying to kill President Castro at a summit in Panama in 2000.
“For me, there are not two classes of terrorism, one that is condemned and another that is pardoned. … It has to be fought no matter what its origins,” Mr. Torrijos said. The inauguration was attended by officials from around the world, including Secretary of State Powell and President Chen of Taiwan.
– Associated Press