Iran Accepts Invitation to New Nuclear Talks

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Monday November 1, 2010.

Iran Agrees to New Nuclear Talks - Borzou Daragahi in The Los Angeles Times [link]

• For the first time in more than a year, Iran has agreed to talks with world powers over its nuclear program.
• European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters in Brussels on Friday that she had received an affirmative response from Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to a standing invitation to talks and that he was ready to restart negotiations sometime after Nov. 10 "in a place and on a date convenient to both sides," according to news agencies.
• Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency cited Jalili's office as saying it welcomed the willingness of world powers "to return to the talks with Iran."
• Jalili's response Friday included a reference to a July 6 demand to Ashton that Iran would engage in talks on the condition that world powers clarify whether the discussions are aimed at confrontation or engagement, whether threats and pressure would be avoided and whether a "clear view" on Israel's undeclared atomic weapons arsenal would be voiced.

Iran Acknowledges Sanctions Driving Up Costs - Ali Akbar Dareini in The Washington Post [link]

• Iran's commerce minister on Saturday denied that international sanctions imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear program have damaged Tehran's trade ties and said the penalties will prove futile.
• Ghanzafari's comments come after the president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Nahavandian, said last week that the international penalties have begun to take a toll on the economy, pushing up the cost of living.
• In order to get around the sanctions, analysts say Iran has increasingly used front companies based abroad to import technology that may have civilian and military uses. But Iran is finding it increasingly difficult to continue this cat and mouse game because of strict banking restrictions and tighter rules that ban the export of any dual use or technological equipment that could wind up in Iran's hands.
• Experts believe the international penalties have hampered Iran's nuclear progress, citing a smaller number of operating centrifuges at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant in Natanz compared to a year ago.
• The number of operating centrifuges at the underground facility in May was 3,936 compared to around 5,000 last year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

GOP Hopes to Use Election Momentum to Challenge Obama on Foreign Policy - Paul Richter and Christi Parsons in The Sacramento Bee [link]

• With voters focused on the U.S. economy, President Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda has been largely overlooked in the midterm campaigns, but it will come under harsh scrutiny in the Congress that emerges after Election Day, Republican and Democratic strategists say.
• Republicans, considered likely to win control of the House and to pick up seats in the Senate on Tuesday, are expected to challenge the White House on Afghanistan, nuclear arms control, Russia, China and foreign aid spending, to name a few.
• The election result also may have an immediate effect on the pending New Start arms control treaty with Russia, which is awaiting Senate ratification.
• The White House views the treaty, which would limit the size of the countries' respective nuclear arsenals, as one of its most important foreign policy achievements, and is pushing for Senate ratification during the lame-duck session.
• But the Republican leadership, led by Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, may decide to delay the vote until the new session of Congress, when they are likely to have more votes. A decision to delay the vote might help Kyl in his bid to become a leader of the party's conservative wing, congressional aides note.

Barrasso’s Nuclear Idiocy - Max Bergman in The Wonk Room [link]

• In the current reality-warped world of tea-party gripped America, the mechanical failure of a squadron of ICBMs has actually prompted demands for more nuclear weapons.
• Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) claimed: “If new START had been in place on Sunday, we would have immediately been below an acceptable level to deter threats from our enemies. Before ratifying this treaty, the Senate must ensure we modernize our own nuclear weapons and strengthen our national security.”
• Honestly, what is Barrasso talking about? The notion that the US was left exposed by this failure is laughable. Does Barrasso seriously think that having only 375-400 ICBMs ready to roll instead of 450 would have put the US below “an acceptable level to deter threats from our enemies.”
• Furthermore, Lt. General Dirk Jameson said that the interruption had “no real bearing on the capabilities of our nuclear forces to carry out their deterrent mission.” And if the modest reductions contained in the New START treaty had already taken place when this incident happened it would have made zero difference.
• Really, Barrasso is just talking nonsense. He is, after all, from an ICBM state and wants to keep the nuclear pork flowing; Obama is for New START, therefore Barrasso thinks he must be against it.

North, South Korea Trade Gunfire Across Tense Border - Donald Kirk in The Christian Science Monitor [link]

• North and South Korean troops exchanged gunfire Friday evening in a remote mountain region about 70 miles northeast of Seoul, South Korean defense officials reported.
• South Korea's joint chiefs of staff charged North Korean forces with "launching the first shots" at a South Korean guard post just below the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that has divided the Korean peninsula since the end of the Korean War in July 1953.
• A South Korean defense official said South Korean soldiers had fired three shots back across the DMZ "under the rules of engagement."
• There was "no damage from the North Korean shots," said the official in a statement to the South Korean media, and it was not even certain if North Korean soldiers were deliberately aiming at the guard post.
• He said the United Nations Command, a US-led organization that dates from the Korean War, in overall authority over South Korean troops as well as the 27,500 American troops still in Korea, would investigate "to determine whether North Korea had violated terms of the armistice."
• Tensions are always high in the isolated region, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Korean War. South Korean officials were concerned that North Korea might have chosen it as a likely place for a show of force after South Korea refused to engage in another round of inter-Korean military talks.