Key Countries to Meet At U.N. For Talks About Iran
By Colum Lynch
04/07/2010
Washington Post
Original Source: – HYPERLINK http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0302/Bluster-at-UN-Human-Rights-Council-as-US-and-Iran-trade-barbs http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040703873.html?hpid=moreheadlines

The United States, China and other key world powers will meet at the United Nations on Thursday for their first high-level talks on a Western-backed proposal to impose sanctions on Iran, according to U.N. Security Council diplomats.
The move toward sanctions came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly denounced http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Barack_Obama President Obama as an amateur who resorts to threats of force because he lacks a legal basis for compelling Iran to rein in its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad says the program is for peaceful purposes.
The agreement to hold the New York talks followed several months of resistance by China to the idea of a fourth round of U.N. sanctions to force Tehran to stop enriching uranium. The talks will begin just two days after the Obama administration released its new – HYPERLINK http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/2010NuclearPostureReviewReport.pdf Nuclear Posture Review, which allows the United States to launch a nuclear strike against countries such as Iran and North Korea that are in violation of nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
In response to the new U.S. policy, Ahmadinejad lashed out at Obama on Wednesday as an inexperienced and an amateur politician, according to the Reuters news service. He added: American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings, their hands go to their guns.
In New York, diplomats sought to play down expectations that Thursday discussion will produce a breakthrough. This is just the beginning of negotiations, said a diplomat whose government will participate in the talks. We don't expect to come out of the meeting with a communique.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner first announced plans for the start of talks among the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany in a parliamentary session Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Kouchner later issued a statement describing China's participation in the talks as positive.
Obama said last week that he expects sanctions to be adopted in the coming weeks. Japan's U.N. ambassador, Yukio Takasu, who is serving as the president of the Security Council for the month of April, said this week that he has not yet scheduled a meeting of the council. Washington's close allies France and Britain have indicated that talks could drag on until June.