White House warns Iran about nuclear deadline

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The White House today cautioned Iran to take seriously next week’s deadline in regard to its nuclear program.

The United States and its allies have given Iran until the end of the year to accept an agreement to exchange enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. Earlier today, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the deadline.

“We are at the point,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this morning, “where we are waiting, and have been waiting for months, to see whether Iran will live up to its responsibility.

“Mr Ahmadinejad may not recognize, for whatever reason, the deadline that looms,’ Gibbs said, ‘but that is a very real deadline for the international community. I think all of those involved ... would encourage Iran to take that deadline as seriously as it is being taken by us.”

The United States and some members of the U.N. Security Council had offered the uranium swap as a way of ensuring that Iran did not enrich material to create a nuclear weapon. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful uses.

But the United States and others are doubtful of that, and further action to force Iran to give up its nuclear program is possible.

“We’ve begun to take those steps, if Iran is unwilling to pursue its responsibilities,” Gibbs said. He said discussions had been taking place.

One of those next steps could be increased sanctions, though it remains unclear whether China would support such a move.

Tehran shows no sign of changing its position, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Monday in his annual assessment of the nation’s risks and priorities.

“My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results,” Mullen wrote. “However, should the president call for military options, we must have them ready.”

On Monday, Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said the clock was ticking.

“We’ve wasted a year,” McCain said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Sanctions have to be tried before we explore the last option. The worst option is a military action.”

-- Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal