Excerpts from previous status reports, by subject
Removed on September 1, 2006
Military exercises in the Persian Gulf
In recent weeks, Iran has also conducted military exercises in the Persian
Gulf and has tested its nuclear-capable, medium-range Shahab-3 missile—actions
which have done little to calm international concern over Iran’s peaceful
intentions. During war games code-named “The Great Prophet,” held
in the strategic Straits of Hormuz, Iran tested new weapons including the radar-evading,
multiple warhead Fajr-3 missile, a high-speed, ship-fired torpedo called the “Hoot,” a
surface-to-sea missile called the Kowsar, and a radar-evading ”super-modern
flying boat.”
Iran responds to the P5+1 offer
On August 22, 2006, Iran responded to the West’s incentives package
by announcing that it was ready to engage in “serious talks” over
its nuclear program. However, Iran did not agree to stop enriching uranium—a
process that could produce a nuclear bomb—as a precondition for such
talks. Its refusal defies a U.N. Security Council requirement and brings
the Council one step closer to sanctioning Iran.
Western officials greeted Iran’s 21-page counter-proposal as a rejection of the incentives package, but Russia and China, have remained outspoken opponents of sanctioning Iran. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman commented that it was important to “understand the nuances” of Iran’s response, and to “seek out the constructive elements.” Russia and China also succeeded in restricting the July 31 resolution, written under Article 40 of the U.N. Charter’s Chapter VII, to give Iran yet another chance to submit to international demands before stronger U.N. action is taken. This last chance was supposed to have expired with the August 31 deadline.
Iran still had until the August 31 U.N. Security Council deadline to reverse
course, though such an about face always appeared unlikely. By this date, Iran
was supposed to have frozen uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing,
ended a heavy water reactor project, and increased cooperation with the International
Atomic Energy Agency.