| Obama's Foreign Policy Faces Challenges Abroad |
| Sep-11-2012 |
| Keywords: iran nuclear, un,intelligence, israel, meeting, white house, egypt, protesters, us embassy, cairo |
On a day set aside to remember the heroics of the men and women who lost their lives during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Obama's foreign policy faced a series of challenges abroad.
The U.N. atomic agency now has in its possession new intelligence that Iran has secretly moved further along in its efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
Diplomats told the Associated press that the intelligence, gathered from multiple sources over the past month, shows that Iran has advanced its work on calculating the destructive power of an atomic warhead sometime during the past three years.
Sources say that the information comes from Israel, the United States and at least two other Western countries.
The time-frame is significant because Iran has blunted IAEA efforts to investigate such claims for more than five years.
If the intelligence is accurate, it also runs counter to the stated U.S. position that Iran shut down wide-ranging secret research and development of its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Any new evidence of Iranian research into nuclear weapons is likely to strengthen the hand of hawks in Israel who are advocating a military strike on Iran. They argue that Tehran is deliberately stalemating international efforts at engagement while continuing its clandestine weapons work.
Just today, the White House has brushed off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request to meet with President Obama later this month. Israeli officials told Fox News the snub came despite a state of heightened alert over Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of Israeli action.
And hundreds of ultraconservative Islamic protesters marched to the U.S. embassy in downtown Cairo Tuesday, gathering outside its walls and chanting against a video attacking Islam's prophet, Muhammad, reportedly produced in the United States.
Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, went into the courtyard and took down the flag from a pole. They brought it back to the crowd outside, which tried to burn it, but failing that, tore it apart.
The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with the Muslim declaration of faith on it, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet."
The flag, similar to the banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultraconservatives in the region. Almost all the embassy staff had left the compound before the protest, including the ambassador who was out of town. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 1:00 PM Email to a friend |
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