[Peakoil] further to Alex's posting on nuclear and Peak Oil

[Jenny Goldie]

This article is from today's Australian. By the way, did anyone go to the "hot rocks" lecture last week? How viable really is it as an alternative to coal? Aren't all the potential spots too far away from the grid?  Jenny
Iran threatens Gulf oil supplies
Correspondents in Tehran 
June 05, 2006
IRAN'S supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the US yesterday that his country would disrupt Gulf oil supplies if Washington made a "single mistake" over Iran.
Insisting that Tehran would never give up its "scientific goals" in the face of "threats and bribes", Ayatollah Khamenei said the US and its allies would not be able to provide security to all the oil shipments that cross the strategic Hormuz Strait - within close range of Iran - in the event of a disruption. 

"You threaten Iran," he said in a speech marking the 17th anniversary of the death of Iran's Islamic revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "You say you want to direct energy in the region. If you make a single mistake about Iran, the supply of energy will definitely be put in serious risk." 

The ayatollah's provocative remarks came as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana prepared to travel to Iran in the next few days to hand-deliver a carrot-and-sticks package that aims to convince Tehran to stop enriching uranium. 

The package, agreed last week by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, carries the threat of UN sanctions if Tehran remains defiant over its nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover for producing nuclear weapons. 

It includes an offer by the Bush administration to involve US officials in direct talks with Iran for the first time in 27 years, if it halts nuclear fuel production. 

In a day of mixed signals from Tehran, Iran's state-run television said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that a deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program was possible, if the International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - agreed to Tehran's right to atomic energy. 

Later, Mr Ahmadinejad said Tehran would not be "in haste to judge" the Western incentives package. 

"A breakthrough to overcome world problems, including Iran's nuclear case, would be the equal implementation of the law for all," Mr Ahmadinejad reportedly told Mr Annan during a telephone conversation. 

Speaking to thousands of people in the capital at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "We won't make any prejudgment about the proposal to be presented to us ... we won't be in haste to judge it. 

"We are after negotiations but fair and just negotiations. They must be without any conditions." 

Ayatollah Khamenei declared that Iran's scientific achievements were a "resource that our late imam had saved for us". 

"It represents our political independence and national self-confidence," he said. "We should not sell out this precious resource because of the enemies' threats and we should not be fooled by enemy bribes." 

Despite the deal on the incentives package, the ayatollah said there was no consensus against Iran and reiterated his country's denial that it was developing nuclear weapons. Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, also said it was open to a negotiated solution. 

"We think that if there is goodwill, a breakthrough to get out of a situation they (the EU and US) have created for themselves ... is possible," he said. 

"We are waiting to officially receive the proposals. We will make our views known after studying the package. We will also mention if any part of the package is not in Iran's interests." 

At an Asian security conference, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington was still hoping for a positive Iranian response to the new incentives package. 

"The information has just been communicated to them, and it seems to me the appropriate thing now to do is to wait and see which path the Iranian Government will take," Mr Rumsfeld said. 

The Vatican, meanwhile, insisted diplomacy was the way to resolve the crisis. 

The Holy See "is firmly convinced that even the present difficulties can and must be overcome through the diplomatic path, using all means which diplomacy can avail itself of," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement. 

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and insists that guarantees it the right to nuclear research for peaceful purposes. 
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