Obama toughens stance on Iran

Charles Hutzler

• Last Updated: November 19. 2009 10:25PM UAE / November 19. 2009 6:25PM GMT

Barack Obama (L) greets US troops during a rally at Osan Air Base, south of Seoul. AFP

SEOUL // The US president Barack Obama said yesterday that the US and its allies were discussing possible new penalties to bring fresh pressure on Iran for defying international attempts to halt its contested nuclear programme.

Mr Obama’s warning came after Iran rejected a compromise proposal to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad so that it could not be further enriched to make weapons.

Talk of new sanctions also demonstrated that Mr Obama was preparing for the next phase, should Iran fail to meet his end-of-the-year deadline for progress in negotiations.

“They have been unable to get to ‘yes’, and so as a consequence, we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences,” Mr Obama said at a news conference with the South Korean president Lee Myung-bak.

The tough talking came as Mr Obama completed an eight-day, four-nation tour of Asia in which global issues such as nuclear disarmament, climate change, and economic recovery dominated, and goodwill abounded.

However, there were also few new agreements on pending issues.

South Korea, Mr Obama’s final stop, was a case in point. Mr Obama and Mr Lee showed unity on disarming nuclear-armed North Korea, and discussed differences over concluding a free-trade agreement, which has been stalled by the US Congress.

Mr Obama announced that Stephen Bosworth, his special envoy to North Korea, would make his first trip to Pyongyang on December 8 to test the waters for resuming nuclear disarmament talks.

Mr Lee said the US president had endorsed his “grand bargain” for North Korea: a package of economic assistance and investment in exchange for full nuclear disarmament in a single step, rather than the piecemeal approaches that have twice failed over the past two decades.

“I think President Lee is exactly right and my administration is taking the same approach,” Mr Obama said.

The White House said the trip was largely about showing US re-engagement with a region in which fast-growing economies were reshaping global politics after having felt neglected during the Bush administration and its focus on fighting terrorism.

To that end, Mr Obama spoke often of reinvigorating alliances with Japan, his first stop; South Korea; and in south east Asia, welcoming a prosperous, confident China as a partner.

“We didn’t come halfway across the world for ticker-tape parades,” Mr Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod told reporters yesterday. “We came here to lay a foundation for progress. We’ve done that.”

Mr Obama vested political capital into salvaging next month’s climate change conference in Copenhagen. He urged leaders of Asia Pacific nations to rally around a political agreement that would contain emissions reduction goals for countries to meet, one which would fall short of a full treaty on global warming.

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases ahead of the US, has also signed up to the idea.

Mr Obama addressed cheering US troops stationed at Osan Air Base outside Seoul yesterday before his return flight to Washington, and gave his assessment of the trip: a renewed US-Japan alliance, commitments to work on freer trade with Asia Pacific nations to aid the global economic recovery and a more positive partnership with China “because co-operation between the United States and China will mean a safer, more prosperous world for all of us”.

Asked how the trip went, Mr Obama said: “We got a lot of work done.”

He then boarded the plane back to the US, where he faces continual lobbying to pass a healthcare bill and more deliberations on how many more troops to send to Afghanistan.

South Korea gave Obama one of the warmest welcomes accorded to a foreign leader. Crowds lined the motorcade route and some shouted “Obama”.

After the news conference, Mr Obama and Mr Lee hugged, an unusual gesture in a region noted for its formality.

The only sour note was on the pending free trade agreement, which has been frozen because US lawmakers have expressed concern that it could hurt the ailing American car industry.

Mr Obama said he was committed to completing a deal and that teams from both countries were trying to resolve the stalemate. Mr Lee said the pact was not only economic but strategic, suggesting an agreement would further cement the US-South Korean alliance. He urged for political will to complete it.

* Associated Press