Austria

Iran threatens retreat on nuclear inspections

Iran’s chief delegate to the U.N. atomic agency warned the United States ahead of a meeting today that nuclear tensions could be aggravated if they put too much pressure on Tehran to open its programs to inspectors.

Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran still was open to negotiating the inspection issue with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but indicated the offer could be withdrawn if the IAEA board meeting “disrupted the whole process.”

The meeting likely will urge Iran to make its nuclear program accessible by agreeing to allow tougher IAEA inspections without notice.

The meeting in Austria also will ask Tehran to explain agency findings that the Americans and others say point to the existence of a covert nuclear weapons program.

Liberia

Troops withdrawn for new peackeepers

Liberian authorities will pull government forces from a main road connecting the newly calm capital with the volatile interior, making way for African peacekeepers to enter the countryside, the defense minister said Sunday.

A peacekeeper deployment planned for Saturday was postponed after Defense Minister Daniel Chea said he needed to remove his forces first.

Chea said Sunday he’d given orders for the removal of more than 3,000 fighters from the road, and that a contingent of about 600 Guinea Bissau peace troops would move in today.

The area saw 50,000 Liberians fleeing what they believed was fighting between rebels and government troops last week.

India

U.S. commandos train in Himalayan region

Indian and U.S. commandos are training together in the rugged Himalayan mountain region near India’s borders with China and Pakistan, a U.S. Embassy official said Sunday.

The three-week exercises in the Ladakh region of Jammu-Kashmir state will conclude later this month, the officer said on condition of anonymity. The official declined to give further details.

Ties between the U.S. and Indian militaries have improved since the lifting of sanctions placed on India after it tested nuclear bombs in 1998. The sanctions were lifted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The two countries have had three joint military exercises in India in the past year. Indian soldiers and airmen also participated in training exercises with U.S. forces in Alaska last October.