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ByGeorgeJahn The Associated Press VIENNA Iran and the United States have tenta- tively agreed on a formula that Washington hopes will reduce Tehran's abil- ity to make nuclear arms by committing it to ship to Russia much of the mate- rial needed for such weap- ons, diplomats say. In another sign of prog- ress, the two diplomats told The Associated Press that negotiators at the Decem- ber round of nuclear talks drew up for the first time a catalog outlining areas of potential accord and differ- ing approaches to remain- ing disputes. The diplomats said differ- ences still dominate ahead of the next round of Iran- six power talks on Jan. 15 in Geneva. But they suggested that even agreement to cre- ate a to-do list would have been difficult previously be- cause of wide gaps between the sides. Iran denies it wants nu- clear arms, but it is nego- tiating with the U.S., Rus- sia, China, Britain, France and Germany on cuts to its atomic program in hope of ending crippling sanc- tions. The talks have been extended twice due to stub- born disagreements. The main conflict is over uranium enrichment, which can create both reac- tor fuel and the fissile core of nuclear arms. In seeking to reduce Iran's bomb-mak- ing ability, the U.S. has pro- posed that Tehran export much of its stockpile of en- riched uranium — some- thing the Islamic Repub- lic has long said it would not do. The diplomats said both sides in the talks are still arguing about how much of an enriched uranium stockpile to leave Iran. It now has enough for sev- eral bombs, and Washing- ton wants substantial cuts below that level. But the diplomats said the newly created catalog lists shipping out much of the material as tenta- tively agreed upon. The diplomats, who are famil- iar with the talks, spoke to the AP recently and de- manded anonymity be- cause they are not autho- rized to comment on the closed negotiations. Issues that still need agreement, they said, in- clude the size of Iran's fu- ture enrichment output. The U.S. insists that it be cut in half, leaving Tehran with about 4,500 present day centrifuges used to enrich uranium, or less if it replaces them with ad- vanced models. Tehran is ready for a reduction of only around 20 percent, or approximately 8,000 of the machines, according to the diplomats. Two other unresolved is- sues are Iran's Fordo under- ground enrichment site and the nearly built Arak nu- clear reactor. The U.S. and its five allies in the talks want to repurpose Fordo to a non-enrichment func- tion because it is believed impervious to a military attack from the air. The six also seek to re-engineer Arak from a model that pro- duces enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons a year to a less proliferation- prone model. Negotiators hope to reach a rough deal by March and a final agreement by June 30. URANIUM ENRICHMENT Iran,6powersmoveclosertowardnucleartalksaccord By Josh Lederman The Associated Press HONOLULU Opening a new front in its cyber spat with North Korea, the United States slapped new sanc- tions Friday on government officials and the North's de- fense industry in its first public act of retribution for a cyberattack against Sony. Despite lingering doubts by the cyber community, the U.S. insisted that North Ko- rea was to blame. The White House warned that this was just the open- ing salvo in the U.S. re- sponse. While the fresh sanc- tions will have limited ef- fect - North Korea already is under tough U.S. sanc- tions over its nuclear pro- gram - American officials portrayed the move as a swift and decisive response to North Korean behavior they said had gone far over the line. Never before has the U.S. imposed sanctions on another nation in direct retaliation for a cyberattack on an American company. "The order is not tar- geted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others," President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to House and Senate leaders. With this round of sanc- tions, the U.S. also put North Korea on notice that payback need not be limited to those who perpetrated the attack. The 10 North Koreans singled out for sanctions didn't necessarily have any- thing to do with the attack on Sony, senior U.S. officials said. Anyone who works for or helps North Korea's gov- ernment is now fair game, said the officials - especially North Korea's defense sec- tor and spying operations. The sanctions also ap- ply to three organizations closely tied to North Ko- rea's government: the coun- try's primary intelligence agency, a state-owned arms dealer that exports mis- sile and weapons technol- ogy, and the Korea Tan- gun Trading Corp., which supports defense research. All three of those entities were already subject to U.S. sanctions, so Friday's move against those groups ap- peared primarily symbolic. Obama has also warned Pyongyang that the U.S. is considering whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terror- ism, which could jeopar- dize aid to North Korea on a global scale. Beyond that, it's unclear what additional penalties the U.S. has in its arsenal. North Korea has denied involvement in the cyberat- tack, which led to the dis- closure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, then es- calated to threats of terror- ist attacks against movie theaters. Many cybersecu- rity experts have said it's en- tirely possible that hackers or even Sony insiders could be the culprits, not North Korea, and questioned how the FBI can point the finger so conclusively. Senior U.S. officials, who briefed reporters on con- dition of anonymity, dis- missed those arguments and said independent ex- perts don't have access to the same classified infor- mation as the FBI. "We stand firmly behind our call that the DPRK was behind the attacks on Sony," one official said, using an acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Repub- lic of Korea. Those sanctioned in- clude North Koreans rep- resenting the country's in- terests in Iran, Russia and Syria. Any assets they have in the U.S. will be frozen, and they'll be barred from using the U.S. financial sys- tem. Americans will be pro- hibited from doing business with them, the Treasury Department said. At the United Nations, no one answered the phone at North Korea's U.N. Mis- sion, and calls to a diplomat there were not answered. Sony, too, declined to com- ment. While denying any role in a cyberattack, North Korea has expressed fury over the Sony comedy flick "The Interview," which de- picts the fictional assassina- tion of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony initially called off the film's release after movie theaters de- cided not to show the film. After President Barack Obama criticized that de- cision, Sony decided to re- lease the film in limited the- aters and online. The White House called the sanctions "the first as- pect of our response" to the Sony attack - a declara- tion that raised fresh ques- tions about who was behind a nearly 10-hour shutdown of North Korean websites last week. The shutdown prompted a blunt response from North Korea's power- ful National Defense Com- mission, which blamed the U.S. and hurled racial slurs at Obama, calling him a reckless "monkey in a trop- ical forest." Despite widespread spec- ulation, the U.S. never said whether it was responsible for shutting down North Korea's Internet. But North Korea had a blunt response. Its powerful National De- fense Commission blamed the outage directly on the U.S. and hurled racial slurs at Obama, calling him a reckless "monkey in a trop- ical forest." SONY HACK US sanctions North Korea over cyberattack WONGMAYE-E—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE North Koreans gather at the Mansu Hill where the statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung, and Kim Jong Il tower over them, in Pyongyang, North Korea. RONALD ZAK-FILE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, are shown prior to a meeting of the closed-door nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria. By Peter Enav and Mohammed Daraghmeh The Associated Press JERUSALEM Jewish set- tlers attacked American consular officials Friday during a visit the officials made to the West Bank as part of an investigation into claims of damage to Pales- tinian agricultural prop- erty, Israeli police and Pal- estinian witnesses say. The incident is likely to further chill relations be- tween Israel and the United States, already tense over American criticisms of Is- raeli settlement construc- tion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Israeli perceptions that President Barack Obama is only luke- warm in his support of Is- raeli diplomatic and secu- rity policies. Settlers have often spoken againstwhattheycallforeign interference in their affairs, but this is the first known physical attack against dip- lomatic personnel. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that a small number of settlers threw rocks at officials who had come to an area near the Jewish settlement outpost of Adi Ad in two consular vehicles to look into Pales- tinian claims that settlers uprooted scores of Pales- tinian olive trees the day before. He said that after the rock barrage began, the ve- hicles left the area, adding that police had opened an inquiry following the filing of an official complaint. Another police official, spokeswoman Luba Samri, said that the American se- curity personnel did not use their weapons during the attack. Awad Abu Samra, who owns the land in the vil- lage of Tormousyya where the damage to the olive trees allegedly took place, said he accompanied the officials with two relatives. He described the officials as security personnel who had arrived in the village in advance of a larger party from the American consul- ate in Jerusalem, which was scheduled to arrive in the village later that afternoon. "There were six secu- rity guards from the con- sulate riding in two cars," Abu Samra said. "When they got out of the cars they were attacked by young set- tlers from the outpost who were carrying clubs and axes. They struck the cars with clubs but the security guards did not respond with their weapons." MIDDLE EAST Israelis say settlers attacked US officials in West Bank SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B