Iran Politics Club Forum

[Liberator]

Diplomats: Iran Trying to Hide Nuclear Facilities
By Roger Wilkison
Brussels
04 March 2005

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?l288674675




Feb. 12 satellite image showing tunnel entrances north of Iranian nuclear facility



Western diplomats close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, say Iran has started to build deep tunnels to store nuclear material at a site where it is known to have carried out uranium enrichment activities. The disclosure comes as the United States is considering whether to back an approach by three European countries aimed at getting Iran to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program by offering commercial incentives to the Islamic Republic.

The diplomats, all of whom asked not to be identified, say there are many unresolved questions about Iran's nuclear program.

First among those questions is why Iran is building tunnels as much as one kilometer deep at its main uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan and why did it not inform the IAEA about such activity.

One diplomat says he thinks the reason for the tunneling is to hide and protect nuclear components that have been stored there.

Another diplomat says he suspects the tunnels and the use of reinforced construction materials at the site are meant to make the facility resistant to attack by Israel or the United States, which have accused Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying it wants to use nuclear energy to generate electricity.

But the diplomats have other concerns. They say satellite images indicate that Iran has begun construction work on a research reactor at Arak, southwest of Teheran, which one diplomat says could be used to produce bomb-grade plutonium.

A third concern, according to this diplomat, is that Iran insists on testing parts for centrifuges, which enrich uranium. Iran has agreed to temporarily freeze all enrichment activity while it negotiates with Britain, France and Germany on a package of concessions, including support for its membership in the World Trade Organization, WTO, and the sale of commercial aircraft and aircraft spare parts.

The Bush administration, which until now has taken a tough position toward Iran, is studying whether to endorse the European position with the idea that if the negotiations fail, the blame would most likely fall on Iran, which has steadfastly refused to make its freeze on enrichment permanent. Diplomats say that, if by June there is no progress, the Europeans have indicated that they are prepared to join the United States in referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

On Friday, Iran signaled that membership in the World Trade Organization is not enough of an incentive to get it to end its enrichment program. Iranian Trade Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari is quoted by an Iranian news agency as saying that joining the WTO would only benefit the United States and the European Union by giving them freer access to the Iranian market.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Issues Atomic Fuel Threat

March 05, 2005
Reuters
Yahoo! News

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=05&a=2



TEHRAN -- Iran says it will return to making nuclear fuel and that the Middle East will become even more unstable if the Islamic Republic is sent to the U.N. Security Council over its atomic programme.

U.S. officials said on Friday they were still looking to haul Iran before the council for possible sanctions, but have not yet been assured of EU backing for this move should European attempts to broker an atomic deal fail.

Washington argues that Tehran is making fuel for atomic warheads. Iran insists it intends to use enriched uranium only in power stations.

"If the Americans succeed in referring Iran's case to the Security Council, Iran will immediately suspend all its voluntary confidence-building measures," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told a conference on Saturday.

Iran agreed last year to suspend making nuclear fuel for a few months while it held talks with Britain, France and Germany. The EU states are encouraging Iran to drop its fuel programme in return for economic incentives.

"Parliamentarians may even come up with a harder decision," Rohani added.

Many conservative parliamentarians have called for Iran to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In the shorter term they have threatened that Iran will not ratify the Additional Protocol to the NPT, which permits snap U.N. inspections of nuclear sites.

REGIONAL INSTABILITY

"The security and stability of the region would become a problem," said the mid-ranking cleric who is secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

"This would be a particular problem for the United States because it has a lot of troops and equipment in region and is in fact our imposed neighbour."

Iran often complains that it feels besieged by the United States, which has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and has conducted military exercises in the Caspian Sea.

But Rohani still held out hope that talks with Europeans could pay dividends, saying Iran had given the Europeans "an objective guarantee" that it was not seeking arms.

"The ball is in the Europeans' court right now," he said, adding Iran would make the terms of its guarantee public if the European rejected it.

He said any European position asking for an end to the fuel cycle -- enriching uranium to make nuclear fuel -- as an objective guarantee, was unacceptable.

"My feeling is that Berlin and Paris have accepted the middle of the road approach," he continued.

Iran-EU talks continue in Geneva next week.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

THE MULLAHS HATCH A PLAN

Does Iran Have a Secret Nukes Agenda?

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...45370%2C00.html



A recent defector from Iran says the country's ruling mullahs have a secret plan to build one nuclear bomb a year under the nose of the UN and the world. Are the revelations helping to bring Europe and the United States closer in their efforts to stop Tehran from acquiring the bomb?

Tehran's mullahs may be stating publicly that they have no nuclear ambitions, but privately, behind closed doors, they're singing a very different tune.

An Iranian diplomat, who recently defected from Iran and is now holing up in an undisclosed Western country, alleges that the mullahs have secret plans to use the Bushehr nuclear power plant to develop nuclear weapons. The diplomat has cited intelligence reports as the source of his allegations about the Bushehr plant, which is being built with help from the Russians and is scheduled to go online later this year.

According to the turncoat diplomat, revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini personally created a special working group whose main responsibility is to find ways to deceive United Nations controllers from the International Atomic Energy Agency so that nuclear material can be secretly diverted from the reactor, which is being constructed for civilian energy production.

With the plutonium garnered from the plant, the Iranians intend to use new techniques to produce at least one bomb per year.

The intelligence reports document two plans -- the first coming straight out of a bad Hollywood script for a Cold War spy flick. Currently, Iran has a deal on the books to get its nuclear fuel rods from Russia. Once they have been used to produce energy, the spent fuel rods must be returned to Russia in order to prevent their diversion for the creation of enriched uranium that can be used to produce nuclear weapons. When that transport happens, the plant will have to temporarily shut down. When it does, the mullahs want to stage a power outage that would cause the IAEA surveillance cameras installed in the facility to temporarily go black. This would allow scientists to secretly smuggle out unenriched natural uranium -- that could be processed into weapons-grade uranium at another facility.

If that fails, there's always plan B, which is to break completely from the IAEA and for the mullahs to thumb their noses at the international community and just openly transform Bushehr from a civil plant to one used to produce arms-grade plutonium. Indeed, the Iranians are also believed to have obtained the sophisticated software -- the so-called MCNP Monte Carlo N-Particle code -- needed to make the conversion.

Officially, Iranian leaders say they have no interest in producing a nuclear bomb. Doubts about the veracity of such claims have been growing within the IAEA in recent weeks. The mullahs just handed over a paper this week that provides evidence of their negotiations with Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for black market nuclear equipment deliveries in 1987. But the mullahs have been anything but forthcoming -- they first came forward with this information after the IAEA confronted them with details of the meeting. And they're also refusing to allow UN inspectors to conduct a second inspection of a military-industrial complex at Parchin, which the US government, supported by satellite images and reports from defectors, suspects is part of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.

But the revelations have also brought with them a ray of hope: Washington has indicated it now wants to support the difficult negotiations between the European Union troika of France, Germany and Britain and Tehran with small concessions. Last Thursday, US President George W. Bush discussed with his advisors the possibility of dropping US opposition to Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization -- if Tehran pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons program and agreed to regular inspections.

Of course, Washington's new harmonious chords come at a price: In exchange for US support for the carrots the EU is offering Tehran, Europe would have to be prepared to turn the Iranian nuclear conflict over to the United Nations Security Council if it is unable to negotiate a solution with the mullahs.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Pakistan admission of centrifuges to Iran proves Tehran 'lies': opposition Thu. 10 Mar 2005
AFP

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/arti...hp?storyid=1670



VIENNA - An Iranian opposition group said Thursday Pakistan's admission its disgraced nuclear hero Abdul Qadeer Khan had sold centrifuges to Iran proved the Iranian regime lied about its nuclear intentions.

"Todays acknowledgement by the government of Pakistan once again reveals the clerical regimes pattern of lies and deception to the world community and as the Iranian resistance had reiterated earlier, leaves no doubt that the mullahs are in pursuit of nuclear weapons," the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement.

"The National Council of Resistance of Iran had revealed the transfer of nuclear technology and equipment by Dr Khan to the mullahs regime for the first time in November 2004," the NCRI added in its comments received in Vienna, the seat of the International Atomic Energy Agency the IAEA.

The NCRI joined a call by the United States to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, saying such a measure should take place "immediately."

"Any delay would only help the Iranian regime further down the road to acquire the A-bomb," the organization said.

Pakistan on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that Khan, under house arrest in Islambabad, had dispatched centrifuges to the Tehran government, though without official Pakistani knowledge.

Iran's nuclear activity has been under intense international scrutiny, with Tehran insisting it is developing it for peaceful purposes, while notably the United States charges Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Walk Out Over Nuclear Admission

March 11, 2005
BBC News
BBCi

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=11&a=7



Opposition groups in Pakistan have walked out of parliament in protest over a minister's admission that Iran was given Pakistani centrifuges. Islamists parliamentarians, as well as moderates, described the minister's admission as "irresponsible".

It is the first time Pakistani officials have publicised details of what nuclear materials were passed on to Iran by disgraced scientist Dr Khan.

Iran is under international pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

Pakistan information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Thursday that Dr AQ Khan had passed "a few" centrifuges on to Iran.

Sheikh Rashid reiterated the government's position that Dr Khan gave Iran the centrifuges in his individual capacity and the transaction had nothing to do with the government.

'Irresponsible behaviour'

Opposition law makers called on Friday for a debate on the minister's remarks, warning that "such irresponsible behaviour" could threaten national security.

Hardline Islamist leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the minister's statement had put the entire nation on the defensive.

The debate was not allowed by the National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain who said he could not allow such a debate on a point of order.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Rejects U.S. Incentives, To Continue Nuclear Program

March 12, 2005
The Associated Press
The Wall Street Journal

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...&m=03&d=12&a=10



TEHRAN -- Neither threats nor incentives will alter Iran 's pursuit of its nuclear program, the Iranian foreign ministry said Saturday, defying new moves by the E.U. and the U.S. to ensure Tehran never develops a nuclear bomb.

In a show of bluster and defiance, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi rejected overtures from the West, saying Iran would not be influenced by external pressure. Iran maintains its nuclear program is solely for the peaceful pursuit of nuclear energy.

"Iran is determined to use peaceful nuclear technology and no pressure, incentive or threat can force Iran to give up its rights," state-run radio quoted Mr. Asefi as saying.

Washington recently agreed to drop its opposition to Iran 's membership of the World Trade Organization and allow some sale of spare parts for civilian aircraft. The move was in support of a European plan to offer Tehran economic incentives to give up any nuclear weapons ambitions.

The shift came about in recent weeks, as Mr. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received personal assurances that the European countries negotiating with Tehran over its nuclear program are firmly committed to stopping any weapons program there, senior administration officials said Friday.

But Mr. Asefi rejected Washington's move, saying that "lifting some restrictions against Iran will not stop Iran from pursuing its rights."

Washington has accused Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build a nuclear bomb. On Friday, Ms. Rice signaled Iran must move quickly or face the threat of harsh U.N. Security Council sanctions. The administration also privately expressed skepticism that Iran would live up to the bargain.

Until now, the administration has insisted Iran deserves no reward for simply abiding by an international arms compact that forbids nuclear weapons development. The U.S. suspects Iran is using a legitimate program to develop nuclear power plants as cover for illegal weapons development.

Iran suspended its uranium enrichment activities last year to create confidence in its negotiations and avoid Security Council referral. But Tehran says maintaining the voluntary freeze depends on progress in ongoing talks with Britain, Germany and France, who are negotiating on behalf of the European Union.

The E.U. wants to get an Iranian commitment to scrap enrichment plans in exchange for economic aid, technical support and backing for Tehran's efforts to join mainstream international organizations.

The European countries wanted U.S. support on the theory that a united front was most likely to persuade Iran to comply. So long as the U.S. remained apart, Iran would delay meaningful steps to end its nuclear program, the Europeans argued. They also argued that the U.S. risked looking like the odd man out if the Europeans did win a nonproliferation deal. The Europeans urged the U.S. to join the talks, but the Bush administration wanted to remain at arm's length from Iran .

Iran and the U.S. haven't had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian militants occupied the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held its staff hostage.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Demands More US Concessions

March 13, 2005
BBC News
BBCi

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=13&a=5



Iran has urged the US to offer it further incentives to resolve the dispute over its nuclear programme. The US should unblock frozen Iranian assets, lift sanctions and stop "hostile measures", a senior Iranian negotiator told BBC News.

President George W Bush announced a major change in US policy on Friday.

He said the US would back European talks to resolve the stand-off and, unlike before, was prepared to extend economic incentives to Tehran.

These included the lifting of a decade-long block on Iran's membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and objections to Tehran obtaining parts for commercial planes.

But Iran rejected the offer as "insignificant" and vowed to exercise its "legitimate right" to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Washington accuses Iran of using its nuclear enrichment programme as a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but has suspended uranium enrichment after negotiations with France, Germany and the UK.

The US and European Union want that move made permanent, and have threatened to seek United Nations sanctions if Iran does not comply.

More confidence-building measures

Hossein Mousavian, the secretary of the foreign relations committee of the Supreme National Security Council, told the BBC the US offer to allow Iranian membership of the WTO and sales of aircraft spare parts did not amount to real concessions.

Mr Mousavian said, however, that Iran would embrace with open arms confidence-building measures and objective guarantees to prove that it was not seeking weapons of mass destruction.

But he added that Iran remained determined to produce at least part of its nuclear fuel for power plants and he said if that was accepted, then the debate over economic and security concessions could become serious.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran's 'No'

March 14, 2005
The Wall Street Journal
Review & Outlook

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=14&a=7




Last week brought the announcement of an agreement between Europe and the U.S. on a package of carrots -- including aircraft parts and the prospect of World Trade Organization membership -- aimed at coaxing Iran to give up its nuclear program through further diplomacy. If nothing else, this tactical U.S. retreat ought to put to rest caricatures of the Bush Administration as cowboy unilateralists bent on war with the mullahs.

And we mean "if nothing else." Because the agreement also encourages the world's No. 1 terror sponsors in their belief that civilized nations will ultimately flinch from confronting them over the nuclear issue. Tehran quickly dismissed the offer as "insignificant" and, with the vocal support of visiting Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, again proclaimed Iran's right to all phases of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The belief that there's a diplomatic solution to be had here is increasingly the triumph of hope over experience. Iran lied about its nuclear work to the International Atomic Energy Agency for two decades, and again and repeatedly when confronted and offered a chance to come clean. Just last week Pakistan confirmed that A-bomb salesman A.Q. Khan had indeed sold Iran uranium enrichment centrifuges, almost certainly as part of what has become known as "the package." No one doubts Iran has a bomb program.

Also a triumph of hope over experience is the belief at the State Department that the Europeans can be trusted to get tough if need be. We're told that President Bush has obtained personal commitments from Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin that Iran is not to be allowed to get the bomb. The Administration can also claim credit for winning the Europeans over to a "no-enrichment" position that requires Iran to give up its entire uranian-enrichment program and to refer the country to the Security Council if it refuses. Then again the mullahs know that France also promised to support tough action at the U.N. in response to a faltering disarmament/inspections program in Iraq.

Iran has already violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty without being referred to the Security Council and has consistently refused to renounce its alleged "right" to uranium enrichment, a position it reiterated in response to last week's offer. We hope by some miracle this latest diplomacy works. But soon enough the more relevant question is likely to be: When will Western leaders take Iran's "no" for an answer?
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Says May Set Deadline for Nuclear Talks Mon. 14 Mar 2005
Reuters

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/arti...hp?storyid=1693



TEHRAN - Iran, complaining of the slow pace of negotiations with the European Union over its nuclear program, said on Monday it may soon present the EU with a take-it-or-leave-it proposal to finalize the talks.

Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at peaceful power generation, but the EU and United States fear the country may be seeking to develop atomic weapons.

The EU says Iran has a right to use nuclear power, but wants it to scrap plans to produce its own reactor fuel -- a process which would also give it the capability to make bomb-grade material.

Sirus Naseri, one of Iran's main negotiators with the EU, told state television that Tehran did not want a confrontation.

"But if they don't respond to what we believe is a logical stance, then they can choose their own path and we are prepared to deal with its consequences," he said.

"It's not like we have no time limits. It might not be long before we put on the table our final proposal and give them a deadline to either accept or reject it," Naseri added.

"We are not far away from this stage."

Naseri recognized that such a strategy meant the two sides "might be moving toward an agreement or toward a confrontation."

Iran has frozen sensitive nuclear fuel work like uranium enrichment while its talks with the EU continue.

But it has rejected as insignificant a joint U.S.-EU offer to allow it to start entry talks to the World Trade Organization and purchase previously embargoed civilian aircraft spare parts in return for giving up its nuclear fuel work for good.

Both Washington and the EU have warned Iran its case will be sent to the U.N. Security Council, which may impose economic sanctions, if it fails to allay the West's concerns.

Iran says it can provide "objective guarantees" that it will not use its nuclear technology to build bombs.

These guarantees are thought to include intrusive U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities which would verify that uranium is not enriched to bomb-grade levels.

Technical talks between the EU and Iran are due to resume this week in Geneva ahead of a crucial meeting in Paris on March 22 or 23 to decide whether the negotiations will continue.

"What is clear to me is that we are walking on a knife's edge," Naseri said. "There is no guarantee that we will reach an agreement."

"What I can say for sure is that during the negotiations, and step-by-step we have witnessed more readiness for flexibility from the Europeans. However, this does not mean they have the ability to reach an agreement with us," he added.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iranian minister says Bush, Rice should be tried in international court Sun. 13 Mar 2005
AFP

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/arti...hp?storyid=1688


TEHRAN - Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi said Sunday that US President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should be put on trial in an international court for "crimes against the people".

"Rice is a terrorist and a number of crimes were committed in Palestine and in Iraq with her support. Rice, Bush and their companions should be hauled before an international tribunal for their crimes against the people," he told the student news agency ISNA.

Rice, he said, was a "queen of violence and war".

On Friday Washington announced it would help the European Union put together incentives for Iran -- aimed at securing a halt in its sensitive nuclear activities -- by dropping objections to Iran joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and allowing it access to spare parts for its civilian aircraft.

But Yunessi said "the United States should apologise to Iran for having insulted it" with such an offer.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

Iran Has Told EU it Will Not Give Up Enrichment

March 16, 2005
Agence France-Presse
AFP

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=17&a=3



TEHRAN -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, said the Islamic Republic's nuclear negotiators have definitively and officially told Europeans that Iran will never accept a permanent halt to its enrichment programme.

"Iran's negotiating team has openly told Europeans Iran will not accept a permanent suspension of uranium enrichment and this is Iran's definitive and official position." Rowhani said Wednesday to the members of Experts' Assembly of clerics who appoint the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.

He asked Europeans not to be influenced by political pressures from the United States and "not to disrupt the confidence-building process between two sides", state television reported.

The two sides are to convene on March 23 for a high-level steering committee meeting, and Tehran hopes to see an agreement on "a formula that recognizes the right of Iran to continue enrichment and lifts the concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme", Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kahrazi told a press conference on Tuesday.

"In exchange, the Europeans have to give firm guarantees that open the path towards greater cooperation in the fields of politics and investment," Kharazi said.

Britain, France and Germany have been trying to secure "objective guarantees" that Iran will not use its atomic energy programme to acquire nuclear weapons, and in exchange they are offering a package of trade, security and technology benefits to the Islamic republic.

The best assurance for the European Union is that Iran permanently gives up uranium enrichment, which makes what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also the explosive core of atomic bombs.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Atomic Clock Ticks Down to Fallout with Iran

March 18, 2005
The Guardian
Simon Tisdall

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=18&a=3



Iran and the western powers are on a collision course as the clock ticks towards crucial talks in Paris next week about Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iranian diplomats insist that their country's development of nuclear technology is for peaceful, civilian purposes only. They say Iran is merely exercising its right, under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to enrich uranium for reactor fuel.

But the EU "troika", comprising Britain, France and Germany, and the Bush administration do not believe them. Brandishing evidence of past concealment gathered by UN inspectors, they suspect that Iran is seeking weapons-grade uranium to build atomic bombs.

The talks are highly technical in nature. Yet the basic problem underlying complex disputes about yellowcake and centrifuges is more easily understood. It boils down to an abiding, mutual lack of trust. Unless somebody gives ground soon, the Paris talks between the EU and Iran could mark a parting of the ways.

"The US is using the nuclear issue as a pretext for regime change," a senior Iranian official said this week. "The issue is a diversion. The US wants to weaken Iran. Even if the nuclear issue was solved, they would want another thing and another thing."

Iran had agreed a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure, not a complete cessation, the official said. And the suspension would not necessarily last much longer.

President Mohammad Khatami drove the point home in Isfahan this week: "Cessation of these activities is unacceptable to us. If the Europeans insist ... whatever happens after, the responsibility lies with them."

Determined not to repeat its North Korea mistakes, the US is equally adamant that Iran must give way before it acquires full nuclear weapons capabilities. "It really is now up to the Iranians to do what they need to do," Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, warned.

By offering limited incentives to Iran for the first time last week, she said the US had "forged a common front with Europe ... I'm sure it makes the Iranians uncomfortable."

Stephen Hadley, the US national security adviser, dismissed Iran's proffered "objective guarantees". "The best guarantee is to permanently abandon their enrichment facilities," he said.

Stuck in the middle, the EU is in the increasingly awkward position of holding the ring between Tehran and Washington, which is not directly involved in the talks. While it worries about Iran, Europe's bottom line is avoiding an Iraq-style rift with the US.

British officials are urging Tehran to agree to an indefinite suspension of enrichment while talks on trade and normalisation issues proceed. "Like history, diplomacy never ends," a senior official said. But this approach does not recommend itself to Washington neoconservatives such as Richard Perle, who assert that only regime change in Tehran can ultimately solve the problem.

"The belief that there's a diplomatic solution to be had here is increasingly the triumph of hope over experience," the Wall Street Journal commented. On the American right, distrust also extends to the EU, whose leadership on Iran is resented and whose post-Iraq solidarity is doubted.

Iranian officials have been quick to suggest that by agreeing with the US to carpet Iran in the UN security council if incentives flop and the talks fail, the troika is walking into trap.

"The Americans are trying to create an environment so the US can hit Iran," one diplomat said. "And I don't think the Europeans would ultimately accept this."

That could be a serious miscalculation. But any Iranian attempt to play the EU off against America would test Europe's unity of purpose. Mr Khatami is due to visit the French president, Jacques Chirac, next month.

British diplomats point out that the Iranians have long sought US engagement. Now it is forthcoming, they say, Tehran detects a plot.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Plans Secret 'Nuclear University' to Train Scientists

March 20, 2005
The Telegraph
Con Coughlin

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=20&a=1



The Iranian government has given approval for the establishment of a secret nuclear research centre to train its scientists in all aspects of atomic technology, The Telegraph can reveal.

Recent reports received by Western intelligence show that Teheran has recently approved the establishment of a faculty of applied nuclear engineering that will be attached to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI).

The faculty will provide post-graduate courses for Iranian scientists in nuclear engineering and the production of nuclear materials.

Intelligence officials believe that the creation of the facility is yet further evidence that Iran is involved in a clandestine programme to build nuclear weapons.

The Iranian government has recently come under intense diplomatic pressure from Europe and the United States to provide a full account of its nuclear programme.

While the Iranians claim that their nuclear activities are entirely peaceful, nuclear experts working for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations-sponsored nuclear watchdog, have found incontrovertible proof that Iran has been involved in the production of weapons-grade uranium.

The establishment of Iran's first post-graduate nuclear research faculty is seen as evidence that the Iranians are pressing ahead with their secret programme to become self-sufficient in the production of nuclear weapons.

"If the Iranians were really serious about only developing nuclear technology for peaceful means, there would be no need for a facility like this," said a senior Western security official. "It suggests that they do not want to share their nuclear expertise with the outside world."

The disclosure that Iran is setting up the nuclear research facility follows last week's revelation that Ukraine exported 12 cruise missiles to Teheran in 2001. The X-55 cruise missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads and have a range of 1,800 miles, enabling Iran to attack Israel and Nato targets in southern Europe.

Israeli officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the threat posed by Iran's attempts to develop a nuclear arsenal, and have threatened to carry out pre-emptive bombing raids against Iranian nuclear establishments if they believe that Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear capability.

All students participating in the new Iranian nuclear research courses will first be required to undergo a thorough security vetting process conducted by security officials from Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who will have overall control of the facility.

The main purpose of the complex, which will operate as a branch of Teheran University, is to make Iran's nuclear industry completely self-sufficient.

At present most Iranian students are required to travel abroad for advanced studies in nuclear technology, where they are kept under strict supervision. By making the new facility part of Teheran University, Iranian officials hope that it will not be liable to inspection by IAEA officials.

The Iranians want to build up teams of home-grown nuclear scientists who will be able to work on a variety of highly secret nuclear projects the moment that they have completed their studies. All the courses at the faculty, which will be supervised by nuclear experts from the AEOI, will be classified.

Questions have been raised about the need for Iran to develop nuclear fuel when it has one of the world's largest oil reserves.
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran Has 12 Strategic Cruise Missiles

March 20, 2005
DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile Military Report

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=20&a=6


The Ukrainian prosecutor-general Svyatoslav Piksun created a major international flap Friday, March 18, when he admitted to the Financial Times that 18 X-55 strategic cruise missiles, also known as Kh-55, had been “exported” - 12 to Iran and 6 to China in 2001.

He could not explain how the “significant leak” of technology from the former Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal occurred, but said the missiles had been sold without nuclear warheads.

The X-55 has a ranged of 3,000 km and is capable of carrying 200 kiloton nuclear warheads. Launched from Su-24 long-range strike aircraft in the Iranian air force, it can put Japan, all of Russia and Israel within range. Piksun’s admission is the first official confirmation of the Ukrainian missile sale that was first made public last month by a Ukrainian parliament member.

Their acquisition heightens concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The US embassy in Kiev is “closely monitoring” the investigation and demands the findings be made public in full. The Japanese embassy echoed the demand.

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources reveal that the Ukrainian shipment to Iran included radioactive materials for making “dirty bombs.”

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the 12 strategic cruise missiles place the strategic ratio between the Islamic Republic and Israel on a completely new level. Iran shares this asset with only two other world powers, the United States and Russia. This weapon is used for destroying known relatively fixed-position targets, such as Israel’s Dimona nuclear center and population centers. Its guidance system combines inertial-Doppler navigation and position correction based on in-flight comparison of terrain in targeted regions with images stored in the memory of its on-board computer. The propulsion system is a dual-flow engine located underneath the missile’s tail.

Possession of the Kh-55 makes Iran’s Shahab-3 or its projected Shahab-4 missile programs irrelevant. Tehran may have given them exposure as a red herring to distract attention from its high-profile missile asset.

The breakup of the Soviet Union left about 1,000 missiles in Ukraine’s arsenal, half of which were meant to be turned over to Russia in the 1990s and half destroyed under a US-funded disarmament program. The 18 sold under the table slipped through the cracks of this accord.

The previous government in Kiev arrested and charged a local businessman for the illegal exports and his trial is still underway, the Ukrainian prosecutor said, adding that two Russian businessmen were suspected of masterminding the sale, one of whom, Oleg Orlov, was arrested last July in Prague in response to a Ukrainian warrant. Under the new government that took office in January, SBU chief Alexander Turchinov has reopened the investigation.
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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iranian Exile Says Uranium Secretly Enriched

March 24, 2005
Reuters
Yahoo! News

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=24&a=6



PARIS -- An Iranian exile has accused Tehran of secretly purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons at a recently-constructed underground facility at a military complex called Parchin.

"Iran has completed an underground tunnel-like facility in Parchin, which is now engaged in laser enrichment," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian exile who has reported accurately in the past about hidden atomic facilities in Iran.

"This underground site is camouflaged and built in an area of Parchin that deals with the chemical industry," he told Reuters by telephone on Thursday from Washington, citing "well-placed sources inside the Iranian regime".

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment, and Tehran has repeatedly denied carrying out any nuclear work at Parchin.

Jafarzadeh said the enrichment work was linked to "Iran's secret nuclear weapons programme".

Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel for power plants or weapons. Iran says it no longer does any work with laser enrichment, a high-tech but inefficient method of purifying uranium.

Iran has said a tunnel complex under a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan had been built to store equipment for protection in case of U.S. or Israeli attack.

As the former spokesman for the Iranian exile group, the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Jafarzadeh revealed in August 2002 information about two hidden sites in Iran -- an underground uranium enrichment at Natanz and a heavy-water production plant at Arak.

Iran later declared both sites to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA declined to comment on Jafarzadeh's accusation, though spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the agency "follows up every credible lead".

ACCESS BLOCKED

Iran has been reluctant to allow inspectors from the IAEA into Parchin, which lies some 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Tehran. Earlier this year Iran permitted limited inspections at the site but refused to allow them to return when the agency requested a follow-up inspection.

Iran is under no legal obligation to permit inspections at sites like Parchin, which are not officially or demonstrably linked to Tehran's nuclear programme.

Washington, which accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of an atomic energy programme, believes Tehran has been conducting tests and experiments related to nuclear bombmaking at Parchin.

Jafarzadeh said the underground enrichment site was in a section of Parchin known as "Plan 1".

Iran denies wanting weapons and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity. The IAEA has found no compelling evidence that Iran has a weapons programme, but agency inspectors say they are not convinced Iran has declared all of its nuclear facilities.

Jafarzadeh made his latest allegation one day after Iran agreed to continue talks with France, Britain and Germany, who are trying to persuade Tehran to abandon its enrichment programme in exchange for economic and political incentives.

But he denied the timing was anything other than a coincidence. "This information just came in. I received it yesterday. It is very fresh, not something that came in weeks ago," he said.

Iran refuses to consider terminating its enrichment programme, but decided not to withdraw from the talks and continues to suspend its uranium enrichment programme as a confidence building measure.

The United States, which lists the NCRI as a terrorist organisation, has shut down the NCRI's Washington offices. Jafarzadeh now runs a think-thank there called Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc.
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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/