This thread dedicate to the news from Iran

 

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Russia may back U.N. resolution on Iran

 

 

MOSCOW - A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Moscow would likely back a draft U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program a statement that contrasted with the Russian foreign minister's criticism of the draft.

 

Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members with strong commercial ties to Tehran, have consistently been reluctant to support sanctions. But China issued muted criticism of Iran on Tuesday over its standoff with the Security Council.

 

Asked about comments from the Iranian president that Tehran would oppose any sanctions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said "the relevant parties should not take any measures that may lead to the escalation of the situation."

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow was opposed to the draft resolution, but on Tuesday Yuri Volkov, a deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, said Russia "will apparently have to join a new resolution on Iran proposed by Britain, Germany and France that envisages limited economic sanctions."

 

Volkov has played a low-key role in the past and made no statements on global politics, although he is in charge of inter-parliamentary contacts with Iran. Like most other members of the Duma, he belongs to the Kremlin-controlled United Russia faction, but it is unclear whether he has any access to Kremlin decision-making.

 

U.N. Security Council members are deliberating the draft European resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Russia has indicated that the measure is too tough, while the United States says it is not tough enough.

 

But Volkov said Tuesday that "the Iranian leadership's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment activities and engage in a constructive dialogue with leading global powers leaves no chance for a quick diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear problem."

 

At the same time, Volkov added that Russia would continue efforts to encourage talks between Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana "so that Iran isn't driven into a corner." Volkov also reaffirmed Russia's firm opposition to any decisions that could sanction the use of military force on Iran.

 

Moscow has been frustrated in its efforts to persuade Tehran to halt enrichment — including by offering to enrich uranium on Russian soil for a peaceful Iranian nuclear program. But Russian officials have repeatedly warned that harsh punishment could make Iran even more recalcitrant.

Alexander Saltanov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, met Tuesday with Iranian ambassador to Moscow, Gholamreza Ansari, "to exchange opinions on acute international issues, including the situation in the Middle East," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

 

The ministry also said that Lavrov held talks Monday with UAE Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan during which they "reaffirmed the need to search for political and diplomatic ways of solving the situation around the Iranian nuclear problem."

Iran calls adventurous a U.S.-led nuclear interception navy exercise in the Gulf

 

AP | October 29 2006

 

DOHA, Qatar A naval training exercise led by the United States and aimed at blocking smuggling of nuclear weapons began Sunday in the Persian Gulf, the first of its kind since North Korea's nuclear test and the renewed U.S. drive for sanctions against Iran.

 

Iran called the two-day maneuvers "adventurist," but the Foreign Ministry said Tehran's response would be "rational and wise."

 

"We are watching their movements very carefully," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, adding that the exercises would not improve security in the Gulf, through which about 20 percent of the world's oil transits.

 

The maneuvers were taking place under the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative, designed to counter trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related materials "to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern around the world," the U.S. Navy said.

 

Two previous exercises have taken place in the region under the 75-nation initiative, among two dozen worldwide since such exercises began in 2003.

 

It is the first such drill since North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test. Observers believe the PSI program could be used to halt North Korean weapons traffic in accordance with U.N. sanctions.

 

South Korea, which has balked at joining the initiative, sent an observer delegation to the Gulf but declined to participate.

 

"We have not (fully) participated in the PSI because there is a high possibility of armed clashes if the PSI is carried out in waters around the Korean peninsula," Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told Parliament Friday.

 

The exercise comes as the United States is seeking support for U.N. sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. On Friday, Iran stepped up its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international demands.

 

Late Sunday, Iranian state television quoted the country's navy chief, Admiral Sajjad Kouchaki, as saying the presence of American warships in the Gulf "indicates the hostile nature of the U.S. policy" and that Iran "is completely ready to confront any possible threat."

 

However, state television played down the exercise, saying the United States "wanted to exaggerate this small but exhibitionist maneuver." It noted that naval maneuvers had been held "many times in the past."

 

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is the only American ship among the nine vessels taking part in the exercise, code-named "Leading Edge." The ships are being commanded at sea from an Italian navy frigate, according to Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet.

 

The exercise takes place in crowded international waters off Bahrain, a tiny island kingdom and U.S. ally that lies across the Persian Gulf, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Iranian territorial waters.

 

Brown stated the exercise was not openly aimed at any country and would not affect Iranian vessels or ships heading to Iran.

 

Two U.S.-led multinational task forces already intercept and search suspicious ships in the Gulf and nearby waters but focus on shipments headed to Iraq, not Iran. Most searches are done with permission of vessel captains, the U.S. Navy has said.

 

But a U.S. State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the topic, said PSI members can halt and board Iran-bound ships if they are suspected of carrying banned shipments.

 

U.S. authorities say legal authority for searching ships and seizing weapons cargo lies with national laws backed by a pair of U.N. Security Council resolutions ordering states to use border controls to prevent WMD shipments.

 

Washington has sought deeper cooperation from its Gulf Arab allies in halting nuclear-related shipments to Iran, but many governments are loath to be seen publicly backing the Americans.

 

The training occurred as coalition naval forces in the Gulf were on heightened watch for possible terror threats to oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

 

Sunday's training scenario focused on surveillance, with teams in 16 countries tracking a ship suspected of carrying outlawed weapons components, Brown said. A British Royal Navy tanker played the role of the suspected weapons carrier. He declined to describe the surveillance technology being used.

 

On Monday, naval forces on eight other vessels are expected to stop, board and search the suspect ship, Brown said. No ammunition or blanks are due to be fired during the mock chase.

 

Countries taking part include Italy, France, Australia, United States and Britain, with one ship each, and Bahrain with three naval vessels. The U.S. Navy is coordinating the exercise from Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, Brown said.

 

Bahrain's participation marks the first time an Arab nation joins an exercise under the three-year-old PSI.

 

Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, three Arab countries on the Gulf, offered a measure of support as observers. Other observers include Russia, and Japan. Saudi Arabia, the largest of the Gulf countries, has not joined them.

 

Real-life interdictions have happened in the past. In 2003, U.S. warships intercepted a German-owned ship, the BBC China, bound for Libya with Pakistani-designed uranium centrifuge parts.

 

In 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mentioned 11 intercepts under the PSI program. Among them were halted two WMD-related headed for North Korea and ballistic missiles and nuclear-related components steaming for Iran.

 

But in 2002, an attempted seizure failed. A Spanish warship intercepted a North Korean-crewed freighter carrying Scud missiles to Yemen. The Scuds were allowed to pass because neither North Korea nor Yemen had signed treaties aimed at halting sales or transfers.

US naval war games off the Iranian coastline: A provocation which could lead to War?

 

Michel Chossudovsky / GlobalResearch.ca | October 25 2006

 

There is a massive concentration of US naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Three US naval strike groups off the Iranian coastline are deployed: USS Enterprise, USS Eisenhower and USS Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

 

The naval strike groups have been assigned to fighting the "global war on terrorism."

 

Tehran considers the US war games to be conducted in the Persian Gulf, off the Iranian coastline as a provocation, which is intended to trigger a potential crisis and a situation of direct confrontation between US and Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf:

 

"Reports say the US-led naval exercises based near Bahrain will practise intercepting and searching ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

 

Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as describing the military manoeuvres as dangerous and suspicious.

Reports say the US-led naval exercises based near Bahrain will practise intercepting and searching ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

 

The Iranian foreign ministry official said the US-led exercises were not in line with the security and stability of the region. Instead, they are aimed at fomenting crises, he said." (quoted in BBC, 23 October 2006)

 

USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG 5) to arrive in Arabian Sea

 

The USS Boxer (LHD 4), --which is the flagship for the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG 5)-- which left Singapore on October 16, is scheduled to join the three naval strikes groups. ESG 5 is comprised of USS Boxer, Bunker Hill, USS Dubuque (LPD 8), USS Comstock (LSD 45), USS Benfold (DDG 65), and USS Howard (DDG 83). ESG 5 also includes PHIBRON 5, the 15th MEU, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WHEC 726).

 

“We are about to enter a part of the world that can be very dangerous,” said Chief Aviation Ordnanceman (AW/SW) Jacques Beaver, Boxer's flight deck ordnance chief. “We must be flexible and prepared to defend ourselves from any threats.”

 

Boxer has been preparing for the weapons upload for two months by completing required maintenance and electronic pre-checks. Checks ensure that the ship's missile and launching systems are up to standard and safe to load with live ordnance.

 

“It has taken a lot of hard work for our people to get this done,” said Chief Fire Controlman (SW) William Lewis, combat systems, fire control division's leading chief petty officer. “You cannot measure the importance of having these defenses guarding the lives of the Sailors and Marines in this strike group.”

 

BOXESG is comprised of USS Boxer (LHD 4), USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), USS Dubuque (LPD 8), USS Comstock (LSD 45), USS Benfold (DDG 65) and USS Howard (DDG 83). The strike group also includes Amphibious Squadron 5, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WHEC 726) and Canadian Frigate HMCS Ottawa (FFH 341).

 

BOXESG is currently conducting operations in support of the global war on terrorism while transiting to the Arabian

Gulf." (http://www.c7f.navy.mil/news/2006/october/3.htm)

 

Canada is part of the Expeditonary Strike Group (ESG 5)

 

Canada is formally participating in this military deployment under the disguise of the "war on terrorism". The Canadian Navy has dispatched Frigate HMCS Ottawa, which is now an integral part of ESG 5, under US Command. It is worth noting that particular emphasis has been given to medical evacuations and combat medical support suggesting that a combat scenario could be envisaged.

 

Boxer and Ottawa, both operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, know that they can play a vital role to aid humanitarian assistance operations, medical evacuations or combat medical support that would rely heavily on the medical capabilities of the Boxer strike group. Cross training Sailors from ship to ship helps ensure the success of the strike group should BOXESG have to respond to any medical scenario, according to Richardson.

 

“Training is a necessary part of any evolution,” said Richardson. “Anytime you're working with another nation, it's important that we understand their capabilities just as much as they understand ours, so in the event anything occurs we know where our assets are.”

 

The cross training also fostered cooperation between the two allies which provided Verville and Boxer corpsmen a forum to learn about each other's navies and each other's culture." (Military.com October 2006)

 

Dangerous Crossroads: Tonkin II?

 

"An incident" in the Persian Gulf could be used by the US as a pretext for war against Iran.

 

A war pretext incident, similar to "the Gulf of Tonkin Incident", which triggered the Vietnam war, could be used by US forces, with a view to justifying retaliatory military action against Iran. In August 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Tonkin incident, which had been manipulated, contributed to unleashing a full-fledged war against Vietnam:

 

"A phantom attack on two U.S. destroyers cruising the Gulf of Tonkin was staged by the Pentagon and the C.I.A. The bogus attack occurred early in August, 1964. That evening President Lyndon Johnson went on television giving the grim details of the non-attack. Later, however, it was revealed that navy commander James Stockdale flew cover over the Gulf of Tonkin that night. Stockdale disclosed that U.S. ships were firing at phantom targets—targets that didn't exist. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident that drew the U.S. into the quagmire of Viet Nam simply didn't happen. Johnson, as presidents so often do, lied to the American people. The result was the rapid passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was the sole legal basis for the Viet Nam War. As a result of Johnson's lie, three million Vietnamese people and fifty eight thousand U.S. soldiers died." (Charles Sullivan, Global Research, January 2006)

 

ANNEX: US NAVY

 

 

Navy Personnel

Active Duty: 349,783

 

Officers: 51,979

 

Enlisted: 293,368

 

Midshipmen: 4,436

Ready Reserve: 131,802 [As of 30 September]

 

Selected Reserves: 70,500

 

Individual Ready Reserve: 61,302

Reserves currently mobilized: 5,996 [As of 18 October]

Personnel on deployment: 36,037

Navy Department Civilian Employees: 175,454

 

Ships and Submarines

Deployable Battle Force Ships: 280

 

Ships Underway (away from homeport): 133 ships (47% of total)

 

On deployment: 104 ships (37% of total)

 

Attack submarines underway

(away from homeport): 22 submarines (40%)

 

On deployment: 11 submarines (20%)

Ships Underway

 

Carriers:

USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Philippine Sea

USS Enterprise (CVN 65) - Persian Gulf

USS Nimitz (CVN 68) - Pacific Ocean

USS Dwight D.Eisenhower (CVN 69)- Mediterranean Sea

USS Ronald Reagan - Pacific Ocean

 

Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):

USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Persian Gulf

USS Nashville (LPD 13) - Persian Gulf

USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) - Persian Gulf

 

Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):

USS Boxer (LHD 4) - Indian Ocean

USS Dubuque (LPD 8) - Indian Ocean

USS Comstock (LSD 45) - Indian Ocean

 

Essex Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):

USS Essex (LHD 2) - South China Sea

USS Juneau (LPD 10) - South China Sea

USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) - South China Sea

 

Amphibious Warfare Ships:

USS Tarawa (LHA 1) - Pacific Ocean

USS Saipan (LHA 2) - Persian Gulf

USS Wasp (LHD 1) - port visit, Copenhagen, Denmark

USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) - Atlantic Ocean

USS Bataan (LHD 5) - Atlantic Ocean

USS Cleveland (LPD 7) - Pacific Ocean

USS Shreveport (LPD 12) - Atlantic Ocean

USS Ponce (LPD 15) - Atlantic Ocean

USS San Antonio (LPD 17) - Atlantic Ocean

USS Ashland (LSD 48) - Atlantic Ocean

USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) - Pacific Ocean

 

Aircraft (operational): 4000+

 

currently/or en route in/to Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea

(according to available information)

Iran in first firing of longer-range missiles on exercise

 

TEHRAN (AFP) Iran has fired its longer-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile on exercise for the first time as it began 10 days of war games amid a mounting standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.

 

The hardline Revolutionary Guards fired the missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) -- sufficient to threaten US bases in the Gulf -- during the first phase of the manoeuvres in the central desert, state television reported Thursday.

 

"Shahab missiles, carrying cluster warheads, with a range of 2,000 kilometres, were fired from the desert near (Iran's clerical capital) Qom," it said.

 

"Dozens of Shahab-2 and -3, Zolfaghar-73, Scud B, Fath-110 and Zelzal have been launched in the presence of (Guards chief) General Yahya Rahim Safavi, and other high-ranking commanders," the television said.

 

"The cluster head of the Shahab-2 has the capability to disperse 1,400 bomblets with great destructive power."

It was the first time that Iran had fired the longer-range Shahab-3 on exercise and commanders said they would also be employing other "new equipment" during the war games.

 

Dubbed Great Prophet 2, the air, land and sea manoeuvres are to extend across 14 provinces "with the focus on the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," Safavi said Wednesday.

 

"The first and main goal of this exercise is to demonstrate power and national determination to defend the country against any possible threat," he said.

 

"Heliport operations will be carried out in the Hormozgan region (on the Strait of Hormuz) and some of the Persian Gulf islands."

 

The strategic Strait of Hormuz is the obligatory passage for tankers exiting the

Gulf that carry much of the world's oil supply.

 

The Iranian manoeuvres come hot on the heels of naval exercises launched in the Gulf on Monday by a US-led flotilla including warships from Australia, Bahrain, France, Italy and Britain.

 

"That is a propaganda and political manoeuvre without military value," Safavi said then.

 

"If forces from out of the region want to jeopardize Iran's security and interests, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (volunteer militia) will use all their capabilities to strike their enemies and their interests," he warned.

 

But the Guards commander insisted Iran's exercises were no threat to its neighbours.

 

"This manoeuvre is no threat for the region or neighbouring countries," he said, adding: "Our neighbours are our friends and we consider our neighbours' enemies our enemies."

 

The aim of the exercises was the "defence of sensitive centres, strategic bottlenecks and confrontation of possible troubles," he said.

 

It is Iran's third round of war games this year. In August, the armed forces held country-wide manoeuvres dubbed Zolfaghar Blow. Iran also staged Great Prophet 1 exercises in April.

 

The new war games come amid a mounting standoff between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme after EU pronounced at an end talks on a negotiated solution to Western concerns that Tehran is seeking the bomb.

Are Israelis gearing up to bomb Iran?

 

Robert Fox

The First Post

Thursday, November 2, 2006

 

The Middle East is abuzz with ugly rumours. One of them is so dire - and comes from sources in so many capital cities - that it has to be taken seriously.

 

The suggestion is that the Israeli government has served notice on the White House that it must take pre-emptive action against Iran's sites of nuclear weapons development - or Israel will go it alone and do the job itself. Israel has apparently given Bush a deadline of six months.

 

The pressure on the Americans - if it is true - comes with the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman, one of the hardest of all hard-liners, as Israel's new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs, under the new coalition with his party, Yisrael Beytenu.

 

One reason why the rumour is being taken seriously is that it coincides with another strong rumour - that the Iranian regime of Mahmud Ahmadinejad has ordered Iran's nuclear programme to be accelerated. According to sources, the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade material is galloping ahead, and Iran could have its own deployable nuclear warheads within four years.

 

Given Ahmadinejad's wild rhetoric about wiping Israel off the map (though the translation of these remarks is now acknowledged to be somewhat fuzzy), Israel's hawks argue there is no time to lose. Former Prime Minister, and Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, for whom Lieberman once worked as chief of staff, has argued strenuously for a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

 

Lieberman, more hawkish than many hawks, was born in Moldova in 1958 and now leads a powerful group of Israeli immigrants from Russia and the former Soviet Union. He criticised Ariel Sharon when, during negotiations with the Palestinians, he ordered some settlements to close. He outraged moderate Jewish Israeli opinion this summer when he suggested that Arab Israelis elected to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, should be executed if they had held talks with Hamas members of the Palestinian authority.

 

Even the New York Times, known for its strong support for Israel, warned in an editorial a week ago that Lieberman was "the wrong partner" in an Israeli coalition. His inclusion, the paper argued, made any arrangement with the Palestinians difficult, if not impossible. "Creating new obstacles to peace with the Palestinians is the last thing Israel needs after the Lebanon fiasco."

 

Strategic analysts have noticed anti-Iran noises coming from the beleaguered White House, too. "It's the same sort of language we heard in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq," one Washington insider told me. A London correspondent favoured by the Bush-Blair circle said, "It's clear that Bush will not dream of leaving office under the suspicion that he allowed Iran to get nuclear weapons on his watch. He will act, and will feel uninhibited after the mid-term elections."

 

The practicalities of bombing Iran's nuclear installations are quite another thing, according to serious analysts. Israel lacks the capability to hit in one blow all the places where weaponry is being developed; planes would need mid-air refuelling that only the Americans could provide; and some centres of nuclear energy production - Bushir, Natanz and Tehran itself - are heavily populated. Civilian casualties would be high.

 

There is an even more compelling reason why realists like General John Abizaid, US commander for the region, and former Secretary of State James Baker are counselling the hawks in Israel as well as Washington to cool it.

 

Not only would a pre-emptive strike on Iran miss more than it hit - it would invite immediate and devastating retaliation. The Revolutionary Guards could launch a global terrorist campaign and the Iranian Air Force could bomb the offshore gas installations stretching along the Gulf from Qatar. That would knock out 15 per cent of the world's natural gas supply at a stroke.

Iranians mark US embassy siege

 

By Frances Harrison

BBC News, Tehran

 

Protesters compared George W Bush to Hitler

 

 

Thousands of school children and students in Tehran have marked the anniversary of the hostage-taking at the American embassy in 1979.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament compared the event to the current nuclear row, saying America always wanted to put Iran under pressure.

It was a rowdy celebration of student power, with boys and girls segregated outside the former American embassy.

 

A huge red flag saying "Death to America" was burned.

 

Many people carried banners with the same slogan and even puppets of Uncle Sam.

 

Addressing the crowd, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, warned America that Iranians were ready to react to any attempt to limit their access to nuclear power.

He said Iran was willing to pay the price of its independence once again.

 

No regrets

 

Iran's former President, Mohammad Khatami, had expressed regret for the seizure of the American embassy and its staff but today - with a new more conservative government in power - there is little sign of remorse.

 

Instead the speakers asked why America had not learned its lesson from the hostage-taking.

 

One young girl born after the revolution said she did not think the American embassy would ever reopen in Tehran because the United States was against Iran.

Another boy said if Iran was threatened again, he would be willing to copy the students who seized the US embassy in 1979.

Iran says it will go on with nuke plans

 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Thursday said it plans to press ahead with construction of a heavy-water nuclear reactor the U.S. and its allies fear could be used to produce plutonium to build atomic weapons hours after the U.N. nuclear watchdog denied Tehran help in building it.

The U.N. nuclear agency, the IAEA , decided to deny Iran technical help in building the heavy-water reactor in central Iran — at least for now — but left room for Tehran to renew its request, diplomats said.

 

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the IAEA was legally required to provide technical assistance to Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran has repeatedly said its contentious nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

 

"It is the duty of the IAEA to help. If they help, we will appreciate it. If not, we will do it on our own," Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.

UN agency shelves Iranian reactor request

 

by Michael Adler

VIENNA (AFP) - The UN atomic agency has Shelved Iran's request for technical help in building a nuclear reactor that the United States fears could provide plutonium for weapons.

 

The decision of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors came after three days of divisive meetings on technical cooperation that ended with a compromise between Western and developing states.

 

In another development, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said limited cooperation by Iran had blocked the agency from making "further progress" on clearing up questions about Tehran's nuclear program, which Washington suspects of hiding weapons development.

 

But ElBaradei said Iran had recently made "steps in the right direction," by agreeing to let IAEA inspectors take environmental sample swipes on equipment from a former military site at Lavizan and granting access to operating records at a uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

 

The IAEA had requested these steps for months, as Iran pushed ahead with uranium enrichment in defiance of a UN call for it to suspend the sensitive nuclear work.

 

The agency's governing board blocked technical cooperation for the heavy-water reactor Iran is building in Arak, 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of

Tehran, by dropping the proposal from a list of some 800 aid projects it approved on Thursday for the coming two years, an IAEA spokeswoman said.

 

US ambassador Gregory Schulte insisted that the deletion of the Iranian request was permanent.

 

"The Arak project was not deferred. It was not put on hold. It was removed entirely from the IAEA program," Schulte told reporters.

 

"The removal of Arak, an action taken by consensus, reflects the board's continued concern about the nature of Iran's nuclear program," he said.

 

"Heavy water reactors are well-suited to producing significant quantities of plutonium, a key ingredient in building nuclear weapons."

 

In a face-saving compromise, the Arak project was shelved rather than rejected, with the board's chairman saying "no decision was taken" on the Iranian request.

 

An Iranian diplomat described the IAEA move as "only a postponement."

 

Delegates from non-aligned countries anxious to protect the right of developing countries to obtain peaceful nuclear technology also argued that Iran could re-apply at some point for aid to Arak.

 

A EU diplomat had said Wednesday that "the bottom line" was a denial of aid for the next two years, by which time there could well be a UN Security Council call for Iran to suspend work at the heavy water reactor.

 

Tehran says the facility is intended to make medical isotopes.

 

Both the IAEA and the Security Council have called on Iran to "reconsider" building Arak, and a Western diplomat said the IAEA's decision not to approve technical assistance "should reinforce the point."

 

The United States and the European Union had argued that Iran, suspected of seeking nuclear weapons and threatened with UN sanctions, had no right to assistance with the reactor.

 

Schulte said the United States "strongly supports" peaceful nuclear technology for IAEA member states "but neither we nor the board are prepared to help countries build nuclear bombs."

 

 

The IAEA board will also be hearing a report from ElBaradei detailing the level of Iranian cooperation with the agency's investigation into its nuclear program.

The IAEA is still unable, after over three years of inspections, to certify Iran's program as peaceful

Iran offers look at uranium program

 

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria - Iran has agreed to crack open the books on its uranium enrichment activities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday — a move that could give experts a better grasp of a program the Security Council fears could be misused to produce atomic bombs.

 

The concession appeared timed in hopes of heading off a rejection by the IAEA of Iran's request for technical help in building its Arak plutonium-producing reactor. Unmoved, the IAEA's 35-nation board denied the aid for at least two years.

 

Tehran's decision to provide access to the operating records of its pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz came with another carrot — a pledge to allow U.N. inspectors to take more samples from a facility that had yielded suspicious traces of enriched uranium.

Both moves were described as "important steps" by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who announced Tehran's offer.

 

Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing can both produce material for atomic warheads, and Iran's lack of complete candor about its programs has fed suspicions in Washington and other capitals that Tehran is trying to make nuclear weapons in violation of its treaty obligations.

 

Iran insists its only goal is to use enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity and plutonium reprocessing to make nuclear isotopes for medical treatments.

 

Responding to Iran's defiance of demands that it curb its nuclear program until suspicions are allayed, the IAEA board decided to put off a ruling on the request for technical help on the Arak reactor. That denied IAEA help for at least two years, after which Tehran can submit a new request.

 

The board's voted to approve all requests for IAEA technical aid "with the exception of" Arak, wording that allowed both the United States and Iran to claim victory.

 

Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, said Arak was "removed entirely from the program, not just deferred."

"The U.S. and the IAEA are not prepared to help countries build nuclear bombs," he told reporters.

 

Disputing Schulte's view, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian representative, said the ruling meant "that this project was not deleted ... and therefore we are expecting as soon as possible the decision be made" to provide the requested aid.

 

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the IAEA was legally required to provide technical assistance to Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"It is the duty of the IAEA to help. If they help, we will appreciate it. If not, we will do it on our own," Mottaki said.

 

While Iran's pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz is under some IAEA monitoring, Iran's offer to open the operating records of the facility could potentially yield key information to U.N. inspectors that has up to now been off limits.

 

"It should tell them how well the centrifuges have operated" in enriching uranium, said former U.N. inspector David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks Iran's nuclear activities.

Such information could verify other evidence that the Iranian program has been hobbled by technical glitches.

 

Iran's records should also help strengthen IAEA findings on the level of the small amounts of uranium enriched since Tehran restarted the program early this year. The agency puts enrichment at 5 percent or below — far from the 90 percent-plus needed to make the core of nuclear bombs.

 

Tehran's other offer to allow IAEA inspectors to look for fresh samples of enriched uranium at a site where earlier finds revealed traces that could have come from an undeclared program linked to the military was described as "important" by a U.N. official. He agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

 

The U.N. Security Council demanded in July that Tehran suspend enrichment, but Iran instead has expanded that work, recently setting up a second experimental chain of 164 centrifuges to produce small amounts of low-enriched uranium.

 

 

Tehran has said it intends to activate 3,000 centrifuges by late 2006 and then increase the program to 54,000 centrifuges. Iranian officials say that would produce enough enriched uranium to fuel a 1,000-megawatt reactor, such as that being built by Russia and nearing completion at Bushehr.

Experts estimate Iran would need only 1,500 centrifuges to produce a nuclear weapon, if it wanted to.

Russia asks Iran to pay on nuclear plant

 

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - The head of the Russian state company building a nuclear plant in Iran urged Tehran on Tuesday to keep up payments to complete construction as scheduled, news reports said.

 

The statement from Atomstroiexport's chief, Sergei Shmatko, was the strongest signal yet of financial disputes over the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Shmatko said on a trip to Tehran that his company would start delivering nuclear fuel for the plant in March 2007, prior to its launch in September, provided that the Iranians provide stable financing to fulfill the contract signed in 1995. He said preparations for the fuel deliveries would start in January.

 

Shmatko said that Iran already had paid Russia $900 million to build the plant, but he added that his company had been forced to provide a $140 million loan to Tehran because the Iranians had dragged their feet on payment.

 

"We have confirmed that everything will proceed according to plan, but only if Iran provides $20-$25 million for the construction of Bushehr every month," Shmatko said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

 

He praised Iran for providing $22 million last month for the plant's construction, adding that he and the Iranian officials had agreed on stable funding for the project during talks in Tehran. "They have promised us that the Iranian side will maintain the pace," Shmatko said, according to RIA Novosti.

 

Russia's Federal Nuclear Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko has said the startup of the Bushehr reactor would take place in September, and that the plant would come online in November.

 

Russia and China, which have major commercial ties with Iran, have been pushing for dialogue instead of U.N. punishment of Iran for its nuclear activities.

 

A draft UN Security Council resolution circulated Dec. 8 by France and Britain drops all mention of Bushehr in an apparent hope of winning Russia's support.

 

An earlier European draft that Russia opposed would have exempted the Bushehr nuclear plant, but not the nuclear fuel needed for the reactor.

 

The new draft would still keep a range of sanctions and still would limit technical assistance to Iran by IAEA , as well as urging countries to prevent Iranian students from studying nuclear-related disciplines.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday the new draft was based on Russian amendments.

 

The online Gazeta.ru said in a commentary Tuesday that Iran could be dragging its feet on paying Russia because of irritation over Moscow's joining the West in demanding that Tehran freezes its domestic uranium enrichment program.

 

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed solely at producing energy, but the United States and the Europeans believe Tehran's activities are ultimately aimed at producing weapons.

Chirac backtracks after gaffe on Iran bomb threat

 

By Francois Murphy and Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS (Reuters) - FrencH President Jacques Chirak backtracked on Thursday after saying it would not be dangerous for Iran to have a nuclear bomb, a sudden departure from the position France has long held with key allies.

 

Chirac made the comments to two U.S. newspapers and a French magazine but called the reporters back for another interview the next day and said he thought he was speaking off the record.

 

His comments raised doubts about where France stands after years spent jointly spearheading a diplomatic push aimed at ensuring Iran does not develop atomic weapons, and prompted Chirac's office to say France's position has not changed.

 

"What is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb -- having one, maybe a second one a little later, well, that's not very dangerous," Chirac, was quoted as telling the reporters from the International Herald Tribune and New York Times newspapers, and weekly Le Nouvel Observateur.

 

If Iran used a nuclear weapon against arch-foe Israel its capital Tehran would be obliterated in retaliation, he said.

 

Chirac's office said the decision to publish the remarks was an attempt to spark "a shameful scandal."

 

France and allies the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, have been pressuring Tehran to abandon technology that could be used to make atom bombs.

 

Tehran denies charges that it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying it only wants atomic technology to generate electricity.

 

Influential French daily Le Monde said Chirac's comments represented "a radical turning point," adding: "One asks what credibility the French position will now have."

 

But Washington and London played down Chirac's remarks.

 

"It is not a sentiment I share. What is more I understand the president of France doesn't share it any more either," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said.

 

IMMEDIATE RETALIATION

 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iranian state radio that Chirac's comments would "only worsen the current unbalanced atmosphere which is the result of the wrong U.S. policies."

 

The newspapers said that in the first meeting Chirac, 74 and approaching the end of his second mandate, appeared distracted at times and struggled to remember names and dates, but was more alert in the second interview.

 

Speculation about Chirac's health has mounted since he was secretly admitted to hospital in September 2005 for a blood vessel problem that affected his vision and caused headaches.

 

Chirac said in the first interview the main danger from Iran developing a nuclear bomb was that others, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, would follow suit, not that Tehran would use it.

 

"Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel? It would not have gone 200 metres (650 ft) into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed to the ground," the reporters quoted Chirac as saying.

 

 

The following day, the French president backtracked: "I retract it, of course, when I said, One is going to raze Tehran'," the IHT and New York Times quoted him as saying.

 

Chirac also withdrew his prediction that a nuclear Iran could encourage Arab states to build a bomb.

 

"It is I who was wrong and I do not want to contest it ... I should have paid better attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record," the IHT quoted him as saying.

 

Chirac's office said the president had not changed his stance on Iran and said the U.S. dailies had acted improperly, even though the French magazine also reported his U-turn.

 

"France, with the international community, cannot accept the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran," it said in a statement.

"It does not surprise us on the part of certain media from the other side of the Atlantic, which will use any opportunity to attack France," his office said.

Iran to hit U.S. interests if attacked

 

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran -Iran's supreme leader said Thursday that if the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking U.S. interests all over the world — the latest sharp exchange in an escalating standoff between the two countries.

 

The comments by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came on the same day that another top official, Tehran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, warned in a column in The New York Times that efforts to isolate Iran would backfire on the United States, increasing sectarian tensions in the volatile Middle East, including Iraq.

 

The United States is reaping "the expected bitter fruits of its ill-conceived adventurism," he said.

 

"But rather than face these unpleasant facts, the United States administration is trying to sell an escalated version of the same failed policy. It does this by trying to make Iran its scapegoat and fabricating evidence of Iranian activities in Iraq," he said.

 

The United States and Iran have been in an increasingly tense standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. The tensions have worsened recently because of U.S. allegations of Iranian influence in Iraq.

 

The United States has denied it has any plans to strike Iran militarily but has sent an additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf in what U.S. officials call an effort to show strength in the face of rising Iranian regional influence.

 

Speaking to a gathering of air force commanders, Khamenei said: "The enemy knows well that any invasion would be followed by a comprehensive reaction to the invaders and their interests all over the world."

 

In another sign of the tensions, Iran's intelligence minister also said the government had detected a network of U.S and Israeli spies, and had detained a second group of people who planned to go abroad for espionage training, state television reported. It gave few details.

 

The allegation comes just a few days after an Iranian diplomat was detained in Baghdad in an incident that Iran blamed on U.S. forces. The Americans have denied involvement in the diplomat's detention.

 

Iranian leaders often speak of a crushing response to any U.S. attack. While the remarks are seen as an attempt to drum up national support, Iran's position on Iraq and its nuclear program has provoked harsher international and especially U.S. pressure in recent months.

 

President Bush has ordered American troops to act against Iranians suspected of being involved in the Iraqi insurgency in addition to deploying the second carrier. The UN Security Coucil has imposed sanctions because of Iran's refusal to cease uranium enrichment, and is due to consider strengthening later this month.

 

"Some people say that the U.S. president is not prone to calculating the consequences of his actions," Khamenei said in remarks broadcast on state television, "but it is possible to bring this kind of person to wisdom."

"U.S. policymakers and analysts know that the Iranian nation would not let an invasion go without a response," Khamenei added.

 

Last week, a publication called Sobh-e Sadegh, the official publication of Iran's elite and hard-line Revolutionary Guards, also warned against American attacks, pointing out that because the U.S. has large numbers of troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, central Asia and Europe, it would be easy to kidnap Americans in retaliation.

 

In his talk Thursday, Khamenei also addressed rumors about his health — a subject that is rarely discussed openly in Iran. Last month, there was speculation his health had deteriorated seriously.

 

"Enemies of the Islamic system fabricated various rumors about death and health to demoralize the Iranian nation, but they did not know that they are not dealing with only one person in Iran. They are facing a nation," Khamenei said.

I guess this can go here as it refers to Iran...saves making a new thread.

 

Why is Blair pulling Iraq troops out?

 

Tartan Hero

Thursday, February 22, 2007

 

Top of the headlines today is of course, Tony Bliar's

announcement that he is cutting the number of British troops in Iraq. Some might say he is heeding the SNP's call to bring our troops home at last. Others may be less charitable.

 

One theory doing the rounds in journalistic circles is a far more worrying scenario. What if the real reason that British troops are being brought out of Iraq was because UK military and government leaders know of plans by the US to bomb Tehran (or its nuclear research stations).

 

Today's

announcementby Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Iran will try to achieve nuclear capability as soon as possible, is sending shivers down the ersatz-spines of Washington's White House, State Department and Pentagon.

 

 

My money is on the US military-industrial complex conspirators to make a 'pre-emptive strike' a la Clinton on Libya in Spring next year.

 

UPDATE: Check out this

opinion from an ex-US air force colonel, courtesy of the British American Security Information Council.

US Iran intelligence 'is incorrect'

Julian Borger

London Guardian

Thursday, February 22, 2007

 

Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by US spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, diplomatic sources in Vienna said today.

 

The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was defying a UN security council ultimatum to freeze its nuclear programme.

 

That report, delivered to the security council by the IAEA director general, Mohammed ElBaradei, sets the stage for a fierce international debate on the imposition of stricter sanctions on Iran and raises the possibility that the US could resort to military action against Iranian nuclear sites.

 

At the heart of the debate are accusations - spearheaded by the US - that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

 

However, most of the tip-offs about supposed secret weapons sites provided by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies have led to dead ends when investigated by IAEA inspectors, according to informed sources in Vienna.

 

"Most of it has turned out to be incorrect," a diplomat at the IAEA with detailed knowledge of the agency's investigations said.

 

"They gave us a paper with a list of sites. [The inspectors] did some follow-up, they went to some military sites, but there was no sign of [banned nuclear] activities.

"Now [the inspectors] don't go in blindly. Only if it passes a credibility test."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2019235,00.html

 

I'm glad we got this thread.

Iran: U.S. is in no position to attack

 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - The Iranian foreign minister said Saturday the United States was in no position for another war, and maintained that negotiations — not threats — were the only way to resolve the standoff over its nuclear activities.

 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was responding to Vice President Dick Cheney, who renewed Washington's warning to Iran earlier Saturday that "all options" were on the table if Tehran continues to defy U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Mottaki said the U.S. could not afford to settle its differences with Iran by launching a third war after Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

"We do not see America in a position to impose another crisis on its tax payers inside America by starting another war in the region," Mottaki told reporters.

The United States and several of its Western allies fear that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce an atomic weapon — charges Iran denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity.

 

The IAEA reported on Thursday that Iran had ignored a UN Security Council ultimatum to freeze its uranium enrichment program and had expanded the program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.

 

Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb.

 

The IAEA report came after Wednesday's deadline of a 60-day grace period for Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Iran has repeatedly refused to halt enrichment as a precondition to negotiations about its program.

 

Mottaki urged the U.S. and its allies to return to dialogue when they are scheduled to meet in London next week.

 

"The only way to reach a solution for disputes is negotiations and talks. Therefore, we want the London meeting to make a brave decision and resume talks with Iran," Mottaki said.

 

Bill Richardson, the governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico and a Democratic presidential candidate, on Saturday also urged the Bush administration to negotiate directly with Iran.

 

"Saber-rattling is not a good way to get the Iranians to cooperate," Richardson wrote in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. "But it is a good way to start a new war."

 

Iran, Richardson wrote, "will not end their nuclear program because we threaten them and call them names."

 

Separately, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said it killed 17 mercenary fighters on its border with Turkey and accused the United States and its allies of seeking to provoke tensions along the country's frontiers.

 

In a statement, the Guards said 17 "counterrevolutionary mercenaries" were killed, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Saturday.

 

The Guards chief, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, said the U.S., Britain and Israel were seeking to incite tension on Iran's borders to undermine its government, IRNA reported.

 

"Iran's enemies, through hiring some mercenaries and with their wishful thinking, want to create instability but ... the armed forces will strongly suppress anti-revolutionaries and rebels who are dependent to foreigners," Safavi was quoted as saying.