US steps up Iran nuclear pressure

[Talon]

US steps up Iran nuclear pressure

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeated his demand for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for allegedly trying to make nuclear arms.

Mr Powell was responding to reports that Iran had offered to stop producing centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

He said he wanted Tehran to take steps to stop producing material that could lead to nuclear weapons.

Iran's reported concession comes days before its case is due before a meeting of the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Sanctions

Mr Powell said the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should refer Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

He said Iran has repeatedly failed to comply with its international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"We thought it should have been referred to the Security Council last November but colleagues of mine, particularly the European Union Three [britain, France and Germany] wanted to engage Iran and find a solution," he said

"Unfortunately, I don't think the response from Iran has been very positive or constructive either to what the EU Three commitments were or to the IAEA," he added.

The US accuses Iran of working towards building nuclear weapons, but that has not been proved.

Enriched uranium can be used to generate power or for nuclear warheads, depending on the level of enrichment.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is simply for electricity.

It had previously agreed to temporarily suspend building, assembling and testing uranium enrichment centrifuges.

However, Tehran announced it was resuming enrichment work after an IAEA resolution in June criticised it for inadequate co-operation with UN inspectors.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3637430.stm

[Talon]

Q&A: Iran's nuclear programme

The United Nations nuclear supervisory organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meets on 13 September 2004 to discuss Iran's nuclear activities. News Online examines the issues.

Why will the IAEA be discussing Iran?

The IAEA has been trying to find out the extent of Iran's nuclear programme and, in particular, whether it is secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon.

In the past it has criticised Iran for not declaring all its activities, and it has been checking to see if Iran is complying with the inspection rules. A report from the head of the IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei will be presented to the meeting.

What are the main issues?

These partly relate to Iran's development of a facility to enrich uranium which it had not declared, as it should have. The IAEA wants to know exactly what is going on.

It has asked where Iran acquired some advanced centrifuges, known as P2. Centrifuges are used to separate enriched uranium so that it can be used to fuel a nuclear reactor.

It is suspected that Iran got these from the network operated by the Pakistani scientist, Dr AQ Khan, whose activities were recently uncovered.

The IAEA also wants to know the source of traces of both low and highly enriched uranium on other centrifuges. Iran says they must have come in with equipment from abroad. Media reports say that Mr ElBaradei might accept the Iranian explantion.

Why is the enrichment of uranium such an issue?

Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a country can enrich uranium to provide reactor fuel but the problem is that the same technology can then be used to enrich uranium further to weapons grade standard.

A country could then simply withdraw from the treaty and build a bomb. Or it could use its knowhow to enrich uranium to weapons grade levels secretly.

Therefore the IAEA insists that any enrichment programme is fully declared and safeguarded.

What is Iran's case?

Iran says it needs to enrich fuel itself, because getting it from another country would be unreliable, and that it has no intention of building a bomb. It has started to mine the uranium ore which will be used in the enrichment process.

It says it has answered questions as best it can, and will fully co-operate under a more strict regime of inspections known as an Additional Protocol.

It also says it wants to develop a civil nuclear energy programme because its oil reserves are not unlimited, and points out that the West once supplied the deposed Shah with nuclear reactors.

Did Iran not agree with European governments to freeze its enrichment programme?

It did. Three European governments, Britain, France and Germany (the E3), had offered to get fuel for Iran if it gave up on enrichment. Iran is now saying that the agreement is at an end. It is resuming its enrichment programme and President Mohammed Khatami says that Iran "will have" an enrichment programme to produce fuel.

What is the American view?

The United States claims that Iran is trying to build a bomb. It wants Iran reported to the Security Council. John Bolton, the Under Secretary for Arms Control, told a congressional committee in June: "The United States strongly believes that Iran has a clandestine program to produce nuclear weapons."

Israel believes the same. It has begun a diplomatic campaign urging the IAEA to take Iran to the Security Council.

Both the US and Israel point to other Iranian activities in the nuclear field, such as the construction of a heavy water reactor, as evidence that it wants to develop nuclear weapons.

Will there be sanctions against Iran?

That is possible, but they can be imposed only by the Security Council. The US wants Iran to be reported to the Council but others feel that more time is needed.

The IAEA Board meeting in September will be followed by one in December. Some analysts feel that Iran will be given a warning in September and that the crunch might come in December, depending on the Mr ElBaradei's report.

What would be the strategic implications if Iran built a nuclear bomb?

Some argue that it is in Iran's interest to build a bomb because it might think that this would deter an American or other attack one day.

However, if the US thought Iran was about to acquire such a weapon, it might attack its facilities anyway.

The Israelis are already concerned, with the head of Mossad, its intelligence service, saying not long ago that the Iranian nuclear programme represented the greatest ever threat to Israel.

So a pre-emptive Israeli strike, of the kind it carried out on an Iraqi reactor in 1981, is possible at some stage.

What is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

The NPT was an agreement opened for signature in 1968 under which those countries with nuclear weapons (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France) were allowed to keep them but agreed not to give them to anyone else.

However, other countries are allowed to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes under the inspection of the IAEA.

The nuclear weapons countries also promised to work towards nuclear disarmament, but this has not really happened.

And several nuclear-weapons capable states - Israel, India and Pakistan - have not signed up to the treaty so they can develop weapons. Another, North Korea, has withdrawn from it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3148398.stm

[Talon]

Iran defends nuclear programme

Iran has rejected a European bid to make it abandon its controversial nuclear activities but insists it is not pursuing atomic weapons.

Germany, France and the UK have drawn up a deadline of November for Iran to abandon all parts of the atomic fuel cycle, particularly uranium enrichment.

The proposal is due to be raised at a meeting of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog in Vienna on Monday.

The Iranian foreign ministry said the idea was "out of the question".

"If the Europeans and the international community want assurances that nuclear technology will be for peaceful purposes, we are ready to give assurances," ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran.

"But if the issue is that we cannot master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, that is out of the question because we have already reached that point."

November decision

The European trio due to submit its draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already been involved in delicate negotiations to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The United States has led concern that the Islamic Republic is developing a nuclear industry which could be used to build weapons.

Iran has bought most of its nuclear technology from Russia.

The draft resolution gives Iran until November to dispel doubts over its programme, at which stage the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, would decide what further action is needed, if any.

The US has asked for the issue to go to the UN Security Council which has the power to impose sanctions or worse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3649270.stm

[Talon]

IAEA mulls Iran atomic resolution

The UN's nuclear watchdog is to decide on a draft resolution offering Iran a deadline to show it does not have a nuclear weapons programme.

Germany, France and the UK want to give Iran until November to prove it is not lying about its nuclear intentions.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

But UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has warned Tehran its recent actions have "undermined confidence" in assurances it was not building atomic weapons.

"They cannot turn the issue of confidence on and off like a tap," he said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Nuclear fatwa

Germany, France and UK have expressed alarm that Tehran has stepped back from a promise it gave last year to stop its uranium enrichment efforts.

They want the IAEA to give Iran until November to dispel suspicions about its nuclear intentions - but IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said there was no time limit for completing the investigation.

On his way into the meeting in Vienna, he said it was an "open process".

Iran says abandoning uranium enrichment is "out of the question" but it is prepared to give assurances that it will not build nuclear weapons.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has meanwhile issued an edict saying Islam forbids the use of nuclear bombs, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza-Asafi.

However, as the text of the edict, or fatwa, has not been published, it is not clear if the Ayatollah has expressly forbidden the building of nuclear weapons, says the BBC's regional analyst, Sadeq Saba.

Open ended

The draft resolution submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gives Iran until November to dispel doubts over its programme, at which stage Mr ElBaradei would decide what further action is needed, if any.

The European trio which prepared the draft has already been involved in delicate negotiations to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The United States has led concerns that the Islamic Republic is developing a nuclear industry which could be used to build weapons.

On a visit to Israel on Sunday, US Under Secretary of State John Bolton said the US was "determined that they [iran] are not going to achieve a nuclear weapons capability".

He said the US sought a peaceful solution, but hinted that all options remained open.

Washington wants the issue to go to the UN Security Council which has the power to impose sanctions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3650546.stm

[Talon]

Suspicion over Iran arms facility

A US nuclear monitor has published satellite images of an Iranian weapons facility which it says may be involved in work on nuclear arms.

Images of Parchin base show buildings that could be used to test nuclear bomb components, the Institute for Science and International Security said.

A US official said concern about the site should be included in a UN report on Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran says allegations it is hiding nuclear facilities at Parchin are lies.

A senior American delegate at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear monitoring body based in Vienna, said satellite evidence "clearly shows the intention to develop weapons".

Nuclear experts have said the Parchin military complex, south-east of Tehran, may be a site for the research, testing and production of nuclear arms.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

The Isis images are said to show a structure for testing conventional explosives used in a nuclear device.

"This is a new lie, like the last 13 lies based on news reports that have been proved to be lies," Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA board meeting, said.

The IAEA board is currently deciding on a draft resolution to offer Iran a deadline to show it does not have a nuclear weapons programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3662884.stm

[Velikovsky]

I'm full of solutions tonight.

Since the US has so much of its military in the area already it's time to lob some missiles into Iran. Take out the facility. If they don't like it to bad. What are they going to do, support terrorism some more? They already do that.

What will the UN do, tell us that it was illegal? Too bad.

It is time for the world to send a message to the entire region that we are done with putting up with the extremist situation. Iran wants to threaten the US, well its time to put up or shut up.

This situation needs to be ended now.

[Talon]

I'm full of solutions tonight.

Since the US has so much of its military in the area already it's time to lob some missiles into Iran. Take out the facility. If they don't like it to bad. What are they going to do, support terrorism some more? They already do that.

What will the UN do, tell us that it was illegal? Too bad.

It is time for the world to send a message to the entire region that we are done with putting up with the extremist situation. Iran wants to threaten the US, well its time to put up or shut up.

This situation needs to be ended now.

What a great way to make neutral arabs go to the extreme and think we're at war with Islam

Iran nuclear resolution 'agreed'

The US says it has reached agreement with France, Britain and Germany on a draft UN resolution calling for Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme.

The text says the UN's atomic agency should decide in November whether to take further action against Iran.

It comes a day after a US nuclear monitor published satellite images of an Iranian weapons facility it said may be used for work on nuclear arms.

Iran dismissed the allegations as lies aimed at deceiving the UN agency.

Diplomats were quoted as saying the US agreed to drop its demands for a 31 October ultimatum to Iran in the agreed new draft resolution.

Instead, it calls on Iran to clear up "outstanding issues" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the board meets in November.

It asks IAEA boss Mohamed ElBaradei to submit a report reviewing the past two years of inspections in Iran.

And it keeps open the option of "further steps" if Iran fails to comply with IAEA demands, which could include taking Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

'Peaceful purposes'

The resolution was put forward by Europe's so-called Big Three - Britain, France and Germany. An earlier version proposed by the US, Canada and Australia had sought an October deadline.

The new draft still has to be approved by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

The issue was thrown into the spotlight again this week with the release of satellite images of the Parchin military complex, south-east of Tehran.

They show buildings that could be used to test nuclear bomb components, the Institute for Science and International Security said.

"This is a new lie, like the last 13 lies based on news reports that have been proved to be lies," Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA board meeting, said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3664660.stm

[Velikovsky]

Bush has been quoted as saying this is a "Holy War" so any attacks coming from the US as long as he's President will probably be expected since it already is an attack on Islam.

Then when a new President comes into power lots of apologies all around, and the little "Holy War" remark is forgotten.

Almost sounds like a real plan the government is doing.

[Talon]

Iran offer over nuclear programme

A leading Iranian official has told the BBC that Tehran is prepared to give further assurances that its uranium enrichment programme will be peaceful.

The pledge was made by head of the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency Hossein Mousavian.

The US, Britain, France and Germany have submitted a resolution to the IAEA which calls on Iran to freeze all enrichment activities.

Some other board members find that difficult to accept.

Programme 'peaceful'

Mr Mousavian told the BBC that Iran is prepared to discuss giving further assurances that its uranium enrichment process will be peaceful and will never be diverted.

He said the Europeans had been informed of the offer.

The question of Iran's enrichment programme is at the heart of a diplomatic wrangle at the IAEA's board of governors.

The US, Britain, France and Germany are calling for a halt to all enrichment-related activities in Iran, amid fears that Tehran could be trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme.

But other board members have expressed reservations and Iran insists on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The board is set to consider the resolution on Saturday.

The resolution would impose an indirect deadline on Iran to meet the board's conditions.

It keeps open the option of further steps if Iran fails to comply with IAEA demands that could include taking Tehran before the UN Security Council.

Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and not a matter for New York.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3667760.stm

[Talon]

Iran converting nuclear material

Iran has begun converting raw uranium into gas which can be used in the process of making nuclear weapons.

Iran's atomic energy chief said 37 tons of uranium mineral were converted into fuel used in nuclear centrifuges.

The move defies calls by the UN's nuclear watchdog for Iran to suspend all enrichment-related activities.

Iran's president said his country will continue developing nuclear technology, even if it leads to international inspections being cut off.

Tests 'to continue'

Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told reporters in Vienna the conversion process will continue.

"Some of the amount of 37 [metric] tons has been used. The tests have been successful but these tests have to be continued using the rest of the material," he said.

Converted uranium is the fuel used in nuclear centrifuges, machines which enrich uranium.

Enriched uranium can be used for civilian reactors, but also serve as the explosive core for atomic bombs.

Mr Aghazadeh said his country is willing to take measures to increase confidence in Iran and will continue to co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

At the weekend, the IAEA passed a resolution urging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and grant access to IAEA inspectors.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, but Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

Speaking at a military parade on Monday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Iran had made its choice to pursue nuclear energy, even if that meant an end to international supervision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3676008.stm

[blazer2004]

Iran converting nuclear material

Speaking at a military parade on Monday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Iran had made its choice to pursue nuclear energy, even if that meant an end to international supervision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3676008.stm

274530[/snapback]

-Edited to remove uber-long unecessary quote from Talons' post directly above-Fluffy

good job now we gona tick iran off and they will end up nukeing us Edited September 21, 2004 by Fluffybunny

[MichaelS]

This is all we need now... Bush has already gotten himself into hot water over Iraq... now he's trying to ruffle Iranian feathers?

[AztecInca]

There is already enough "wars" and conflicts going on as of now, we don`t need another one! Unless there is undeniable proof they have or are trying to create/acquire nukes, then lets just hold back a little, otherwise many innocent people will most likely die!

[Independent1]

This is all we need now... Bush has already gotten himself into hot water over Iraq... now he's trying to ruffle Iranian feathers?

274823[/snapback]

Brace for it guys. A conflict with Iran is coming, unless Iran backs down. And after that, it will either be North Korea or Syria.

These are the seven countries (as of 2002) whose governemnts actively support terrorism, and therefore that we will have to deal with, either diplomatically or if that fails via force:

Iraq

Iran

North Korea

Syria

Libya

Cuba

Sudan

Honestly, as we step up pressure on these countries, they are going to know how we handled Afghanistan and Iraq, and how we pulled Hussien out of that tiny little spider hole, and realize we mean business. Hopefully diplomacy will work.

[Independent1]

Bush has been quoted as saying this is a "Holy War" so any attacks coming from the US as long as he's President will probably be expected since it already is an attack on Islam.

Then when a new President comes into power lots of apologies all around, and the little "Holy War" remark is forgotten.

Almost sounds like a real plan the government is doing.

270728[/snapback]

Can you find a source for that?

The reason I ask si because everythign I have heard Bush say is the opposite, that this is NOT a holy war. He has said that the terrorist who want to hijack Islam want to make it a holy war.

[wunarmdscissor]

erm please please please please provide evidence that proves cuba supports terrorism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

forgetting about the fact that Iraq had no ties to terrorism please prove your comment about cuba.

[Talon]

Iran adamant on nuclear programme

Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has defended his country's right to pursue nuclear technology.

In a robust speech at the UN General Assembly, Mr Kharrazi insisted it was only for peaceful purposes.

That claim is hotly disputed by many in the international community, most vocally by the United States.

It accuses Iran of pursuing a nuclear-weapons programme and wants the case to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.

Regional concerns

Mr Kharrazi went on to accuse Israel of being the main regional and global threat to peace, citing its nuclear weapons capability and what he called its record of aggression. Israel neither confirms nor denies nuclear capability.

Mr Kharrazi also focused on Iraq.

Many in Iran were joyous, he said, to see Saddam Hussein behind bars - although even so, there was concern in Iran about the use of force without the approval of the UN.

He called for free and fair elections in Iraq and condemned all acts of terrorism and violence there.

That is likely to be welcomed by both Iraqi and American officials, who have expressed concern about possible Iranian interference, especially in the south of the country, and warned Tehran not to exploit the current chaos by trying to extend its influence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3688470.stm