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Iran using Chinese-made feedstock for enriched uranium: diplomats
Made in China?
by Michael Adler Vienna (AFP via spacewars) May 18, 2006
Iran used stocks of high-quality uranium gas from China in order to hasten a breakthrough in enrichment for a programme the West fears could be hiding nuclear weapons work, diplomats told AFP.
"The Iranians have sought to accomplish a technological achievement for political purposes and chose the Chinese feedstock gas because of its quality, which ensures a better enrichment process," said a diplomat with access to intelligence sources.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Iran had "wanted to declare it had done uranium enrichment and were in a hurry," as they wanted to have a fait accompli before the UN Security Council could move against them.
A second diplomat said Iran had indeed used UF6 supplied by China but had also tried out some of its own feedstock gas -- which intelligence sources say is believed to contain contaminants that can cause the centrifuges used in enrichment to crash.
The Security Council had called on Iran on March 29 to halt enrichment, which makes fuel for nuclear power reactors but can also produce the raw material for atomic bombs.
The Iranians "did not use their own UF6 because they wanted to be completely sure" they could turn out enriched uranium in time, the first diplomat said, referring to uranium ore converted into uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), which is the feedstock for making enriched uranium.
Iran defied the Council's calls, and the world body is now deadlocked over whether to issue a resolution that would legally oblige Iran to stop uranium enrichment.
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ridiculed an EU plan to offer trade and technology incentives in exchange for an agreement to halt the highly strategic enrichment work.
Iran had suspended enrichment-related work as part of talks with the European Union since October 2003 on guaranteeing that its nuclear program is peaceful but began making UF6 again last August when talks broke down. By September, they had made some 110 tons of the gas, according to a report of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). If the entire quantity were enriched, it would yield enough material for over 10 atom bombs, experts said.
Iran began feeding UF6 gas into centrifuges in February, thus beginning the enrichment process, at a facility in Natanz in the center of the country.
On April 11, Tehran announced that it had actually made enriched uranium but only to levels appropriate for reactor fuel, not for weapons.
The first diplomat said that Iran had used only a few tons of UF6 and had made only "dozens of grams" of enriched uranium, far from the 15-25 kilograms (30-55 pounds) needed to make a nuclear bomb. "It is a technological success, but it is politically that it is very important," the diplomat said.
China began building a conversion facility in Isfahan in the 1990s to make UF6 but broke the contract in 1997 under US pressure. Iran completed the facility using Chinese designs.
The second diplomat said the Iranians used Chinese feed but also their own UF6, made in Isfahan, at the Natanz enrichment facility, where they had completed a 164-centrifuge cascade. "We think they used both, perhaps to compare the two, and certainly to demonstrate to themselves that their own UF6 is capable of being enriched without too many centrifuge problems," the diplomat said.
The diplomats said Iran's success in moving ahead on enrichment after an almost three-year-long suspension was a sign that they carried out secret work during the halt.
In 2003, the Iranians "did not manage to run even one centrifuge for a period of time" and now "when they started this year they are very, very good," the first diplomat said.
"They are feeding the UF6 in the right quantities, they built a 164-centrifuge cascade in a few days, and they are enriching to 4.8 percent," the diplomat said, adding: "The question is, 'Where did all that know-how come from?'"
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'Where did all that know-how come from?'"
answer: the CIA via AQ KHAN:
WHY: the USA have been preparing for
the Middle Eastern adventure &
full spectrum dominance for 30 years
they armed both Iran & Iraq for a long war... [Saddam is a CIA stooge]
is Ahmadinajad?
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warheads detonation? eh? are these people mad?
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Iran May Employ Iraq Strategy in Case of US Attack
Steven Simon & Ray Takeyh, The Washington Post via Arab News
From the moment the first US warheads detonate over an Iranian nuclear installation, the United States will be at war with the Islamic republic. A vast tableau of American facilities around the world - as well as the streets of US cities - could be targets for retaliation by Iran's agents and surrogates. "The Americans should know that if they assault Iran, their interests will be harmed anywhere in the world that is possible," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, warned last month.
The most likely theater of operations in the initial stages of a US-Iranian conflict, however, would be next door - in Iraq. Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iran has methodically built and strengthened its military, political and religious influence in Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has infiltrated Iraq's Ministry of the Interior and police force, both mainstays of Shiite power. The hundreds of Iranian mullahs and businessmen who have slipped across the border have a commanding presence in southern Iraq's commercial and religious sectors.
Iran's sway over Shiite militias and its considerable paramilitary presence in Iraq gives Tehran leverage in the ongoing nuclear stalemate with Washington, and would emerge as a key factor should armed conflict break out. US forces and prestige are vulnerable in Iraq, making them particularly attractive targets. However, should Iran decide to strike in Iraq, it would have to weigh competing priorities: A desire for revenge against the Americans, and the strategic need both to avoid chaos in its western neighbor and bolster the political role of Iraq's Shiite majority. How Iran resolves this dilemma would go a long way toward determining the outcome of the US-Iranian conflict - as well as the future of the US war in Iraq.
Iran's paramilitary and intelligence buildup in Iraq would put some members of the "coalition of the willing" to shame. Over the past three years, Tehran has deployed to Iraq a large number of the Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force - a highly professional force specializing in assassinations and bombings - as well as officers from the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security and representatives of Lebanese Hezbollah. The Qods Force has a longstanding relationship with Hezbollah, which it trains and supplies in coordination with Syria through an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps unit in central Lebanon. In the words of Iranian Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the IRGC commander, "The range of (the IRGC's) duty is not limited to our land and we have extra-border missions."
Iranian personnel have established safe houses throughout southern Iraq. They monitor the movement of coalition forces, tend weapons caches, facilitate cross-border travel of clerics, smuggle munitions into Iraq and recruit individuals as intelligence sources. Presumably, Tehran has recruited networks within US military bases and civilian compounds that could be activated on short notice. Iran is also believed by regional intelligence agencies to have armed and trained as many as 40,000 Iraqis to prevent an unlikely rollback of Shiite control.
Coalition forces have suffered the consequences of Iran's military presence. US and British officials contend that the IRGC has introduced into Iraq "shaped charge designs" - powerful bombs that channel the force of an explosion into a narrow path. (Lebanese Hezbollah also has used such bombs effectively against Israeli tanks.) According to the British, at least 10 of their soldiers in southern Iraq have been killed since May 2005 by the combination of such explosives and remote triggering devices. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted in a March briefing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that these makeshift bombs are "traceable back to Iran."
US troops have improved their force protection skills over the past three years and are more adroit at detecting such bombs. But it is just not possible to fully safeguard 135,000 troops, let alone the 30,000 contractors and civilians working in Iraq. If the IRGC activated its agents within US forward operating bases, or used indirect fire weapons - Katyusha rockets or heavy mortars - Iran could kill sizable concentrations of soldiers in mess halls, sleeping quarters, headquarters tents and other key facilities. The overall level of violence in Iraq - 75 insurgent attacks per month in 2006, including 144 bombings that killed more than three people each - would give Tehran some plausible deniability.
Iran's clerical regime could complicate matters for Washington even more by pressing its Shiite allies in Iraq to demand a US withdrawal. The leading Shiite cleric in Iraq, Ali Sistani, has counseled patience and refrained from challenging the US military presence; he is also wary of Tehran's influence over Iraqi politics. However, Abul Al-Aziz Al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has closer ties to Tehran and has publicly chastised Washington for not tackling the Sunni insurgency. (The council's armed wing, the Badr Organization, musters thousands of armed members.) And the Mahdi Army of Moqtada Sadr also receives subsidies from Iran.
Although the Islamic republic may not be able to obtain a fatwa against the United States from Iraq's most esteemed clerics, it can still count on the backing of important segments of the Shiite community, particularly those jockeying for power within it. This support could quickly produce mobs of young men in the street protesting the occupation.
Tehran is capable of wreaking havoc in Iraq, and it may consider such a move in response to a US attack. However, as Iraq continues its descent into chaos, Tehran must balance its desire to hurt the United States with the equally compelling objective of fostering an orderly transition to Shiite rule in Iraq. This need for balance is rooted in Iran's wartime experience in its long conflict with Saddam's Iraq. An uneasy consensus has evolved among the Iranian leadership that the impetus for that war, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians from 1980 to 1988, lay in the Sunni domination of Iraqi politics.
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SLAPPERS
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Iran President Says Aggressors Face `Historic Slap'
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today insisted his country has the right to develop atomic energy, saying any aggressor who tries to thwart the nuclear program will be faced with a ``historic slap.''
``Nuclear energy is a right that people of Iran shout every day and will stand by it,'' Ahmadinejad said in a speech to supporters televised live from the southwestern town of Khorramshahr, on the border with Iraq in Khuzestan province.
Any ``aggression to the right of Iranian people will be faced with a lasting and historic slap,'' he said on the anniversary of Khorramshahr's 1982 liberation from Iraqi forces. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which ended in 1988 and left more than 1 million dead.
Iran is under increasing pressure from the U.S. and Europe to abandon its nuclear program. The United Nations Security Council's five permanent members -- France, China, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. -- plus Germany met in London today to discuss trade and technology incentives offered by the three European nations to encourage Iran to stop enriching uranium.
Russia and China, both with economic ties to Iran, have so far resisted using the threat of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, while the EU -- backed by the U.S. -- is pushing for them should diplomacy fail.
Reactor or Bomb
The U.S. Embassy in London canceled a briefing to be given by Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, today. Earlier, U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters that the meetings in London would be ``key,'' though they were unlikely to finalize anything, according to Agence France-Presse.
Iran's government insists the uranium work, a purification process that can produce fuel for a reactor or a bomb, is intended only to generate electricity. The U.S. accuses Iran, holder of the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, of ``being a central banker of terrorism'' and of using nuclear research as cover for the development of weapons.
Iran has mastered the enrichment process and reached the ``peaks of technology,'' as its enemies seek to ``plot by creating division among our people, and inciting to despair to prevent us from getting our rights,'' Ahmadinejad said today.
Iran test-fired a missile with a range of 900 miles (1,448 kilometers), the latest of several trials of the country's Shihab-Three weapon, the Associated Press reported, citing unidentified Israeli defense officials. Israel's announcement of the test came during talks in Washington yesterday between U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who expressed concern over Iran's nuclear program, AP said.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel's destruction, last month said Iran will use ``the latest technology'' against its enemies.
`Cloud of Uncertainty'
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Iran to ``lift the cloud of uncertainty'' over its nuclear program, and said it is ``important'' that the Iranians and the European representatives have indicated that they are willing to continue negotiations.
``In my own contacts with the Iranians, I have appealed to them not to reject anything out of hand,'' Annan told journalists during a visit to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
Iran ignored an April 28 non-binding deadline by the UN Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment, claiming it is entitled to carry out the process for peaceful purposes under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which it is a signatory.
Concealing Atomic Research
Inspectors from the UN nuclear organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, discovered in 2003 that Iran had been concealing nuclear research, contravening the treaty. The IAEA's board ordered inspectors to investigate the program and asked Iran to voluntarily stop work on uranium enrichment.
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei may urge the U.S. to accept a limited Iranian uranium enrichment program in exchange for the country abandoning ambitions to produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, diplomats familiar with the agency's policies on Iran said today.
Allowing Iran to run some centrifuges to enrich uranium would guarantee continued IAEA supervision, said the two diplomats, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the subject.
ElBaradei, who last month reported that his agency still can't prove that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, is in Washington to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Strait of Hormuz
Iran may be able to produce a nuclear bomb by 2010, the International Institute of Strategic Studies estimated today. Iran also is developing the capability to block the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and controls oceangoing traffic to and from the oil-rich Gulf states, the London-based military research organization said.
Mark Fitzpatrick, the IISS's expert on nuclear proliferation, told a briefing in London that Iran ``is on the verge'' of having the ability to make an atomic bomb.
Iran is using intermediaries in an effort to get direct talks with the U.S. on the nuclear dispute, the Washington Post reported, citing analysts and diplomats who described the move as an indication the Islamic Republic is easing its anti-American stance.
Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to Bush on May 8 suggesting solutions to reduce conflicts in the world and ease tensions between the two countries that have escalated in the months since Iran's refusal to halt its nuclear program.
Bush dismissed the letter, saying, ``It did not answer the main question that the world is asking and that is, `When will you get rid of your nuclear program?' ''
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Israeli leader visits Bush
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Bush, Olmert agree on Iran deadline
Press Trust of India - Jerusalem, May 25, 2006 - hindustantimes.com
US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have agreed on a timetable for American intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
Bush told Olmert that the plans for US intervention are congruent with the timetable put up by the later during their discussion, a media report said on Thursday.
He assured the Israeli premier that Washington would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear capability, Ynetnews reported.
According to Israeli intelligence assessment, Iran will acquire the necessary nuclear technology to build a nuclear weapon within a year, Olmert said during the talks.
The prime minister also expressed concern over diplomatic foot-dragging at the United Nations, where the United States has faced Russian and Chinese opposition to push for tough sanctions against Iran.
Despite the US assurance, officials in Washington have cast doubt over its ability to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology, the news portal said.
"I am very, very, very satisfied," Olmert told Israeli reporters after talks with Bush.
The US will ask the Security Council to impose economic and military sanctions on Iran if it refuses to halt uranium enrichment activities, it said.
If Russia uses its veto to block a US-backed resolution for imposing sanctions on Iran, Washington will circumvent the Security Council by luring allied countries to impose an economic and military embargo on Tehran, it said.
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UK leader visits Bush
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Bush Hosts Blair for Two-Day Summit in Washington
By VOA News - 25 May 2006
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to brief President Bush on his visit this week to Iraq when they meet Thursday at the White House.
A White House spokesman says that during a working dinner this evening and talks Friday, the two leaders will discuss the training and readiness of Iraqi troops as well as getting Iraq's government institutions in place.
The spokesman cautioned against expecting any timetable for U.S. or British troop withdrawals.
The United States has at least 132,000 troops in Iraq, while Britain has 8,000. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are under pressure to withdraw forces. Both men have also seen their political fortunes decline, in part because of Iraq, which has been wracked by insurgent and sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
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Iran a no-go? yeah sure...heard it all before
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Blair: Nobody targeting Iran
25/05/2006 21:45 - (SA) London - news24.com
Prime Minister Tony Blair said he did not want to start a conflict with Iran as Britain's armed forces already had enough problems to handle, in interview released on Thursday by his office. But if Iran deliberately breached its obligations on its nuclear programme, then the international community would have to take action through the United Nations, Blair warned. However, the stand-off could be easily resolved if Iran played by the rules, Blair told the Arab satellite television channel Al-Jazeera on Wednesday.
He also said that the continuing violence in Iraq was not the fault of the multinational forces in the war-shattered country. Britain has 7 200 troops in Iraq and 3 000 in Afghanistan.
Worried
"Nobody is targeting Iran," Blair said. "People are simply worried because they appear to be in breach of their nuclear obligations and because they are supporting terrorism around the Middle East. "We don't want a conflict with Iran, we have got enough on our plate doing other things. "But if Iran goes out of its way then to breach its international obligations, of course the international community through the UN security council has got to take up the issue. "But it could so easily be resolved if people just understood that here are the rules and we should all play by them."
Iraq
On the continuing violence in Iraq, Blair said: "Sorry, but it is not our fault, it is the fault of the people doing it. "How can we be so certain of this? Because there is now a democratic process, which has resulted in a democratically elected government. "That government is representative of all communities in Iraq. "So there is no excuse for anybody to carry on with violence, or terrorism, or these barbaric executions of innocent people."
He said that British troops deployed in Iraq would be withdrawn as soon as possible. "The best thing for Britain,... the best thing for me would be to say Iraq is now a stable democratic country, the multinational force leaves. "That is what I want, that is what Iraqis want, so why can't we work together and let them have it?"
He added: "What is happening in Iraq politically is amazing. "Iraq could be a successful prosperous country."
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hmm...
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More than 100 Iranians volunteer as 'suicide bombers'
25/05/2006 - Ireland online
Under a banner showing coffins draped with US, British and Israeli flags, more than 100 Iranian men and women today pledged to become suicide bombers to defend their country and Islam.
The event, held in a burial area reserved for war dead and other "martyrs", was similar to others in recent years with Islamic chants and songs and volunteers donning white coverings to symbolise their willingness to die.
But this gathering, coming at a time when many Iranians worry their country could come under attack from the United States or Israel, was clearly tailored to send a message of defiance against any possible military action over Iran's nuclear programme.
"The threats from America have swelled our ranks and given us added conviction," said 27-year-old Margess, who like the other volunteers would only give her first name and used a scarf to cover all but her eyes.
"We will stand up against them with our lives."
No weapons or explosives were displayed, but the ceremony was organised by a shadowy group believed to have links to the Basiji paramilitary group that is backed by Iran's Islamic regime.
A huge banner used as a backdrop showed coffins covered by US, British and Israeli flags.
A message, in English, promised to "damage the US worldwide" in retaliation for any attack on Iran.
Six nations, the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, are seeking a possible incentive package for Iran to entice it to give up uranium enrichment.
The package could include dropping the threat of military action but still bring sanctions.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is only for peaceful energy purposes, but Washington and allies believe Iran also seeks to develop atomic weapons.
It's unclear how the potential suicide bombers are recruited or trained, although several claimed to be Basiji members.
Officials claiming to represent the group refused to give details and the event appeared largely staged for the media.
Some of the female volunteers held their children on their laps.
"If asked by Iran's leaders, we will fight anywhere," said Hussein, 56, a volunteer with a wife and four children. "The world should know that Iranians embrace martyrdom."
One of the organisers, from a group calling itself the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, shouted out names and handed out silver dog tags. Volunteers mingled around monuments to attackers including a Palestinian suicide bomber, an Iranian militiaman killed by the US "Great Satan" forces in Iraq, and two commandos who helped carry out the 1983 blast at Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 US servicemen. An almost simultaneous bombing killed 56 French peacekeepers.
"Hezbollah, Hezbollah," the crowd chanted as a singing group supported by the Lebanese guerrilla group began songs calling for Islamic resistance.
Iran is one of the key backers of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah.
The volunteer bombers waved Korans and one held up a placard paraphrasing the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution: "Our nation is the first to prove that America can't do anything."
"We are here to prove that Muslims, that Iranians, have solidarity and we will willingly shed our blood," said Azadeh, a 20-year-old volunteer who wore a postcard of Khomeini and his successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pinned to her white cloak.
On each postcard a message was stencilled: "Those who are ready to die."
"I only have one son and he's volunteered as a martyr," said Marium Nematzadeh, 56. "I have deep belief in my religion and my leaders. I would even become a bomber if asked."
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Isreal - we will not yield
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'We can't wait forever', Olmert tells US Congress
25/05/2006 - Ireland Online
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told a joint meeting of US Congress that Israel would be a "willing partner in peace" with the Palestinians, but would draw its own borders in the West Bank should it conclude it had no negotiating partner.
"We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever," Olmert told members of the House of Representatives and Senate gathered in the House chamber in Washington yesterday.
"Our deepest wish is to build a better future for our region, hand in hand with a Palestinian partner, but if not, we will move forward, but not alone," he said, alluding to promised US support.
Olmert drew a sustained standing ovation when he declared, "We will not yield to terror," a reference to suicide attacks on Israelis such as those that killed a 16-year-old American high school student observing the Passover holiday in Israel this year. Daniel Wultz's parents sat in the House chamber, sobbing, as Olmert mentioned their son.
Olmert also drew long applause for tough words condemning whet he said was Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons and the escalating anti-Semitic rhetoric from its leader.
"If we don't take Iran's bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be forced to take its nuclear aggression seriously later," Olmert said.
Olmert said the West Bank withdrawal was vital to Israel's security and the cause of peace and could not go forward without US support.
In a policy shift on Tuesday, the White House gave unexpected backing to Israel's plan to unilaterally set its borders with the Palestinians should their new Hamas leaders refuse to disarm and renounce their call for Israel's destruction.
President George Bush praised what he called Olmert's "bold ideas" for acting on its own in the event that talks founder on the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.
From the US Capitol podium yesterday, Olmert called on the moderate Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to seek a negotiated solution - the preferred route for Olmert and Bush.
"With a genuine Palestinian partner for peace, I believe we can reach an agreement on all the issues that divide us," the Israeli leader said.
If the Palestinians "ignore our outstretched hand for peace," Olmert said, "Israel will seek other alternatives to promote our future and the prospects of hope in the Middle East."
Hamas' victory in January Palestinian parliamentary elections hurt peace prospects because of the group's violently anti-Israel ideology. The Bush administration considers Hamas to be a terrorist organisation, and has acknowledged the obstacles Israel is liable to face in trying to make peace with Abbas, who was elected separately last year.
After the two men met on Tuesday, Bush said Olmert's ideas "could lead to a two-state solution if a pathway to progress on the road map is not opened in the period ahead".
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, an Abbas ally, welcomed Bush's call for negotiations. But he rejected the notion of an imposed solution.
"President Bush said the first option is negotiation," Erekat said. "There is no other option."
Olmert, making his first visit to the US since winning election in March, told Congress that Israel had learned it must give up some of its dreams in the interest of a secure future for a Jewish democratic state.
"We hope and pray that our Palestinian neighbours will also awaken," he said.
In Jerusalem, a senior Cabinet member close to Olmert said if Hamas did not recognise Israel and renounce violence within six months Israel would move ahead with plans to unilaterally draw its final borders by 2010.
"If these things don't happen, we won't wait for years, but rather we will wait until the end of this year," Haim Ramon told Israel Radio. "This will be a year of diplomacy."
"First negotiations, and after the negotiations, if it doesn't succeed and it becomes clear that there is no (Palestinian) partner, we will move ahead with the consolidation plan," Ramon said.
Olmert has given Abbas a tall order for proving Palestinian commitment to negotiating a final deal.
Abbas would have to disarm Palestinian militant groups; the Palestinian government would have to recognise Israel; and previous agreements would have to be fully put in place.
Before leaving, Olmert met with about 40 American Jewish leaders and told them he was very much impressed with Bush's "comprehensive grasp of the entire situation in the Middle East," said June Walker, national president of Hadassah, the women's Zionist organisation.
On Iran, she said, Olmert said he was "confident that America would do what was necessary to deal with Iran."
On Hamas, Olmert said he was not confident Hamas would change, but he wanted to give Abbas every opportunity to develop a pathway to coexistence of two separate nations.
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Russia antogonises?
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Russia to supply Iran with anti-aircraft systems
26/05/2006 - Ireland online
Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov today reiterated Moscow's commitment to supply Iran with sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, the Interfax news agency reported.
"If there are no extraordinary circumstances, it (the contract) will without doubt be fulfilled," Ivanov was quoted as saying.
Defence Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 sophisticated Tor-M1 air defence missile systems to Iran under a €546.5m contract, according to Russian media reports.
The move was likely to upset the United States, which last month called on all countries to stop all arms exports to Iran and to end all nuclear cooperation with it to put pressure on Tehran to halt uranium enrichment activities.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but the United States and some of its allies suspect Iran is trying to develop weapons.
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ethnic divide & rule
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Ethnic tensions could crack Iran's firm resolve against the world
By Abbas William Samii Tue May 30, WASHINGTON - yahoo.com
During the last week of May, thousands of Iranians demonstrated in the northwestern city of Tabriz, and the previous week there were protests at universities in five cities. The protests were triggered by the official government newspaper - the Islamic Republic News Agency's Iran - publishing a cartoon which depicts a boy repeating "cockroach" in Persian before a giant bug in front of him asks "What?" in Azeri.
Azeri-Iranians - who make up approximately one-quarter of the country's population - were particularly offended by the cartoon. These disturbances come at a bad time for the Iranian government, which is stressing national unity in the face of international concern over its nuclear program.
Ethnic Persians make up a little more than half the total population of 69 million, but there are sizable minorities - in addition to the Azeris there are ethnic Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds, for example. Some of these groups, furthermore, practice Sunni Islam instead of the Shiite branch of Islam, the state religion. The Iranian Constitution guarantees the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, but in reality the central government emphasizes the Persian and Shiite nature of the state.
The recent incidents of ethnic tensions are only the latest examples of what has been escalating for more than a year. In mid-March in the southeast, which is home to many of Iran's 1.4 million Baluchis, a Baluchi group called Jundallah took responsibility for an attack on a government motorcade in which 20 people were killed. Jundallah seized a number of hostages and claimed that it executed one of them, a member of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. At least 12 people were killed in a similar attack in the second week of May. Nobody has taken credit for explosions May 8 in Kermanshah, which is home to Iran's 4.8 million Kurds, but the July 2005 shooting of a young Kurd by security forces led to demonstrations in several northwestern cities and the deaths of civilians and police officers. Since April of last year, there have been a number of violent incidents - including bombings that have targeted government facilities and which also have killed innocent bystanders - in the southwest, where many of Iran's 2 million Arabs live.
The central government typically reacts to ethnic unrest with a combination of repression and scapegoating. For example, two men were executed in early March for their roles in fatal October bombings in the southwest. They "confessed" on state television the night before their executions that Iranians in Canada and Britain instructed them to create insecurity.
The government commonly blames foreign agitators. Violence in the southwest is usually attributed to the Britain for historical reasons and because British forces are stationed near that part of the Iraqi border with Iran. In the May 19 Friday Prayers sermon in Tehran, which was broadcast across the country by state radio, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani pinned southeastern violence on the United States and Israel. He added that the most recent killings are meant to create tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. This would, he continued, undermine the country's security.
Official reactions to the unrest caused by the cartoon of an Azeri-speaking cockroach followed the familiar pattern. Although the cartoonist was arrested and the newspaper suspended, foreigners received the blame nevertheless. According to Reporters Without Borders, furthermore, two Azeri journalists were detained without charges.
Tehran's method of dealing with the ethnic issue will ultimately backfire. It can successfully employ overwhelming force against geographically isolated groups, but it would be much more difficult to handle angry Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, and other minorities if they act against the state simultaneously. If such an occurrence coincides with other forms of disorder, such as the violent student demonstrations that took place in Tehran May 23 and 24, then the regime could find that it has more than it can handle.
However, Iranian minorities are not pursuing separatism or special privileges. They identify with the Iranian nation - many defended the country in the Iran- Iraq War, and others serve in the government and legislature. When minorities protest they are not making unreasonable demands, they are just insisting on their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Such rights include use of their languages in local media, as well as the absence of discrimination. They also object to levels of unemployment and underdevelopment that affect their regions more severely than other parts of the country. The Iranian regime ignores minority rights and dismisses their concerns at its peril.
• Abbas William Samii is a regional analyst at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Inc. The views expressed here are his own.
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snub?
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Iran calls U.S. talks offer 'propaganda'
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic WASHINGTON - yahoo.com
The United States said Wednesday it would join in face-to-face talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear program if Tehran first agreed to put challenged atomic activities on hold, a shift in tactics meant to offer the Iranians a last chance to avoid punishing sanctions.
Iran dismissed the offer as "a propaganda move."
Before leaving for meetings in Europe on Iran, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that while the U.S. was willing to join talks between European nations and Iran, it was also helping to prepare a package of sanctions that Tehran could face should it decline the new offer.
"We're prepared to go either way," she said
At the White House, President Bush said, "I believe that it's important that we solve this issue diplomatically, and my decision today says that the United States is going to take a leadership position in solving this issue."
The overture to join stalled European talks came after mounting pressure on the U.S. from European allies.
The administration is convinced Russia and China would support sanctions or other harsh measures if new talks fail to persuade Iran to abandon nuclear efforts that the West fears could lead to a bomb, said a senior administration official. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because the secretary was continuing talks with other countries.
Rice will be working to reaffirm such support on Thursday.
The Iranian news agency said Iran accepts only proposals and conditions that are in the nation's interest. "Halting enrichment definitely doesn't meet such interests," IRNA said.
The United States has had no diplomatic ties with Iran and few contacts at all with its government since Islamic radicals took over the U.S. Embassy in 1979 and held diplomats for more than a year.
Rice will meet with foreign ministers from the other permanent U.N. Security Council members on Thursday in Vienna to finalize a package of economic incentives and threats to be presented to Tehran. That package would be on the table in any new talks involving the United States.
The Bush administration had until now refused to talk directly to the Iranians about their nuclear program, although there have been sporadic contacts among relatively low-level officials on other subjects. The U.S. has long rejected direct contacts because it says Tehran supports terrorism and because it wants to avoid appearing to legitimize the regime.
The offer to talk should strip Iran and some U.S. allies of the argument that the hardline U.S. stance was an obstacle, or that Washington was not willing to try every means to resolve the impasse peacefully, U.S. officials said.
"This is the last excuse, in some sense," Rice said.
She said the United States was not offering full diplomatic relations with Iran and would not swear off ever using military action to stop what the U.S. contends is a rogue program to build a nuclear weapon.
"This is not a grand bargain," Rice said. "What we're talking about here is an effort to enhance the chances for a successful negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear problem."
The administration has given arms-length support to European efforts to bargain with Iran, but also has been the prime mover for sanctions or other tough United Nations action. Russia and China, Iran's commercial allies on the council, have so far blocked that path.
Rice would not directly answer questions about whether those nations are committed to tough measures if the U.S. overture doesn't work.
She spoke of "tactical differences" and said, "I think you can be sure that our friends and our partners understand the importance of the step and the importance that the Iranians must now see of making a choice and making that choice clearly."
In New York, the U.N. ambassadors from China and Russia said the U.S. announcement showed it is more serious about finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute. Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya added that Washington's offer to talk to Iran should be unconditional.
In Brussels, Belgium, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomed the U.S. words. "Direct U.S. participation would be the strongest and most positive signal of our common wish to reach an agreement with Iran," he said.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said, "The European side's goal is to present a serious and substantial offer of cooperation, which demonstrates to Iran the benefits that would flow from compliance ... rather than the further isolation which would result from their failure to do so."
The U.S. offer is conditioned on Iran suspending its enrichment of uranium and related activities and allowing inspections to prove it. European nations and the Security Council have demanded the same thing, but Iran has refused to comply.
Iran did suspend enrichment activities while talks were active with the Europeans last year but resumed and stepped up the program this spring.
Uranium enrichment can led either to a bomb or to nuclear power production, and Iran has so far insisted that it won't take any deal that involves giving up that technology.
If Iran agreed to suspend disputed activities in order to talk with the United States, it could still insist on resuming them later, which U.S. officials say would be a deal-breaker.
At that point, the United States and its allies would be expected to move for tough U.N. action, possibly including economic or other sanctions.
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apparently not
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Iran ready to talk but won't halt nuclear programme
By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Roula Khalaf in London - Published: May 31 2006 - FT.Com
Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, said on Thursday that Tehran would accept the US offer to hold talks, but rejected Washington's demand that it suspend enrichment operations as a pre-condition for any dialogue.
Mr Mottaki said: "We will not give up our nation's natural right (to enrichment), we will not hold talks over it. But we are ready to hold talks over mutual concerns."
The Bush administration bowed to pressure on Wednesday and said it was ready to join European allies in talks with Iran – on condition that Tehran first suspended its nuclear fuel programme.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, revealed the policy change before arriving in Vienna for talks on Thursday with Russia and China – which have resisted proposed sanctions against Iran – as well as France, Germany and the UK. She said: "It's time to know whether Iran is serious about negotiation or not."
In response to the statement by Ms Rice, Mr Mottaki said: "Rice's statement was not something new. This is what was said in her previous speeches and interviews. It lacked a logical and new solution to resolve Iran's nuclear issue."
Tehran has previously signalled its willingness to talk directly to the US while insisting that it would not stop enriching uranium. Iran's government denies that it has a secret nuclear weapons programme.
Diplomats said the Vienna talks would seek to agree a package of incentives to put to Iran, as well as an "understanding" of punitive consequences should it refuse to comply.
She stressed that Iran must first "fully and verifiably suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities" before the US would join the talks. The threat of military action remained on the table, she said.
The Bush administration has come under intense pressure from Congress, prominent Republicans and European allies to open a dialogue with Iran. The reversal is the latest sign that Washington is ready to adopt a more pragmatic approach to preserve a broad international front.
President George W. Bush said the US would take a "leadership position" in seeking a diplomatic outcome. The price of oil fell by nearly $2 a barrel on the news.
A senior administration official said the US believed it had the support of both China and Russia to seek UN sanctions should Iran choose not to negotiate, or negotiate in poor faith. "We would return to the Security Council and get a resolution, and Condi will finalise the agreements [in Vienna] on a list of sanctions that would be part of that resolution," he said.
The US stressed that Iran must "fully and verifiably suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities" before the US would join talks. The threat of military action remained, Ms Rice said.
The US offer carried added significance since Washington proposed discussing the whole range of its differences with Iran, including the issue of Iraq and Tehran's support of "terrorist" groups. Ms Rice denied that the US was seeking a "grand bargain" with Tehran that would lead to diplomatic relations.
Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy chief, said: "This important statement by the US administration reinforces our hope that out of the current discussions we will be able to establish a new and co-operative relationship with Iran."
The US broke off direct talks with Iran three years ago, when Washington accused Tehran of allowing al-Qaeda operatives on its territory to plan attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Neoconservatives in the US reacted with dismay, seeing the move as a betrayal of Mr Bush's "freedom agenda".
"It is a terrible idea," commented Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute. "It incentivises everyone in the world to blackmail the US." The US and UK appear to have backed down under pressure from China, which wanted incentives put to Iran before moving to a United Nations Security Council resolution.
European diplomats urged Iran against a knee-jerk reaction. "Their instinct would be to reject out of hand but that would be a mistake" a senior official said.
Additional reporting by Mark Turner at the UN
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hmm... this sounds familiar
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Bolton: ‘This is Put Up or Shut Up Time For Iran,’ Unilateral Military Action Is ‘On The Table’
Yesterday on Fox’s Your World with Neil Cuvuto, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton explicitly said that unilateral military action against Iran was “on the table.” Bolton diplomatically added, “This is put up or shut up time for Iran.” Watch it:
Transcript:
BOLTON: And I think when the President says it's unacceptable, I think what he means by that is that it's unacceptable. So it's important...
CAVUTO: But unacceptable means that if it keeps going on you're going to do something about it...
BOLTON: That no option is taken off the table. And Secretary...
CAVUTO: Military as well?
BOLTON: Exactly. Secretary Rice...
CAVUTO: Unilateral military action?
BOLTON: Secretary Rice made that point again today. But that's why I think...
CAVUTO: That we would, I'm sorry Ambassador, that we would act alone if we had to?
BOLTON: That's why he says no option is taken off the table. But it's also why he has, the President, has reached out President Putin and other leaders in the past couple of days to say, "We're making a significant step here," that will be criticized by many of the president's staunchest supporters here at home. But he's taking this step to show strength and American leadership and to say he's willing to do something that may be unpopular even with some of his supporters, to remove all excuses from Iran and its supporters to say, "We went the extra mile. We gave Iran really, this last chance to show that they are serious when they say they don't want nuclear weapons." This is put or shut up time for Iran.
Filed under: Iran
Posted by Judd June 1, 2006 3:20 pm
Permalink
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6 Nations Agree on Iran Incentives
By GEORGE JAHN and ANNE GEARAN VIENNA, Austria - via fremontneb.com
The U.S. and five other world powers have an offer they say Iran can't refuse _ if it knows what's best for it.
The six nations on Thursday came up with incentives they hope will persuade Tehran to stop suspect nuclear activities, but made it clear that Iran risks U.N. sanctions if it rejects the package.
"There are two paths ahead," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said in announcing the proposals put together by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
The package would be on the table for a proposed new round of bargaining with Tehran over what the West calls a rogue nuclear program that could produce a bomb. The U.S., in a major policy shift, agreed this week to join those talks under certain conditions. It would be the first major public negotiations between the adversaries in more than a quarter century.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the foreign ministers from the European nations that led talks with Iran that stalled last year. Also present were representatives of Russia and China, which have been Tehran's trading partners and might join in any future talks with Iran.
Since Russia and China hold vetoes in the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. needs their cooperation to seek sanctions or other harsh measures by that body.
"We are very satisfied by the results of today's meetings here in Vienna," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters. "We consider them a step forward in our quest to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability."
A short statement issued by foreign ministers from the six powers and the European Union did not mention economic sanctions _ the punishment or deterrent favored by the United States and that Iran has tried hard to avoid.
The powers agreed privately, however, that Iran could face tough Security Council sanctions if it fails to give up the enrichment of uranium and other disputed nuclear activities, U.S. officials said.
Diplomats feared Iran would immediately reject any invitation to bargain if the threat of sanctions was explicit, officials involved in the discussions said on condition of anonymity because the seven-party negotiations were private.
The foreign ministers' statement threatens unspecified "further steps" in the Security Council.
The group's statement also contained no details of the incentives to be offered to Iran in the coming days. Diplomats previously have said the package includes help developing legitimate nuclear power plants and various economic benefits.
"We are prepared to resume negotiations should Iran resume suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities," as previously required by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Becket said.
If Iran returned to the talks stalled since last year, "we would also suspend action in the Security Council," Becket said.
The Security Council, which can levy mandatory global sanctions and back its mandates with military force, has been reviewing Iran's case for two months. Its permanent, veto-holding members have been at odds over the possibility of sanctions, with Russia and China opposed.
Iran's foreign minister welcomed the idea of direct talks, but rebuffed the U.S. condition that Tehran must put uranium enrichment on hold before talks can begin. Iran insists its nuclear work is peaceful and aimed at developing a new energy source.
"Iran welcomes dialogue under just conditions but won't give up our rights," the state-run Iranian television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying Thursday.
At the White House, President Bush warned that the confrontation would end up at the Security Council if Iran continues to enrich uranium.
"If they continue to say to the world, `We really don't care what your opinion is,' then the world is going to act in concert," Bush said.
The shift in U.S. tactics was meant to offer the Iranians a last chance to avoid punishing sanctions, and to let the United States assert that it was willing to exhaust every opportunity to resolve the Iranian impasse without force.
Previous talks among Iran, Britain, France and Germany foundered last year. European diplomats and others said the United States was partly at fault, arguing that it alone carries the global weight to make any agreement stick.
The U.S. offer for talks is conditioned on Iran suspending its enrichment of uranium and related activities and allowing inspections to prove it. Uranium enrichment can make fuel for nuclear power reactors or the fissile core of warheads.
European nations and the Security Council have demanded the same thing, but Iran has refused to comply.
On the Net: United Nations: http://www.un.org
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Iran to go ahead with nuclear enrichment
Fri Jun 2, 2006 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not stop its nuclear enrichment activities, despite mounting international pressure, a top official said on Friday.
"Iran is determined to go ahead with its nuclear enrichment work for peaceful purposes," the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saeedi told Iran's students news agency ISNA.
His comments came before major world powers were to deliver on Friday a pivotal proposal to Iran combining incentives to halt work that could produce nuclear weapons with a threat of U.N. Security Council action if it refuses.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran had weeks, not months, to respond.
But Saeedi reiterated that Iran's nuclear enrichment activities were non-negotiable.
"Iranian nation will not let us give it up," he said.
Rice also held out the possibility that she meet Iranian officials if Tehran halts atomic fuel work and agrees to talks with major powers.
Saeedi repeated Iran's official view, saying Iran was open to talks with Washington, which broke ties with Tehran in 1980, but it would not agree to the U.S. precondition that atomic fuel work be frozen first.
"America's wanting to enter nuclear talks is like someone who wants to play football ... but sets conditions before his qualification is approved," Saeedi said.
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Wrong move by US would affect oil flows: Iran
TEHRAN (Reuters) - 4th June - yahoo.com
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the world's fourth largest oil exporter, said on Sunday that if the United States makes a "wrong move" toward Iran, energy flows in the region would be endangered.
Iranian officials have in the past ruled out using oil as a weapon in Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, but Khamenei's comments suggested Iran could disrupt supplies if pushed.
"If you make a wrong move regarding Iran, definitely the energy flow in this region will be seriously endangered," Khamenei said in speech broadcast on state television and in which he discussed the nuclear issue.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power program, a charge Tehran denies. The U.S. says it wants a diplomatic end to the dispute but has refused to rule out military action.
"You (the United States) are not capable of securing energy flows in this region," he said in a speech to mark the anniversary of the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected soon to hand over to Tehran incentives agreed by six world powers to persuade Iran to abandon plans to make nuclear fuel. Iran has said enriching uranium for fuel is a national right.
Khamenei did not explicitly refer to enrichment in his speech but he said: "We are committed to our national interests and whoever threatens it will experience the sharpness of this nation's anger."
He also praised the efforts of the country's nuclear scientists in developing home-grown nuclear technology.
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Oil up $1, above $73 on worries about Iran exports
Monday, June 05, 2006 7:16:34 AM ET By Peg Mackey LONDON (Reuters) -
Oil prices climbed more than $1 to above $73 on Monday after major exporter Iran hinted it might use oil as a weapon in its nuclear dispute with the West.
The country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Sunday that flows from the Gulf, which supplies nearly 20 percent of the world's energy, would be endangered if Washington made a "wrong move" over Iran.
Officials from the world's fourth biggest oil exporter previously have said Iran would not halt crude shipments over its nuclear standoff with the West. But Khamenei's comments suggested Tehran could disrupt supplies if pushed.
U.S. crude traded $1.15 higher at $73.48 by 1055 GMT, after gains of $1.99 on Friday. London Brent rose $1.30 to $72.33.
"The threat, whilst remote, would be serious in the context of global oil markets operating with little more than 2 million barrels per day of spare capacity," a Citigroup report said.
Tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program has helped drive oil's 20 percent rally this year.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reacted to Khamenei's comments by counseling a wait-and-see approach.
Washington offered to join European countries in talks with Iran about its atomic work, but said Tehran must first suspend uranium enrichment. Iran so far has rejected the demand, saying enrichment was a national right.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday Iran would consider proposals on incentives to stop nuclear work from the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain but insisted the crux of the package was unacceptable.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was to present the proposals to Iran on Tuesday.
Oil prices were also boosted by production problems at U.S. refineries during the start of peak summer fuel demand.
"Every bump in refinery operations and every tropical storm will keep gasoline prices quite bullish, relative to crude oil," PFC Energy said in a report.
The disruptions came at the start of what was expected to be another busy storm season in the U.S. Gulf, where hurricanes last year wrecked refineries and drove oil to record highs.
Oil product futures gained ground on Monday, with gasoline up 1.3 percent at $2.2269 a gallon while heating oil rallied 2 percent to $2.055 a gallon.
OPEC producers agreed last week to leave output limits unchanged and keep pumping at near full rates in a bid to ease prices, which they worry will spur inflation that could slow economic growth and sap oil demand.
OPEC linchpin Saudi Arabia said it cut output to 9.1 million barrels a day in April due to a drop in refinery demand, not a desire to lower stock levels, the Wall Street Journal quoted Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi as saying.
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Stock futures lower on Iranian threats
Associated Press LONDON - Mon, Jun. 05, 2006
A threat by an Iranian leader to halt supplies sent oil prices sharply higher on Monday, pulling stock market futures lower to start the week.
S&P 500 futures fell 3.7 points at 1,284.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures weakened 6.5 points at 1,608.00.
The decline came as oil futures shot up by more than $1 in electronic trade, following a threat by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to energy supplies.
"If you make a wrong move regarding Iran, definitely the energy flow in this region will be seriously endangered," he said on state television, the BBC reported.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, is at odds with the U.S. and the Europe over its nuclear research program, which many in the West feel is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
In overseas trade, European stock markets headed lower, though oil producers including BP advanced on the rising energy prices. Major Asian stock markets were mixed.
Meanwhile, the euro touched a new 2006 high at $1.2979, while the yen was mostly steady against the dollar.
The euro's advance came after continued to reaction to Friday's U.S. job report, which showed that only 75,000 nonfarm jobs were added to payrolls in May.
U.S. investors were torn over the data, with some taking cheered that the data means it's less likely than the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates, while others were concerned about the economic growth implications of the below-trend jobs report.
U.S. stock markets on Friday sputtered to a mixed end of the week, with the Dow industrials and Nasdaq Composite finishing lower, while the S&P 500 ended up 2.5 points.
This week's U.S. economic release calendar isn't seen as quite as crucial to determining the Fed's future path after Friday's jobs report.
On Monday, the Institute of Supply Management's May services index is due for release, with economists polled by MarketWatch expecting a slowdown to 60.5 percent from 63 percent.
Any figure above 50 indicates economic expansion.
Pharmaceuticals may also see attention after a key cancer drug conference.
Amgen Inc., AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and ImClone Systems were among the companies presenting data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.
Chesapeake Energy agreed to buy various energy assets for $932 million. It said it's paying $2.10 per thousand cubic feet equivalent for the 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas assets.
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Bilderberger Solana to offer incentives...
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Iran incentives to include Boeing parts: report
Mon Jun 5, WASHINGTON (Reuters) - via yahoo.news
Incentives to be offered on Tuesday to Iran aimed at resolving the Islamic Republic's nuclear confrontation with the West include a proposal to allow Tehran to purchase aircraft parts from Boeing Co. and Airbus, the New York Times reported on Monday.
The incentives, to be presented to Iran by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, will include proposals to waive trade sanctions to allow Iran to upgrade its aging aircraft fleet as well as purchase U.S. agricultural technology, according to the report.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany agreed on the package of incentives last week in Vienna, the Times said, citing European diplomats and a senior Bush administration official, speaking anonymously.
As widely expected, the offer includes a commitment from the six nations to support Iran's plan for a civilian nuclear energy program, including joint projects to build light-water nuclear reactions.
The six nations also agreed to back Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization, the newspaper reported.
The report characterized the decision to include the sale of aircraft parts from Boeing and Airbus as "a huge step, particularly for the United States."
Iran has been subject to American sanctions that hinder the purchase of spare parts for nearly all the planes of civilian carrier Iran Air and its air force since its 1979 Islamic revolution.
The offers are contingent on an agreement by Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
The package does not, however, include any specific threat of military action should Iran refuse to suspend those activities, the Times report said.
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flashback
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NATO LEADERS CONTROLLED BY BILDERBERG
To understand who controls the leadership of NATO, the world's biggest military operation and now the 'World Army', you only have to look at the connection of the NATO Secretary-Generals to the Bilderberg Group.
The earlier sec-gens do not appear to have been Bilderberg attendees. These were Lord Ismay (1952-1957), Paul Henri Spaak (1957-1961), Dirk U. Stikker (1961-1964), and Manlio Brosio (1964-1971).
But from then on, the leader of NATO has become a Bilderberg appointment.
They are:
Joseph Luns (1971-1984) Bilderberg Group
Lord Carrington (1984-1988) Bilderberg Group, chairman 1991-1998).
Manfred Wšrner (1988-1994) Bilderberg Group
Willy Claes (1994-1995) Bilderberg Group
Javier Solana (1995-1999) Bilderberg Group
Lord Robertson (1999- 2003) Bilderberg Group
How much easier it therefore becomes to instigate Bilderberg policy in the Gulf, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc., etc.. _.kalami.net
note also:
The current NATO leadership role was assumed by Bilderberg Alumni Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who was fortunate enough to attend the 2003 meeting in Versailles.
Bilderberg is recognised as a 'Steering Committee'
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Bolton rejects ‘grand bargain' with Iran
By Daniel Dombey in London Published: June 9 2006 - FT.Com
Time is running out for the diplomatic effort to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme and Washington has no intention of striking a comprehensive "grand bargain" with Tehran, the US's ambassador to the United Nations has warned.
Speaking to the Financial Times, John Bolton made clear many of his reservations about the current outreach to Iran, which Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, has persuaded President George W. Bush to endorse.
Referring to a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that Iran has stepped up uranium enrichment – a process that can create both nuclear fuel and weapons grade material – Mr Bolton said: "They've got both feet on the accelerator, which is why we have a sense of urgency that these diplomatic efforts can't continue indefinitely . . . Each day that goes by gives Iran more time to continue to perfect its efforts for mass production."
While Iran insists that its nuclear programme is a purely peaceful attempt to bolster the country's energy security, the US and the European Union suspect Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
But Russia and China have repeatedly made clear their doubts about sanctions against Tehran, pushing Washington instead to back a new package of incentives to Iran, which would give the Islamic republic help in a number of areas, including in constructing nuclear reactors.
The US has also agreed to join the negotiations with Iran, if Tehran suspends enrichment.
Mr Bolton, who describes himself as "not much a carrots man", was quick to play down expectations of a dramatic breakthrough and highlighted many of the problems facing the diplomatic process.
"It would be a mistake to think these negotiations are a first step towards some kind of grand bargain [involving US recognition]," he said. "We are only addressing the nuclear issue and stopping their pursuit of nuclear weapons."
He said US security guarantees for Iran were "not on the table", and argued instead that regime change could remove a nuclear threat: "Our experience has been that when there is a dramatic change in the life of a country, that's the most likely point at which they give up nuclear weapons."
He added: "I think there will certainly be discussion of the question at the G8 summit" on July 15-17, by which time he said Iran had to make its response to the offer known.
"Some people thought for three years they [Iran] wanted to do a deal and there's no deal out there, at least no deal that they've adhered to," he said. "Maybe the deal that they want is the best of both worlds."
Mr Bolton also voiced doubts that International Atomic Energy Agency inspections would be able to prove that Iran's programme was purely peaceful, and said that sanctions against Iran if it declined the offer were "a step in the process". But he also conceded that he could not predict whether the Security Council would back such a measure.
He said the EU, which conducted negotiations with Iran from 2003, had been embarrassed by a declaration by a former Iranian official that during that time the Islamic republic had worked on nuclear techniques.
"It shows why even as they sit contemplating this recent offer they're still spinning centrifuges and now they're putting gas in them," he said.
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Iran Says Suspicious Uranium Traces Originated Abroad (Update1)
June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Iran said traces of highly enriched uranium found by United Nations inspectors in Tehran, which have increased speculation Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb, came from abroad and aren't evidence of domestic production.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency found the traces at a university in January. The nuclear watchdog's board meets tomorrow in Vienna and will release a report saying ``no further progress'' was made in uncovering the origin of the traces, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg News.
``This is not a very important thing,'' Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran today, in a press conference carried live on state television. ``It has been clarified once and for all that the source of contamination was not domestic but came from abroad.''
Iran is continuing with its nuclear program, which it says is aimed at electricity production, in defiance of international pressure and a non-binding UN resolution. The nation has yet to react to European Union proposals, delivered June 6 and backed by the U.S., which seek to end the standoff.
The uranium found in Tehran wasn't enriched to weapons grade, a senior UN official with knowledge of the IAEA's Iran investigation said June 8. The official requested anonymity because the UN report hadn't been formally presented to the IAEA board. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will present the report to the board tomorrow.
Enriched Uranium
Highly enriched uranium means the metal has been enriched above the 5 percent concentration needed for civilian use. A concentration of more than 90 percent is needed for nuclear weapons. Iran has the world's No. 2 oil and natural-gas reserves.
The equipment on which traces were found may have been taken to the university from a physics laboratory at the Lavizan military site, Agence France-Presse reported June 8. The Iranian authorities destroyed the Lavizan site in 2004 after the IAEA asked to investigate it, AFP said.
Iran began making a new batch of nuclear fuel on the same day that the EU presented its proposals, according to the three- page IAEA report. The timing was a coincidence, Asefi said today.
The EU's proposals were agreed June 1 by diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K. and France -- as well as by Germany.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki yesterday said Iran may respond with a counter-offer.
``The Europeans made remarks and now they should be ready to listen to our words,'' Iran's parliamentary speaker, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, told lawmakers today, according to a report from the state-run Iranian News Agency.
Haddad-Adel also said any ``preconditions'' for talks set by the EU would be ``meaningless.''
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Negotiator: Iran wants unconditional talks
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt - news.yahoo.com
Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Sunday that his country wants "unconditional" nuclear talks and sharply rejected any threats of sanctions if Iran does not accept a Western incentives package.
Ali Larijani said the package, presented to Iran last week, has "strong points," "weak points" and parts that still need clarification.
He said the package's offer of nuclear technology from Europe and the United States was "positive." But a key part of the proposal, concerning Iran's uranium enrichment program, was not clear, he said.
"There are also points that are unclear, such as the uranium enrichment program. This has not been made clear yet to Iran, so these are things where the finishing touches must be made," he told reporters in Cairo after talks with President Hosni Mubarak and other Egyptian officials and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.
The proposals, presented by the Big Five powers at the United Nations plus Germany, present a series of incentives aimed at enticing Iran to freeze uranium suspension to allow the resumption of negotiations over its nuclear ambitions. Among the incentives are a promise of European and U.S. nuclear technology.
"It contains positive points, like nuclear reactors for Iran," Larijani said.
But he told reporters that Iran would not accept the proposal if it contains any threats of punishment in case of rejection. "If we go in the direction of punishments, that will block the way to negotiations. We will not accept negotiations under pressure," he said.
The Big Five and Germany are said to have worked out a set of possible sanctions if Iran rejects the proposal, but these were not mentioned when a EU envoy, Javier Solana, presented the package to Iran last week in order to maintain a positive atmosphere.
U.S.President George W. Bush on Friday said Iran must respond soon or face possible penalties.
"We did not see anything about punishment in what Mr. Solana gave us," Larijani said. "What he gave was more suggestions for solving the problems between the two sides in the interest of the two sides. There were no punishments."
He insisted negotiations should be held without preconditions.
"Dialogue must be held under a reasonable and logical atmophere. If the negotiations are in a reasonable framework, then we will accept. What we say is that neither side should be putting conditions. We haven't put conditions so we expect the other side not to," he said.
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