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UN seals broken at Iranian nuclear site
10/08/2005 - 14:42:29 - The UN nuclear watchdog agency confirmed that its seals at an Iranian nuclear facility were broken today, as it postponed a meeting so diplomats could seek consensus over how to rebuke Iran for resuming activities that could lead to an atomic weapon.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said IAEA seals in place at the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan were broken to allow Iran to resume conversion activities.
The agency said it had a surveillance system in place at the facility to keep tabs on the work.
IOL
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'All options open', Bush tells Iran
13/08/2005 - 10:28:11 - US President George Bush today warned that "all options are on the table" if Iran refuses to comply with international demands to halt its nuclear programme.
Noting that he has already used force to secure the United States, he said in an interview with Israel TV that the US and Israel "are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon".
If diplomacy fails, President Bush said "all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president." He added: "You know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country."
Bush's warning came as Iran showed no sign of backing down in the row over Tehran's decision to press ahead with uranium development. The Iranians are also pushing ahead on another track - construction of a heavy-water reactor that Tehran says will be used only for peaceful purposes but which could also produce plutonium for a nuclear bomb. It will take at least another four years for Iran to complete the reactor, making it a less immediate worry for the west than the uranium programme, parts of which are either in operation or ready to operate at a moment's notice. But ultimately, the heavy-water reactor could prove more dangerous, since bombs made with plutonium are smaller and easier to fit onto a ballistic missile.
In a comprehensive package aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear programme, Europe proposed that it give up the heavy-water project in return for a light-water reactor, seen by arms control experts as easier to monitor to ensure it is not being used for weapons. Iran - which says its nuclear programme is peaceful - rejected the entire package this week. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation called the offer on the heavy-water reactor a "joke".
"We have developed this capability. The heavy water project today is a reality," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is also vice president, said on state-run television. "This knowledge now belongs to Iran. Nobody can take it from us. As they (Europeans) see Iran's determination, they will be forced to show flexibility and accept it."
While Iran has agreed to suspend parts of its uranium programme as a gesture in negotiations with Europe, it has repeatedly rejected European calls for it to also freeze the heavy-water project, which is moving full steam ahead. Iran says the heavy-water reactor will have a range of peaceful applications. It says it intends to use the facility in the pharmaceutical, biological and biotechnological fields as well as in cancer diagnosis and control. Iran insists its nuclear programme is aimed only at producing electricity, but the US accuses it of secretly intending to build nuclear weapons.
Europe is trying through negotiations to persuade Iran to give up technology that can be used for military purposes and limit its programme to possessing reactors using fuel provided from abroad. The 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, an amount experts commonly say is 8.8 pounds. The reactor - ringed with anti-aircraft guns as are all of Iran's nuclear facilities - is being built at the foot of a mountain in the deserts outside the small town of Khondab.
Nuclear weapons can be produced using either plutonium or highly enriched uranium as the explosive core. Either substance can be produced in the process of running a reactor. Uranium is enriched by turning the raw ore into gas, which is then spun in centrifuges. If it is enriched to a low level, it can be used as fuel for a reactor. At a high level, it can be used for a bomb.
Iran's enrichment programme is at an advanced stage with thousands of centrifuges ready to start working. While Iran is continuing its suspension of enrichment, it ended its freeze this week on the first step in the process - turning raw uranium into gas - bringing a sharp rebuke from Europe and today's warning from President Bush. - IOL
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'Iran part of Insurgency in Iraq' assertion
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Inside Iran's Secret War for Iraq
A TIME investigation reveals the Tehran regime's strategy to gain influence in Iraq--and why U.S. troops may now face greater dangers as a result
By MICHAEL WARE/BAGHDAD - Posted Sunday, Aug. 14, 2005
The U.S. Military's new nemesis in Iraq is named Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, and he is not a Baathist or a member of al-Qaeda. He is working for Iran. According to a U.S. military-intelligence document obtained by TIME, al-Sheibani heads a network of insurgents created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over the past eight months, his group has introduced a new breed of roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah, the weapon employs "shaped" explosive charges that can punch through a battle tank's armor like a fist through the wall. According to the document, the U.S. believes al-Sheibani's team consists of 280 members, divided into 17 bombmaking teams and death squads. The U.S. believes they train in Lebanon, in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite Sadr City district and "in another country" and have detonated at least 37 bombs against U.S. forces this year in Baghdad alone.
Since the start of the insurgency in Iraq, the most persistent danger to U.S. troops has come from the Sunni Arab insurgents and terrorists who roam the center and west of the country. But some U.S. officials are worried about a potentially greater challenge to order in Iraq and U.S. interests there: the growing influence of Iran. With an elected Shi'ite-dominated government in place in Baghdad and the U.S. preoccupied with quelling the Sunni-led insurgency, the Iranian regime has deepened its imprint on the political and social fabric of Iraq, buying influence in the new Iraqi government, running intelligence-gathering networks and funneling money and guns to Shi'ite militant groups--all with the aim of fostering a Shi'ite-run state friendly to Iran. In parts of southern Iraq, fundamentalist Shi'ite militias--some of them funded and armed by Iran--have imposed restrictions on the daily lives of Iraqis, banning alcohol and curbing the rights of women. Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, including Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, have tried to forge a strategic alliance with Tehran, even seeking to have Iranians recognized as a minority group under Iraq's proposed constitution. "We have to think anything we tell or share with the Iraqi government ends up in Tehran," says a Western diplomat.
- Time Magazine
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'Iran' -ours are bigger than yours!
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August 13, 2005 -- WASHINGTON AND TEHERAN -- Not coincidental to ethnic troubles being stirred up by Bush administration neo cons in Iran's majority Arab and oil-rich Khuzestan Province bordering Iraq, a 1998 letter allegedly signed by then-Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, surfaced a few months ago. The letter, which was a forgery (like the Niger government document alleging Saddam Hussein was shopping for yellowcake uranium in Niger) stated that Iran was going to displace ethnic Arabs in Khuzestan with Persians. The letter was circulated in Khuzestan at the same time the Bush neo-cons began increasing support to Arab separatist movements in the province. The Iranian government said the forged letter was the work of Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK), the Iranian terrorist group supported by leading neo-cons Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Daniel Pipes, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, and Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos. The forged letter resulted in rioting and terrorist bombings by ethnic Arabs throughout Khuzestan. - wayne madsen report
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Iran vows to retaliate for any U.S. attack
Sunday 14th August, 2005 (UPI) Iran warned the United States [Sunday] against targeting the country in any military attacks and vowed to strike back if it was hit.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran, "If America committed such a mistake, our defenses are bigger than America."
He was responding to U.S. President George W. Bush's comments Friday in which he did not rule out the use of military force to stop the Islamic Republic from developing its nuclear program.
Asefi also accused the United States of having a hand in recent unrest in western Iran, saying we have information of American intervention and will soon issue a formal protest in this regard.
The official did not elaborate.
Big News Network.com
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'Iran' -ours are bigger than yours!
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Iran arrests separatists with alleged links to British intelligence
(AP)16 August 2005 TEHERAN - Iran claimed on Tuesday that it had arrested anti-government separatists with links to British intelligence services, accusing them of involvement in violent protests and a recent spate of deadly bombings.
A statement issued on state-run TV did not say how many people had been detained nor reveal their nationalities, but alleged they were arrested in the southwestern Khuzestan province, which borders British-controlled southern Iraq.
"The agents arrested have confessed to belonging to separatist opposition groups and having links with foreign especially British intelligence services," a TV announcer said, quoting a ministry statement.
British Embassy officials in Teheran could not be reached immediately for comment.
The statement added that Intelligence Ministry forces had identified and arrested "all those involved in recent bombings and unrest in Khuzestan." It did not say when the arrests took place.
In June, four bomb blasts rocked oil-rich Khuzestan's capital, Ahvaz, killing eight people and injuring many more. The bombings were the deadliest in Iran in more than a decade, and seriously damaged government buildings. On Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi suggested that Washington and London were encouraging Arabs and Kurds who have rioted in northwestern and southwestern Iran.
"According to some information, the Americans intervened in northwestern Iran. This is not acceptable at all," Asefi told a news conference. "We will voice our objection in this regard soon."
No further details were available on the claims of US involvement.
- khaleejtimes.com
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'Iran' -ours allies are bigger than yours!
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Iran, China discuss defense cooperation
TEHRAN, Aug. 17 (MNA) -- "The excellent discipline in the Chinese Army is one of the most illustrious characteristics of the country," the commander of the Ground Forces of the Iranian Army, Brigadier General Nasser Mohammadi Far, said here on Wednesday.
Mohammadi Far made the remarks in a meeting with a Chinese military delegation that has come to Iran to hold negotiations on developing military relations between Iran and China, deepening bilateral ties between the two countries, and paving the way for military cooperation.
He went on to say that the vast country of China has organized a powerful army in the region through relying on efficient military training, perseverance, and discipline.
"Our mutual enemies possess advanced military technology, and undoubtedly they would rely on this technology in any possible future wars. Therefore, it seems necessary that both Iran and China upgrade their defense and military technology," he noted.
Mohammadi Far added that, relying on Almighty God and the eight-year experience of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Army of the Islamic Republic has increased its defense capabilities such that it can turn the tide in any possible war. For his part, the head of the Chinese military delegation expressed satisfaction about his visit to Iran and his talks with Iranian military officials.
Iran and China have had close relations in various spheres and have always maintained their brotherly relations over the course of history, since they have always had some mutual objectives, he observed. At the end of the meeting, Mohammadi Far presented the military emblem of the Iranian Army to the Chinese delegation and received the military emblem of the Chinese Army in return.
SA/HG
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Drone Crashes In Iran: Reports
Tehran (AFP) Aug 27, 2005 - An unmanned single-engined plane has crashed in a mountainous area of western Iran and the wreckage has been recovered by the Iranian armed forces, Iranian newspapers said Saturday.
It was not clear if the plane was Iranian or foreign, although the influential Kayhan newspaper pointed out that "usually these sort of planes are used for spying on other countries".
The reports quoted Ali Asgar Ahmadi, deputy head of security in the interior ministry, as saying the plane went down on Thursday in the Alashtar mountains near the city of Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province, 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of Tehran.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper said that as soon as the plane crashed, police sealed off the area - just 150 kilometres from the border with Iraq - and "a group of experts from Kermanshahr airbase went to examine the fuselage".
"It is under investigation," a local official quoted as saying.
No further details were given.
Earlier this year the former intelligence minister Ali Yunessi confirmed the presence of "American spying instruments" in the skies over Iran and warned that they would be targeted by the military.
"Americans have been conducting spying activities in the Iranian sky for a long time," he said in February.
US media reports earlier this year also said the United States has been flying drones over Iran since April 2004, seeking evidence to back up its claims that Iran is working on nuclear weapons and probing for weaknesses in Iran's air defences.
The administration of US President George W. Bush has refused to rule out possible military action over Iran's nuclear activities, charging that its efforts to develop nuclear fuel are a cover for an atomic weapons programme. - spacewar.com
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take a close look at this photo...is this CGI ???
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Iran must negotiate with Europe or face UN action, says Rice
Saturday 17th September, 2005 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Saturday urged Iran to return to negotiations with European Union countries, and to forever abandon plans for nuclear weapons.
She made the appeal in a United Nations General Assembly address that also stressed the need to follow through on U.N. reform commitments. The issue of what the United States contends is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program has been prominent in the private contacts Ms. Rice has been having with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. meetings.
But the Secretary moved the matter to the forefront of her public agenda in the General Assembly speech, with a public call on Tehran to return to the talks with Britain, France and Germany that it broke off in August, or face Security Council action.
"When diplomacy has been exhausted, the Security Council must become involved," she said. "Questions about Iran's nuclear activities remain unanswered, despite repeated efforts by the IAEA. And after agreeing to negotiate with Europe, Iran has unilaterally walked away from the talks and restarted its nuclear programs. Iran should return to the negotiations with the EU Three, and abandon forever its plans for a nuclear weapons capability."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan brokered a meeting Thursday between EU Three foreign ministers and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There was no apparent progress, though the newly installed Iranian leader, making his debut in an international forum, is expected to announce some new proposals in a General Assembly speech later Saturday.
The Europeans have offered Iran economic and political incentives in return for an end to sensitive nuclear activities. The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency opens a critical meeting on the Iranian nuclear program in Vienna Monday.
The United States has been sounding out member countries of the 35-nation board about a referral of the matter to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
U.S. officials say most members are prepared to do so, though there are some key holdouts, including Russia, which says diplomatic options have not been exhausted. Ms. Rice's speech, at the opening of the 60th General Assembly, was otherwise devoted to an appeal to U.N. members to follow through on commitments to reform, and create new agencies, including a peacebuilding commission and a reformed human rights agency that excludes human rights violators.
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"The Human Rights Council must have fewer members, less politics and more credibility," she said. "And it should never, never empower brutal dictatorships to sit in judgment of responsible democracies. And, the Human Rights Council must have the moral authority to condemn all violators of human rights, even those that sit among us in this hall."
Kofi Annan
Secretary-General Annan, whose nine-year tenure as U.N. chief has been marred by scandals, including mismanagement of the Iraq oil-for-food program, opened the session with a promise to vigorously pursue the reform commitments, including more stringent U.N. budgetary controls.
"I intend to follow through on every action asked of me, and I ask you, the member states, to tell me immediately, if you think I am not doing so," he said. "I will also keep score on progress you make in implementing what has been agreed. And I will speak plainly, if I believe you are falling behind. And I have no doubt that global public opinion will keep a close eye on our progress."
Many of the reforms are to be implemented in the coming year, though discussions have been deadlocked on the key issue of expanding the U.N. Security Council. Mr. Annan's term ends in December 2006.
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EU backs down on Iran under Russia, China pressure
Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:07 AM BST - By Louis Charbonneau VIENNA (Reuters) - The European Union's three main powers have dropped a demand that the U.N. nuclear watchdog report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans due to opposition from Russia and China, diplomats said on Thursday.
Moscow and Beijing have warned the United States, France, Britain and Germany against stepping up the nuclear standoff with Iran, undermining the Western drive to haul Tehran before the U.N.'s highest body for possible sanctions. Earlier this week, the EU had circulated a U.S.-backed draft resolution calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) governing board to report Iran's secretive nuclear programme to the Security Council. But with at least a dozen of the 35 members of the IAEA board opposed to the EU draft -- including China and Russia -- the EU has omitted the key demand from a revised draft.
Several diplomats from the European Union's "big three" -- France, Britain and Germany -- told Reuters they had dropped the demand in the interest of getting a unanimous resolution approved by the IAEA board, which meets this week. Iran's official IRNA news agency confirmed the diplomats' statements, citing Germany's ambassador to the IAEA, Herbert Honsowitz, as saying: "The EU has withdrawn its request to send Iran's case to the Security Council."
Western countries suspect Tehran is developing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Iran insists its programme is peaceful and intended to meet its energy requirements. The main point of the new draft, diplomats said, was for the IAEA board to pass a resolution this week declaring Iran in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but not explicitly calling for a Security Council report.
Technically, the IAEA board is required to report NPT non-compliance to the Security Council, but EU diplomats said it was possible to delay this indefinitely. However, they said the board could consider a Council report when it meets in November if IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's next report says Iran has not suspended sensitive nuclear work and refuses to begin fully co-operating with U.N. inspectors.
EU MINISTERS BLAST IRAN
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was still room for dialogue to resolve the issue. He called for a resumption of EU-Iran talks that collapsed after two years when Tehran resumed uranium processing work at a plant in Isfahan last month. "China believes the most urgent issue is the early restoration of talks between the EU and Iran," Qin told a news conference. "All parties should take a long-term view and exercise restraint."
Top EU foreign ministers insisted Iran was not off the hook.
In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tehran had shown no sign of flexibility despite repeated offers of cooperation by the EU.
"The spotlight is now on the IAEA Board of Governors to respond," the article said. "The proliferation risks if Iran continues on its current path are very great. We hope all members of the international community will remain united," it said.
A diplomat from one of the EU's big three said the trio had not reversed its position but was trying to get unanimity on the IAEA board: "We are looking for a result which maintains the unity of the board. There's really no change in our position."
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Lindsay Beck in Beijing and James Mackenzie in Berlin) - reuters
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US denies urging Russia to end N-ties with Iran
LONDON, October 5 (IranMania) - The United States denied it wanted Russia to freeze all nuclear cooperation with Iran, backtracking on earlier statements from a US diplomat, AFP reported. The US government does not oppose an agreement between Russia and Iran for construction of a nuclear power plant because the deal ensures Moscow secure all spent fuel that could otherwise be diverted to military use, said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The agreement "addresses the concerns that the United States has and others in the international community have with regard to Iran getting access to those sensitive nuclear fuel cycle activities," McCormack said.
The spokesman's comments contradicted earlier remarks by Stephen Rademaker, US assistant secretary of state, who told a UN panel on Monday that "no government should permit new nuclear transfers to Iran, and all ongoing nuclear projects should be frozen".
Iran's disputed nuclear program has been a source of friction between Russia and the United States, with Moscow keen to follow through with its 800 million dollar deal to build a reactor in the Iranian port of Bushehr.
The board of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month adopted a resolution condemning Iran for resuming uranium enrichment activities.
The resolution found Iran in "non-compliance" with nuclear proliferation safeguards, a possible trigger for taking the matter to the UN Security Council.
Russia abstained from voting on the resolution, but the State Department said it believed Moscow agreed with the IAEA's position.
"I think that Russia shares the concerns of IAEA board members that are on this that Iran not be allowed to pursue a covert nuclear weapons program," McCormack said. "We look forward to further consultations with Russia on how to address the Iranian nuclear problem at the November IAEA board meeting."
Member states of the IAEA's board of governors are due to meet on November 24 to discuss Iran's nuclear project. Iran, which denies it is pursuing a clandestine weapons program, initially reacted to the IAEA reprimand by threatening to go ahead with uranium enrichment and warned it could withhold oil deliveries from the world market. - iran mania
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UK plays the blame game
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Iran 'behind attacks on British'
Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year. A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added.
While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made.
They may feel there is little to lose right now by making such accusations, given that diplomatic relations are already low following the breakdown of talks over Iran's nuclear programme, says the BBC website's world affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the technology had come from Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran and produced an "explosively shaped projectile". He said that dissidents from the Mehdi army, a militia controlled by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, were suspected of carrying out the attacks.
One of their leaders, Ahmed al-Fartusi, was arrested by British forces recently and was "currently enjoying British hospitality", as the official put it.
It was that arrest which sparked off an anti-British protest in Basra recently. - BBC
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Oman FM plays down fears of Iran influence
MUSCAT, Oman, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi played down Saudi concerns and fears about Iran's growing influence in Iraq and in the Gulf region.
"We do not feel any danger or threat from Iran, but we acknowledge that Iran is a big state and has many giant joint interests with countries of the Gulf region," Alawi was quoted as saying Monday in comments made to Beirut's daily newspaper As-Safir.
Alawi implicitly played down Saudi fears about rising Iranian influence in Iraq, where 60 percent of the population are Shiites and identify with co-religionists in the Islamic republic.
Alawi also ruled out a possible U.S. military move against Tehran or Damascus, similar to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq more than two years ago.
He stressed that stability in Iraq "cannot be achieved by dispatching more troops to that country, but by achieving consensus and reconciliation among Iraqis."
- sciencedaily.com
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Chill deepens between Iran, Saudi Arabia (October 5, 2005) -- A diplomatic chill between Iran and Saudi Arabia deepened Wednesday when Iran's foreign minister postponed a visit to Riyadh.
Saudi official warns of widening Iraq war (September 23, 2005) -- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister warned the war in Iraq could easily spread and involve the country's neighbors.
Iran denies meddling in Iraq's affairs (September 21, 2005) -- Iran Wednesday denied accusations that it was meddling in Iraq's internal affairs, especially through the Shiite community.
Iran, Syria urge closer relations (August 8, 2005) -- Iranian supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday called for boosting Iran's relations with Syria in a meeting with Syria
New Iran president vows support to Iraq (July 18, 2005) -- Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari Iran is ready to help restore security and order
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Britain will not be initimidated over Iran nuclear questions
London (AFP) Oct 06, 2005 - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday Britain would not be intimidated over raising issues about Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions, after he revealed suspicions about Iranian-links to explosives found in Iraq.
"There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq," Blair told a news conference with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
"Neither will we be subject to any intimidation in raising the necessary and right issues to do with the nuclear weapons obligations of Iran under the atomic energy agency treaty."
| Iran Says Nuclear Fuel Cycle Not Up For Negotiation
Tehran (AFP) Oct 06, 2005
Iran's president and top nuclear negotiator asserted Thursday that Tehran's controversial nuclear facilities were not up for negotiation and said they would not talk with countries demanding they be dismantled.
"We do not reject negotiations, but we will not accept negotiations that are aimed at depriving Iran of its rights," ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in Iranian media.
And top national security official Ali Larijani told the official news agency IRNA that, "if the objective is to conduct negotiations aimed at making us forget our right to the nuclear fuel cycle, the Iranian people will not accept such a thing."
Iran has been engaged in talks for the past two years with Britain, France and Germany, which want "objective guarantees" the clerical regime is not using an atomic energy drive as a means to acquire nuclear weapons. At the heart of the problem is Iran's fuel cycle work. The so-called EU-3, backed by the United States, want Iran to give up such technology -- which can be diverted to military purposes -- and are offering incentives in exchange.
The talks broke down in August, when Iran slammed the door on such a deal and partially ended a freeze on fuel cycle work. Iran says such activities are for peaceful purposes and therefore authorised by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"I heard that the Europeans are ready to resume negotiations," Larijani said. "From our viewpoint, there is no obstacle for such talks within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)." But he added: "What is important is that Iran possesses the nuclear fuel cycle and that this is not diverted to atomic weapons, and within this framework we can give the necessary guarantees." Ahmadinejad also claimed Iran was "reviewing" proposals to negotiate with other European countries, without giving details.
Despite the Iranian assurances, the EU-3 regard a full cessation of fuel cycle work as the only credible guarantee that Iran will not acquire the bomb.
Speaking in Moscow on Wednesday, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said he was "optimistic" Iran would resume talks but said it must still answer questions to allay widespread fears it wants to build nuclear weapons.
Larijani, the hardline secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said talks "have been going on with different countries", but gave no further details.
- spacewar.com
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US Briefs On Alleged Iranian Nuclear Warhead Work: Diplomats
Most countries prefer to equip their nuclear weapons with long range delivery systems using missiles rather than planes.
by Michael Adler Vienna (AFP) Oct 9, 2005
The United States has briefed key nations on intelligence that it says shows Iranian atomic weapons work, namely research on getting a missile warhead to explode at an altitude that would maximize the blast of a nuclear explosion, diplomats and analysts told AFP.
However, a non-Western diplomat said the US briefing, carried out in various capitals ahead of a meeting in September of the UN atomic watchdog, "looks plausible but there is no hard evidence" giving direct proof of a nuclear warhead project.
Iran says its nuclear work is strictly peaceful and on Sunday hit back at the US allegations, with foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi saying: "It's a lie. It needs no more explanation."
A diplomat close to the Vienna-based watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that setting a warhead explosion at such a height, which is about 600 metres (yards), the same altitude at which the Hiroshima atomic bomb was detonated, would make sense only for nuclear weapons.
Chemical, biological or conventional weapons need to detonate closer to the ground in order to be effective.
The intelligence does not indicate whether the weapon the warhead is to hold is nuclear but the United States still considers the data the most important information it has on Iran, diplomats said. The intelligence, the existence of which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in March, contains diagnostic test information on putting a package, a so-called black box, inside the one of the medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile, a diplomat told AFP. It consists of extensive Farsi-language computer files and reports. US officials are confident the data is genuine, diplomats said, even though some analysts have criticized it as unreliable since it is believed to come from only one source.
US officials in Vienna refused to comment on the matter.
A diplomat said that, according to the briefings, Iranian research was done from 2001-2003 at a semi-government owned industrial group that works on the Shahab missile and which was on a project commissioned by the elite Revolutionary Guards military. The black box, actually a round container, is not identified as a nuclear warhead nor do blueprints show pits for uranium or plutonium, the two atomic bomb materials, but experts believe the package is meant to be atomic, diplomats said.
The United States gave the briefing to IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei and his deputy director for international safeguards Ollie Heinonen in July and then to several nations, including top allies such as Japan and EU states Britain, Germany and France, as well as Russia, China, India, South Africa, and Ghana, all on the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, diplomats said.
The briefings ahead of an IAEA board meeting in September were part of campaigning for a resolution that found Iran in non-compliance with international nuclear safeguards and could lead to referring Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore, a former US White House official under then-President Bill Clinton, described the data as "basically computer calculations of different configurations for a warhead delivery." "I'm very confident that it's authentic," Samore said of the information, adding that it was "pretty clear that it was a nuclear warhead that was being designed."
ElBaradei, whose IAEA has been investigating Iran since February 2003, says "the jury is still out" on whether there is a covert atomic weapons program.
A Western diplomat said: "People are being careful because they have been burnt in the past," referring to faulty weapons intelligence about Iraq that was used to justify the US-led invasion of that country in March 2003.
But Washington-based non-proliferation expert David Albright, a physicist and former UN weapons inspector, said: "From my own knowledge of the documents, it appears to be a first effort to develop a credible re-entry vehicle for a nuclear weapon."
A diplomat said the program had the code-name Project 111.
Drawings for the warhead showed "a set of bridge wires," used to detonate explosives arranged in a circle to drive material inwards, the diplomat said. Albright explained that this "very precise detonation of explosives creates a shock wave typically used to force a chain reaction in nuclear weapons."
The IAEA is trying to get access to certain military sites in Iran, including the Parchin facility where high-explosives work is carried out, as well as interviews with key people like Mohsen Fakrizadeh, who may be the head of the alleged Project 111, a diplomat said. - spacewar.com
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US accuses Iran of 18-year nuclear weapons plan
14/10/2005 - 22:30:05 - Iran has engaged in an 18-year programme to develop nuclear weapons and might be intending to supply them to terrorists, one of the United States' most senior diplomats claimed tonight.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, accused the regime in Tehran of practising concealment and deception over its nuclear efforts, and their real objectives.
Interviewed on BBC 2's Newsnight, Mr Bolton said: "I think that the Iranians have been pursuing a nuclear weapons programme for up to 18 years.
"They have engaged in concealment and deception and they've engaged in threats before.
"The real issue is whether an international community is going to accept an Iran that violates its treaty commitments under the non-proliferation treaty, that lies about its programme and is determined to get nuclear weapons deliverable on ballistic missiles that it can then use to intimidate not only its own region but possibly to supply to terrorists."
Tehran insists that its nuclear programmes are designed to generate energy purely for civil purposes. But Washington has long suspected that the oil and gas rich state is trying, covertly, to develop nuclear weapons.
Mr Bolton insisted that the difficult situation facing US forces in Iraq should not deter the US from attempting to prevent countries such as Iran developing nuclear weapons.
'I think the question of a successfuloutcome in Iraq is one that is very much on the President's (George Bush) mind and it is always disturbing when Americans die in a faraway place and I think what we want to try and do is give the Iraqis the capability to defend themselves and have their own institutions and representative government.
"There's no desire on our part to stay any longer than is necessary, but it cannot be a situation where the difficulties that we encounter in Iraq stop us from taking the necessary steps against countries like Iran seeking nuclear weapons." - IOL
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Deja vu - London & Washington spin for war
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Iran accused over nuclear plans
The US ambassador to the United Nations has accused Iran of spending 18 years trying to develop nuclear weapons while lying about its intentions.
John Bolton told the BBC that Iran wanted nuclear arms to intimidate the rest of the Middle East and possibly supply them to terrorists.
He said Iran had violated its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran has denied US allegations about its nuclear programme.
Tehran says it is intended solely for civilian use.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has gone to Moscow to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
'Concealment and deception'
Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Bolton said: "I think that the Iranians have been pursuing a nuclear weapons programme for up to 18 years.
"They have engaged in concealment and deception and they've engaged in threats before.
"The real issue is whether an international community is going to accept an Iran that violates its treaty commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, that lies about its programme and is determined to get nuclear weapons deliverable on ballistic missiles that it can then use to intimidate not only its own region but possibly to supply to terrorists."
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Ms Rice has won French support for US pressure on Iran
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Earlier, Ms Rice urged Iran to resume talks with the European Union or risk referral to the UN Security Council.
In August, Tehran walked away from talks aimed at halting its plans to enrich uranium.
Speaking in Paris, Ms Rice warned Iran: "There is always the course of negotiation... but there is also the course of the Security Council.
"It is therefore important that Iran negotiate in good faith."
France previously argued in favour of a diplomatic approach, but after talks with Ms Rice on Friday, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said referring the matter to the UN was a real option.
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Russian ties
Last month, Russia abstained in a crucial vote held by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
However, a resolution was still passed threatening Iran with UN Security Council referral unless it abandoned its plans to process and enrich uranium - the first stages in developing nuclear weapons.
The IAEA will meet again next month, but it is still not clear if there is enough backing to refer Iran to the UN Security Council.
President Putin has made clear that he does not want Iran to have a weapons programme, but Iran and Russia have close energy ties, and Moscow has shown little appetite to punish Iran.
The US wants to include Russia in efforts being led by Britain, France and Germany to persuade Iran to return to negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from having access to the nuclear fuel cycle.
This week, Tehran said it would welcome the resumption of talks with the Europeans without preconditions.
Later on Saturday, the US Secretary of State will fly to London for talks with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Minister Jack Straw.
- bbc
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IRAN: Ahwaz bomb attack
 Two bombs exploded today in a shopping centre in Ahwaz City, an ethnically Arab-dominated city in the province of Khuzestan, the Ahwazi Arab homeland.
Early reports suggested four people had been killed and over 100 injured, but the number of casualties is likely to rise. Today's bomb attacks come at a time when Iran is facing increased pressure over its nuclear programme.
Ahwaz City witnessed similar bomb attacks in June, in the run-up to the presidential election, killing eight people. These explosions were caused by high-grade plastic explosives. Ahwazi separatists were blamed, with the Mohi-eldain Martyrs Guerrillas claiming responsibility for the attacks, although the group disbanded in the 1980s.
Nasser Ban-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society lobbying group, said: "These bomb attacks tend to happen at times most advantageous to the Iranian regime and the majority of deaths are Arabs. The nature of the explosives - which could not possibly be produced in the backroom of an Arab slum dwelling - and the time and place the attacks occurred lead us to suspect that the bombs were the work of the Iranian security forces.
"The regime is keen to discredit the Ahwazi movement at a time when it is gaining considerable strength and challenging the state. This provides a motive for car bomb attacks on shopping centres and streets where Ahwazi Arab civilians are present in large numbers in an attempt to dent the movement's popularity. No Ahwazi group would ever support attacks on its own people.
"The regime also wants to portray such attacks as having foreign involvement, but despite claiming to have arrested the culprits for the June attacks on Ahwaz City, the government has failed to produce any evidence to substantiate these claims or put the alleged masterminds on trial. President Ahmadinejad is bound to claim British involvement in the attacks as a way of diverting attention from his own involvement in terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere."
Ahwazi Arabs have held numerous anti-government demonstrations this year in protest at the Iranian regime's ethnic cleansing policy in Khuzestan. Thousands of Arabs are being forced out of their homeland to other provinces. The majority live in some of the worst housing conditions in the Middle East, with unemployment and poverty levels of over 50 per cent. With the Ahwazi homeland containing 90 per cent of Iran's oil resources, the plight of the Ahwazi Arabs has been compared to that of the southern Sudanese or Nigeria's Ogoni people. Following a visit to Khuzestan in July, UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari condemned the regime's policy of land confiscation towards the Ahwazi Arabs, which he said was raising poverty levels.
- ahwaz.org
Further information:
Human Rights and the Ahwazi People
Economic Marginalisation of the Ahwazi People
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Special ops planting bombs in Iran?
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Britain denies involvement in Iran blasts
TEHRAN, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Britain on Sunday denied involvement in two bombings that killed four people in southwestern Iran after hardline state media said London may be behind the blasts.
Relations between Tehran and London have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks over British efforts to refer Iran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council. British officials have also accused Iran of aiding insurgents operating in Iraq.
Iran, in turn, has accused Britain of helping Arab separatists carry out attacks in its southwestern Khuzestan province, the heart of Iran's oil industry, where a number of small bombings and ethnic protests have taken place this year.
Two homemade bombs placed in garbage bins and detonated three minutes apart killed four people and injured more than 80 in Khuzestan's capital Ahvaz on Saturday.
The British embassy in Tehran issued a statement on Sunday condemning the blasts.
"There has been speculation in the past about alleged British involvement in Khuzestan," the statement said. "We reject these allegations. Any linkage between the British government and these terrorist outrages is certainly without foundation," it said.
Asked about British involvement in the bombings, Iran's foreign ministry said the matter was under investigation.
"Unlike the British we are not going to express our views without the necessary investigations," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference on Sunday. "We don't talk without proof and documentation," he said, in reference to Tehran's complaints that London not provided evidence to support its accusations about Iran's alleged involvement in Iraq.
Iran's hardline state media was eager to point the finger of blame at Britain.
"It has to be noted that Ahvaz has previously witnessed such blasts and investigations proved that British troops in Iraq were involved in these," the state-run Al-Alam Arabic news network said.
Many agree on the streets of Iran, where mistrust of Britain typically runs high.
"Who else could it have been but the British?" an unidentified man asked on state television as he was interviewed close to the site of Saturday's blasts in Ahvaz. - alertnet.org
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Rice on Psyops management exercises
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US, Britain warn Iran over Iraq bomb attacks
Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:39:10 AM ET By Saul Hudson LONDON (Reuters) -
The United States and its chief ally Britain have warned Iran over its possible involvement in insurgent bomb attacks in Iraq, top officials said on Sunday.
Iran denies meddling in Iraq and says the accusations against it are psychological warfare tied to efforts by Washington and London to report Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this month there was evidence that Iran or its Lebanese Hizbollah allies were the source of sophisticated technology used in roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), that have targeted British soldiers in southern Iraq.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that Washington had warned Tehran over the issue.
"We have tried to deliver a message ... about this issue of IEDs in southern Iraq," Rice told reporters during a visit to London for talks with Blair.
"We have channels with which to do it. But we use them sternly and pretty specifically to deliver messages."
The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Iran but occasionally talks to the government through Swiss diplomats in Tehran or through the Islamic republic's ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
Iran says Britain has presented no evidence linking it or Hizbollah to insurgent activity in Iraq, an argument disputed by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
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"What we have presented to the Iranians is evidence which in our judgment clearly links the improvised explosive devices which have been used against British and other troops mainly in the south of Iraq to Hizbollah and Iran," he told BBC radio.
"We look to the Iranians to desist from anything they have been involved with in the past and to use their very considerable influence with Hizbollah to ensure this continued use ... stops in Iraq."
Hizbollah has also denied any links to the Iraq bombs.
NUCLEAR TENSIONS
Blair has said the Iraq bombings may have been an attempt by Iran to intimidate Britain over its tough stance in talks to limit Tehran's use of nuclear technology.
Tensions between Tehran and London were exacerbated by deadly explosions in southwestern Iran on Saturday which some state media blamed on Britain.
Two homemade bombs placed in garbage bins and detonated three minutes apart killed four people and injured more than 80 in the oil city of Ahvaz.
The British Embassy in Tehran issued a statement condemning the blasts, the latest in a string of attacks this year in Khuzestan province, the heartland of Iran's oil industry.
"There has been speculation in the past about alleged British involvement in Khuzestan," the statement said.
"We reject these allegations. Any linkage between the British Government and these terrorist outrages is certainly without foundation."
Asked about British involvement in the bombings, Iran's Foreign Ministry said the matter was under investigation.
"Unlike the British we are not going to express our views without the necessary investigations," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.
Asefi added that Tehran was keen to return to the negotiating table with the European Union over its nuclear program but would not agree to the EU's key demand that it halt all nuclear fuel activities before talks can resume.
"The (U.N. Security) Council cannot be used as a Sword of Damocles against Iran," he said. "We cannot be threatened by referral."
metronews
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"My own belief is that military action in respect of the nuclear dossier in respect of Iran is inconceivable," Straw said.
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Military Action Against Iran Not On Agenda: British FM
London (AFP) Oct 16, 2005 - Military action against Iran is not on anyone's agenda, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Sunday after a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Iran's controversial nuclear programme.
"Military action is not on anybody's agenda in respect of the Iranian nuclear dossier," Straw said on Channel 4 television. "My own belief is that military action in respect of the nuclear dossier in respect of Iran is inconceivable," he stressed.
Iran denies allegations by the United States that it has sought to develop nuclear weapons, and insists it needs nuclear energy to replace oil stocks when they run out. Talks on the nuclear issue between Iran and the so-called EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- broke down in August after Tehran ended a freeze on uranium fuel cycle work.
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On Sunday it reiterated its refusal to suspend uranium fuel work, as sought by the three European states as a precondition of resuming talks with Tehran.
The United States and the EU-3 have been lobbying members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities.
The remarks by Jack Straw also follow a war of words between Iran and Britain with mutual allegations of interference.
Iran's hardline president said Sunday he suspected British involvement in a double bomb attack in the southwest of his country, an allegation that closely followed British complaints of Iranian meddling in Iraq. - spacewar.com
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Russians Helping Iran Create Europe Missile Threat: British Paper
London (AFP) Oct 16, 2005 - Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran obtain the technology needed to make missiles capable of hitting European capitals, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday.
Citing anonymous "Western intelligence officials", The Sunday Telegraph said the Russians were go-betweens as part of a multi-million-pound (dollar, euro) deal they negotiated between Iran and North Korea in 2003.
"It has enabled Teheran to receive regular clandestine shipments of top secret missile technology, believed to be channelled through Russia," the newspaper reported in a front-page article.
The allegations came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice feuded openly with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over Iran's nuclear programme while on a brief trip to Moscow on Saturday.
The article also emerged as Rice prepared to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London later Sunday.
According to the Telegraph, Iran would be able to use its new technology to build a missile with a range of 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles).
"It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device," the newspaper said.
It quoted a senior US official as saying Iran's programme was "sophisticated and getting larger and more accurate. They have had very much in mind the payload needed to carry a nuclear weapon.
"I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows what the Iranians are doing."
Washington has long suspected that Iran is using its nuclear power programme as cover to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons, a suspicion Tehran says is unfounded. It insists that its nuclear activities are designed to generate energy purely for civil purposes.
- spacewar.com
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