Iran given 'nuclear weapon' data

Iran has passed on to United Nations inspectors documents on how to build a crucial part of a nuclear bomb, the UN's atomic agency says.

Tehran says it got the information from the nuclear smuggling network run by disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, according to an agency report.

The Iranians say they neither requested the data from AQ Khan nor used it.

The agency concludes Iran has improved co-operation with its inspectors, but has yet to provide full transparency.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said more openness was "indispensable and overdue".

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for energy purposes only.

But many board IAEA members are concerned about Iran's decision to resume uranium conversion - a precursor to enrichment. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons.

In a five-page internal report, the agency said the Iranians had obtained data on processing enriched uranium from AQ Khan's network in 1987.

A source familiar with the report told the BBC the information amounted to "design information which could be used for a critical part of a nuclear bomb".

The IAEA report called on Tehran to give more information on equipment that could have both civilian and military uses.

It also said Iran had to provide access "to relevant military-owned workshops and research and development locations".

'Common goal'

Talks between European countries and Iran broke down in August, when Iran resumed nuclear conversion for the first time after a nine-month hiatus.

In September the IAEA's board called on Iran to cease all nuclear fuel work, and threatened to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions. The IAEA's board of governors is set to meet again next week.

The US and Europe want Iran to give up all activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Senior US envoy Nicholas Burns was expected to meet British, French and German negotiators in London on Friday ahead of next week's meeting.

The US state department spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday's talks would consider "how together we can all act to accomplish our common goal".

He said Iran's decision to resume uranium processing went "against what they themselves have committed themselves to and what the international community has asked of them".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4449860.stm
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IAEA: Iran bought documents on enriching uranium

November 18, 2005


VIENNA, Austria-- Iran gave the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency documents it obtained on the black market that diplomats said Friday seemed to be part of a design for a nuclear warhead.

The papers obtained from a network run by a Pakistani scientist showed how to cast highly radioactive uranium into a form that could be used to build the core of an atomic bomb, the diplomats said.

The revelations came as Iran said it had begun converting a second batch of uranium into gas, a step that brings it closer to producing the enriched uranium used to either generate electricity or build bombs.

The European Union, with U.S. support, has been calling on Iran to halt conversion since August. But the nation's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told state TV the country had started converting a second batch of uranium.

"This job is done and the plant is continuing its activity," Larijani said in the interview recorded late Thursday and broadcast Friday.

He added that Iran had informed the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency of the development.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that Iran received the detailed designs from the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. His network supplied Libya with information for its now-dismantled nuclear weapons program that included an engineer's drawing of an atomic bomb.

The document given to Iran showed how to cast "enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms," said a confidential IAEA report. IAEA officials refused to comment on the implications of the finding.

But diplomats close to the agency said it could indicate a design for the core of a nuclear warhead. The report said Iran insisted it had not asked for the designs but was given them anyway by members of the nuclear network-- something an official close to the agency said the IAEA was still investigating.

The diplomats requested anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential report seen by The Associated Press. The document was prepared for Thursday's meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, which could decide to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions for violating an international nuclear arms control treaty.

Most board nations are concerned that Iran has resumed uranium conversion-- a precursor to enrichment-- and has refused to meet all IAEA requests about a nuclear program that was clandestine for nearly 20 years until discovered three years ago.

The United States insists Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains its program is strictly for generating electricity.

The chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, Gregory L. Schulte, said Washington was "very concerned" about the find, along with the "large cache of documents uncovered by the agency" showing detailed instructions on how to set up uranium enrichment facilities.

"This opens new concerns about weaponization that Iran has failed to address," he told reporters.

The report said Iran had handed over black-market documents revealing detailed instructions on setting up the complicated process of uranium enrichment. Khan has acknowledged selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

One diplomat said on condition of anonymity that the information on designing the warhead core was less comprehensive than full documentation on how to make a weapon given Libya. But he said the find was important for the investigation of Iran's nuclear program and for an understanding of "what the network could offer" its customers.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the IAEA report contained no new information, and Pakistan had cooperated with IAEA investigators. She would not say to what extent Khan had cooperated with Iran to help it acquire nuclear technology.

The report also suggested Iran had something to hide, saying it continues to refuse access to a sensitive site where it could be storing equipment that could help investigators determine whether the military is running a secret nuclear program.

It said more transparency by Tehran was "indispensable and overdue" as agency inspectors try to determine if Iran's military secretly ran its own nuclear program parallel to a civilian one.

Inspectors needed access both to more details on Iran's enrichment activities and a site where it is believed to be warehousing equipment that could be used in a weapons program, the document said.

"There still remain issues to be resolved" in connection with whether the military was supplied with centrifuge technology in the mid-1990s and then conducted secret enrichment activities between 1995 and 2002, it said.

The report said the key outstanding issues concerning Iran's nuclear program include whether the military was involved in enrichment, access to the military site where the "dual use" equipment was believed held and greater access to individuals involved in the enrichment program.

"Transparency measures should include the provision of information and documentation related to the procurement of dual-use equipment and permitting visits to relevant military-owned workshops and R&D locations thought run by the military," the report said.

The agency is "still awaiting additional visits," both to the military site at Lavisan-Shian, just outside Tehran, and to Parchin, which IAEA inspectors visited for the second time a few weeks ago.

Larijani said Iran refused to give inspectors access to Lavisan, on the northeastern outskirts of Tehran, last month.

"To visit some places, the inspectors' wish is not sufficient. They cannot force Iran to allow a visit to any place, particularly in military areas," Larijani said.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/iran18b.html
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Bush backs Putin’s initiative on Iran PUSAN, South Korea,

Nov 18 (Reuters) U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday backed an initiative by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end a stalemate over Iran's nuclear plans as the pair held an hour-long meeting before attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Pusan. The Russian plan would allow Iran to continue nuclear fuel production if it shifted its most critical stage, uranium enrichment, to Russia as part of a joint venture.

Don’t Let Iran Play Ball

Ban their soccer team from Germany 2006; and replace it with Israel’s

By Emanuele Ottolenghi

Two clocks are ticking in Tehran; one, faster, is the nuclear clock. The other, slower, is the regime-change clock. The challenge for Western policymakers trying to square this circle is how to slow down the former while accelerating the latter.

Military intervention is practically risky and politically remote. It is risky because it could easily cause a nationalist backlash strengthening, rather than weakening, support for the regime. It is remote, because in Europe at least force is no option and, especially after the deep transatlantic rift caused by the Iraq war, Europe, and the U.S. need to cooperate in order to achieve the common goal of preventing Iran’s dictatorship from going nuclear.

Before last June’s presidential elections in Iran brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, the Europeans, backed by the U.S., had pursued a policy of "critical engagement" with the regime (which sometimes boiled down to the Europeans engaging and the Iranians criticising). But Ahmadinejad’s crude radicalism exposed the true face of Iran’s regime: A blunter policy is now urgently needed. What to do? Short of war and surgical strikes against nuclear targets, the West can opt for economic sanctions. But economic sanction regimes have a patchy record: Rarely have they truly undermined the regimes they were meant to target (think Iraq and Serbia); often their long-term effect was to hurt the oppressed populations they were meant to rescue (think Iraq again); and they solicit illicit traffics, inviting companies to circumvent them (think Oil-for-Food). And given the Islamic republic’s strong economic ties with Europe and Russia, there is no reason to doubt that a sanctions’ regime, even if approved, would involve similar shortcomings.

There are however a number of viable alternatives. To slow down the nuclear clock, there is little need to invade Iran or target it from the air. Leave the business to selective, smart sanctions, implemented through aggressive naval blockades and border controls. And give it some help through discreet sabotage: One does not need to destroy Iran’s reactors; it is enough to incapacitate some of those who operate them, for example.

When it comes to speeding up the clock of regime change, there’s the old, true, and tested method of supporting revolution through generous financial and logistical aid to opposition groups and other subversive but peaceful means. This is a must, but it will take time.

Something dramatic is now needed to keep the pressure going on Iran. The Soccer World Cup, scheduled for next June in Germany, offers a great chance.

On December 9, the German city of Leipzig will host the draw for the qualifying matches of Germany 2006. Iran is among the 32 qualified teams. Not so Israel, which Iran’s president would like to wipe off the map.

So here’s the deal. As Washington Institute’s Iran expert Patrick Lawson has suggested in the past, the international community should exclude Iran from the world cup. Sport bans have been successfully used in the past against South Africa’s teams, both club and national. The precedent would impose no burden on business interests but it would embarrass Tehran and create an international consensus on the nature of its regime.

Though soccer matches in Iran during the qualifying stages actually served as focal point of anti-regime demonstrations, this time the games would be far from home and would offer less of a chance for street demonstrations. A ban on the other hand would create a further popular grievance against the regime, and it would tell the people of Iran that their national pride, though wounded it may be, can be rescued once their government acts in a more benign fashion towards its neighbours as well as its own citizens. And that the West, for a change, is now serious about helping Iran’s democrats bring the mullahs down.

But the ban would deprive the World Cup of a team. Who would replace Iran at the Leipzig draw on December 9?

Israel’s team is the answer. Israel, geographically in the Middle East, had to play against much stronger European teams like France and Ireland, due to a sport boycott — tolerated by international sport authorities — which the Jewish state endures in its region. If that was not enough, foreign teams feared playing in Israel for safety reasons, forcing Israel to play its own home games away from home and its supporters. Despite these hurdles, Israel’s team performed well and was eliminated in the qualifying stages only due to goal difference. But had Israel played instead against Qatar, Laos, and Jordan like Iran did, it would have easily qualified. Given Ahmadinejad’s propensity to destroy Israel, and Israel’s worthy performance on the soccer field, this swap is only fair.

But there’s a deeper political message here. Israel’s national team is a symbol of coexistence in the region, with Arab and Jewish players sharing the same passion for the sport and the same devotion to the colours of their national team. The replacement of Iran, whose president wants to wipe Israel off the map, with a Jewish-Arab team donning Israel’s flag, would publicly humiliate the mullahs in front of the world and it would underscore a blunt if symbolic message to Tehran: as long as you act as a pariah nation, you will be treated as one.

http://story.irishsun.com/p.x/ct/9/i...1cd3571b4f088/
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IAEA says Iran received black market uranium documents

18/11/2005 - 18:59:31

The UN atomic agency revealed today that Iran received black-market designs to encase weapons-grade uranium and diplomats said they appeared to be part of blueprints for a nuclear warhead.

A senior US diplomat called the find disturbing and other diplomats accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency said they expected the US and its allies to use it in their push to have Tehran referred to the UN Security Council as early as next week.

The revelations came as Iran said it had begun converting a second batch of uranium into gas, a step that brings it closer to producing the enriched uranium used to either generate electricity or build bombs.

The European Union, with US support, has been calling on Iran to re-impose a freeze on conversion since August. But the nation’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told state TV the country had started converting a second batch of uranium.

“This job is done and the plant is continuing its activity,” Larijani said in the interview recorded late yesterday and broadcast today.

The IAEA said today that Iran received the detailed designs from the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program. His network supplied Libya with information for its now-dismantled nuclear weapons programme that included an engineer’s drawing of an atomic bomb.

The document given to Iran in 1987 showed how to cast “enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms,” said a confidential IAEA report. IAEA officials refused to comment on the implications of the finding.

But diplomats close to the agency said it appeared to be a design for the core of a nuclear warhead. The report said Iran insisted it had not asked for the designs but was given them anyway by members of the nuclear network – something a senior official close to the agency said the IAEA was still investigating.

The diplomats requested anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential report obtained by The Associated Press. The document was prepared for Thursday’s meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board, which could decide to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for violating an international nuclear arms control treaty.



Most board nations are concerned that Iran has resumed uranium conversion – a precursor to enrichment – and has refused to meet all IAEA requests about a nuclear programme that was clandestine for nearly 20 years until discovered three years ago.

The US insists Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains its programme is strictly for generating electricity.

The chief US delegate to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said Washington was “very concerned” about the design, along with the “large cache of documents uncovered by the agency” showing detailed instructions on how to set up uranium enrichment facilities.

“This opens new concerns about weaponisation that Iran has failed to address,” he told reporters.

Former nuclear inspector David Albright said the design is “part of what you need ... to build a nuclear weapon.”

Although it’s not a “smoking gun” proving Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, the find casts doubt on previous Iranian assertions it had no documents on making such arms, said Albright, now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.

The report said Iran had handed over black-market documents revealing detailed instructions on setting up the complicated process of uranium enrichment.

Khan has acknowledged selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The report also suggested Iran had something to hide, saying it continues to refuse access to a sensitive site where it could be storing equipment that could help investigators determine whether the military is running a secret nuclear programme.

It said more transparency by Tehran was “indispensable and overdue” as agency inspectors try to determine if Iran’s military secretly ran its own nuclear programme parallel to a civilian one.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/11/18/story230960.html
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Bush Warms to Putin's Plan on Iran

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) - President Bush told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the United States supports a proposal from Moscow that could deny Iran the ability to produce nuclear weapons.

``It may provide a way out,'' National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said of the Russian plan, discussed during an hourlong meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents that ranged across a variety of difficult topics.

Putin is often criticized in the West for rolling back democratic progress by imposing state control of national broadcasters, scrapping elections for regional governors, and dismantling the Yukos oil company giant after its former CEO opposed the Russian leader.

U.S. officials' concerns have grown with the introduction of legislation last week in Russia's State Duma by members of Putin's party that would keep foreign non-governmental organizations from operating offices in Russia and deny foreign funds to Russian organizations that engage in certain political activities.

Two former vice presidential candidates, Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat John Edwards, had urged Bush to bring up the issue with Putin. ``If this proposal comes into force, the government will clearly have in its hands the authority to close down public organizations simply because it finds their views and activities inconvenient,'' Kemp and Edwards wrote Bush. They are co-chairmen of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on Russia.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said Bush raised the matter with Putin but would not describe what he said. ``Sometimes there are issues that can be more productively discussed out of public view,'' he said.

The Bush-Putin session on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum emphasized their shared fight against terrorism, Moscow's aspiration to join the World Trade Organization by the end of the year, and the campaigns to stop North Korea and Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Russia, a key Iranian ally, has refused to support Bush's eagerness to go to the U.N. Security Council with suspicions Iran is trying to build a nuclear arsenal. Also, over U.S. objections, Russia is building a nuclear reactor for a power plant in Iran and says it believes Iran's assurances the plant is for civilian energy use alone.

But Bush praised Putin for several steps Russia has taken that ``would reduce the proliferation risks'' in Iran, Hadley said.

Russia has helped bring Tehran back into European-led negotiations over its enrichment of uranium and reached agreement with Iran that any spent fuel rods from the plant would be sent back to Russia. And Bush expressed support for a Russian plan that would allow Iran to convert uranium but move the enrichment process to a facility to be built for Iran in Russia, Hadley said.

In theory, that would deny Iran the capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium needed for nuclear weapons.

Though Iran has ``not surprisingly'' so far rejected the idea, Hadley said: ``We think that doesn't end it. This will be an issue we will return to.''

The pace of democratic progress under Putin's leadership has increasingly become a sour note in Bush's meetings with his Russian counterpart, clouding a relationship that quickly moved to a first-name basis and became stronger after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

But appearing in a hotel suite for their fifth meeting of the year, the pair projected only warm smiles and friendly chitchat. ``Hey Vladimir. How are you? Looking good,'' Bush said, tapping the Russian on the back.

``The dynamic in the room was very positive, very loose,'' White House counselor Dan Bartlett said.

As Bush and Putin projected solidarity, a crack appeared in the united front presented a day earlier by the president and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. Catching the White House by surprise, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced Friday it will include plans to bring home about a third of its 3,200 troops in Iraq when it seeks parliamentary approval for extending the deployment.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said the South Korean government will make a decision on troop deployment levels based on the situation in Iraq and domestic demands.

National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said no notice had been given to the Bush administration on an issue - South Korea's contributions to the military coalition in Iraq - that had been a positive topic of discussion in Bush and Roh's talks Thursday.

At the APEC meetings that got underway Friday in this port city, the 21 leaders were focusing on two items important to Bush. The leaders were hoping to make a strong statement capitalizing on their combined clout - the countries represent nearly half of global trade - to reinvigorate stalled talks on a worldwide free-trade pact. New WTO talks are set for next month in Hong Kong.

They also were pledging united efforts to reduce the risk of a global flu pandemic.

Outside at barricades near the meeting, riot police sprayed high-powered water hoses Friday to hold back about 4,000 demonstrators chanting ``No Bush! No APEC.'' Some demonstrators threw rocks and bamboo sticks at the police. The rally lasted several hours and 11 officers were injured, police said.

Bush was to attend the final APEC sessions Saturday, meet separately with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then fly to Osan Air Base south of Seoul to speak to U.S. troops. Later in the weekend, he was to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing and stop in Mongolia to finish his four-country Asian swing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...424372,00.html
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Iran gives UN bomb part instructions

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report on Friday that Iran had given it a document that diplomats said included partial instructions for making the core of a nuclear bomb.

The U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the disclosure heightened concerns about weaponisation, but other diplomats and a U.S. nuclear expert urged caution, saying further investigation was needed.

"Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in his report to the agency's board of governors, due to meet on November 24 to consider again whether to send Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

The report, obtained by Reuters, said documents the IAEA was given included one "on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium into hemispherical forms".

One European diplomat described it as a "cookbook" for the enriched uranium core of a nuclear weapon.

A diplomat close to the IAEA called the document "damaging" as it dealt with an important aspect of making an atomic weapon.

"But this is not the blueprint the Libyans had," he said, referring to a Chinese bomb design given to Tripoli before it renounced its weapons-of-mass destruction programme in 2003.

"For a cookbook you would need hundreds of pages and what we have here is a few. It's more an outline than a step-by-step 'how to'"," the diplomat added.

A former U.N. weapons inspector, David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the document fell well short of a building manual for a bomb core.

"Iran has gone from saying it got nothing on this subject to (saying it got) a little bit," Albright said. "But the question remains: did Iran get more than it admitted to?"

"This (document) opens new concerns about weaponisation that Iran has failed to address," the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said in a statement.

Tehran told the IAEA the document had come to it unsolicited from people linked to the black market set up by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

"This has to have a weapons use...The only question is 'Did they go looking for this'? The Iranians say they didn't," said another Western diplomat.

Iran says it wants to use nuclear power only to generate electricity and has the legal right to do so. But it hid a nuclear development programme from the IAEA for 18 years until 2003, stirring Western doubts about its intentions.

Concern rose further when the Islamic republic's president said last month that Israel should be "wiped off the map".

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the document showed Iran "continues to contravene its commitments...continues to fail to respond to all the questions of the IAEA".

NEW URANIUM PROCESSING GOES AHEAD

ElBaradei confirmed Tehran had begun processing a new batch of uranium on Wednesday, in spite of Western pressure to halt sensitive atomic work. Iran acknowledged this on Friday but did not say when work had begun.

"We consider that this is a decision which does not go in the right direction," a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

While Iran had been "more forthcoming" in giving access to documents and information in some areas, the IAEA report said, questions on the nature of its nuclear plans persisted.

ElBaradei's report asked Iran to provide information on dual-use equipment procurement and allow visits to locations linked to sites such as Lavizan, which Washington says was used for secret nuclear work but was bulldozed before IAEA inspectors could go there.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, quoted by the semi-official ISNA students news agency, said earlier Tehran could not accept the IAEA demand for more access "especially since Lavizan-Shian is a military complex".

Iran took a full-page ad in Friday's New York Times defending its nuclear activities and accusing the United States and its European allies of creating an unnecessary crisis. It contained a detailed rebuttal of all charges and said it resumed uranium conversion because Britain, France and Germany, under U.S. pressure, violated a 2004 agreement.

The three European countries, which led now-stalled European Union negotiations with Iran, met U.S., Chinese and Russian officials in London on Friday to discuss whether to haul Iran before the Security Council for possible sanctions.

The London talks were also due to discuss a Russian idea, tentatively approved by the EU trio and Washington, meant to break the stalemate with Iran by letting it continue some nuclear fuel output but to shift uranium enrichment to Russia.

Enrichment, the step that follows conversion, purifies uranium to the level needed to fuel power plants or, if enriched further, to the level needed to build a nuclear weapon.


http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...-IRAN-IAEA.xml
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Iran, in U.S. newspaper ad, defends nuclear program


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran on Friday took the highly unusual step of running a costly full-page ad in the New York Times defending its nuclear activities and accusing the United States and European allies of creating an "unnecessary crisis."

As U.S. and other key officials met in London to discuss efforts to force Tehran to abandon what they believe is a weapons-related program, Iran in its advertisement issued a detailed rebuttal of all charges and said it resumed uranium conversion this week because Britain, France and Germany, under U.S. pressure, violated a 2004 agreement.

But Iran also held out the possibility of resolving the dispute, saying "a diplomatic and negotiated framework is the desired approach for a successful outcome and Iran is ready to consider all constructive and effective proposals."

Central to Tehran's argument is the assertion that it is pursuing only peaceful nuclear energy -- not nuclear weapons -- despite concealing its activities for nearly two decades.

"In fact, the predominant view among Iranian decision-makers is that development, acquisition or possession of nuclear weapons would only undermine Iranian security," read the ad, headlined "An Unnecessary Crisis" and issued in the name of Iran's U.N. mission.

Tehran suspended nuclear activities at its facility at Isfahan under a November 2004 deal with Britain, France and Germany -- the EU3 -- but resumed work at the plant in August, prompting the trio to suspend negotiations.

Iranian officials confirmed on Friday that it had resumed uranium conversion at the plant this week.

While not illegal, the new activity signals Iranian defiance before next Thursday's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors, which could send Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

A new IAEA report on Friday disclosed that Iran had turned over a document containing partial instructions for making the core of a nuclear weapon.

But U.S., Israeli and other officials say they do not expect Iran to have an actual weapon for six to 10 years.

U.S. and other officials in recent days have said they do not expect a showdown vote on U.N. referral at next week's IAEA meeting because of objections from several countries, particularly Russia, a central player because it is building Iran's nuclear complex at Bushehr.

In the ad, Iran defended the clandestine nature of its program, arguing it "broke no laws" and was forced to operate secretly to circumvent an "intensive campaign" by unnamed actors to deny it nuclear power plants and materials.

Countering U.S. and other claims that oil and gas-rich Iran does not need nuclear energy, the ad cited a 1974 U.S. study "which predicted Iran's need for nuclear energy and recommended the building of nuclear plants capable of generating 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 1994."

It goes point by point through the diplomatic negotiations with the EU3 since 2003, insisting Iran repeatedly offered compromises and operated in good faith while the EU3, under U.S. pressure, sought to "intimidate" Iran and reneged on security and economic cooperation commitments.

The Europeans keep insisting Iran return to the Paris agreement of November 2004, which called for Tehran to suspend enrichment activity.

But the ad said "the EU3 negotiating posture and the empirical evidence of lack of progress (in negotiations) had in fact removed any onus from Iran to continue the suspension."

Moreover, suspension is not legally binding and Iran has a right to a civilian nuclear program, including the nuclear fuel cycle, under the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, it added.


http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...c=Worldupdates
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U.S., France Concerned By Iranian Nuclear Disclosures

Iran's uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan (file photo)
(AFP)

18 November 2005 -- The United States and France are expressing concern about revelations that Iran has resumed uranium conversion and that Tehran obtained detailed instructions on making enriched uranium that could be used to manufacture a nuclear weapon.


The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today said in a report that Iran handed over documents with the detailed instructions that it apparently purchased from a black-market network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan.

Iran also said it has restarted converting uranium into gas, a step that could eventually be used to produce nuclear weapons. The IAEA report also said that said Iran is blocking UN nuclear inspectors from key military sites.

Iranian officials have consistently countered U.S. and other countries' suggestions that it has a covert nuclear-weapons program, saying its nuclear activities are intended solely for peaceful purposes.

The chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, told reporters in Vienna that the documents "open new concerns about weaponization that Iran has failed to address."

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said the news is undermining the international community's confidence in Iran just a week before the IAEA's board of governors reconvenes to discuss whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran Appeals To Public

The Iranian government, meanwhile, has published in a U.S. newspaper a detailed defense of its right to develop nuclear power.

Iran's UN mission today placed a full-page advertisement in "The New York Times" saying the United States and its allies have "manufactured" a crisis over Tehran's nuclear activities.

The advertisement said Iran was forced to operate its program secretly for nearly 20 years because of attempts to deny its "inalienable right" to erect nuclear power plants. The advertisement repeated Iran's assertion that it has no intention to possess nuclear weapons because they would "undermine Iranian security."

It also said Iran is ready to pursue negotiations with three leading European Union states to resolve the issue.

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli dismissed the Iranian effort, saying: "It would be better to be forthcoming in negotiations with the EU-3 [Britain, France, and Germany] or in receiving and allowing access to IAEA inspectors and providing documents the IAEA has requested -- it would be more useful to do that than to take out expensive advertisements in 'The New York Times.'"

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...4d323da25.html

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USA Believes that Iran Owes Explanation for Document Containing Information on Nuclear Bomb Production

Vienna. US diplomat Gregory Schulte stated that Iran owed explanation for the documents regarding Iran’s nuclear program, which the country presented to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), AFP reported. Tehran authorities have handed in a document, which contained information on a nuclear bomb production. According to IAEA, Iran has obtained the document on the black market in 1987. Gregory Schulte added that USA was concerned about possible secret documents, which Iran probably had at its disposal.

US IAEA Representative Accuses Iran Of `Lying'

Copyright © 2005, Dow Jones Newswires

VIENNA (AP)--The chief U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency reiterated Thursday U.S. concerns that Iran might be on its way to manufacturing a nuclear weapon, and accused it of `lying' about its activities.

"A country that threatens 'death' to other countries must be denied the most deadly of weapons," Gregory L. Schulte said Thursday in a speech at Vienna's Diplomatic Academy, alluding to recent comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be wiped off the map. He accused Tehran of "lying, covering up and withholding information on its nuclear activities."

He said that even Russia, a key Iranian ally, believes Iran "is developing a nuclear weapons capability."

The U.S. and Europeans recently agreed to give up their demand that Iran renounce enrichment and related activities and endorsed a plan that would allow Iran to convert uranium but move the enrichment process to Russia.

Carrying out the enrichment in Russia theoretically would deny Iran the capacity to produce weapons grade uranium for nuclear weapons - something the U.S. and their allies say Iran wants to do.

Tehran, meanwhile, insists it is interested in enrichment only to make nuclear fuel.

Russia, in fact, appears to be increasingly frustrated with Iran's reluctance to compromise on its nuclear activities, and that is helping the U.S. and other nations seeking to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said Thursday.

Both Russia and China are veto-wielding members of the Security Council and both oppose Iran being referred to the top U.N. decision making body.

But increasing frustration in Moscow could swing the Russians closer to the U.S.-European position and indirectly pressure Beijing to also join the mainstream and moderate its opposition to Security Council action, one diplomat said. He, like others talking to The Associated Press, demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging confidential information.

The 35-nation board of the IAEA meets in Vienna Nov. 24 to consider possible Security Council referral of the issue.


http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com...1300022&Take=1

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Iran says disclosing suspected bomb blueprint shows good faith

TEHRAN - Iran said Saturday that its handing over of a document describing how to make what could be the explosive core of an atom bomb showed its good faith over its controversial nuclear programme.

The document, which Iran said came from a black market offer in 1987 that it never acted upon, gives "procedural requirements for ... the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms," an International Atomic Energy Agency report said Friday.

The IAEA report "does not reveal a breach of trust in this matter, but settles for mentioning the complete transparence of Iran," Iranian Atomic Energy Agency vice chairman Mohammad Saidi said on state television.

US Urges Iran to Reconsider Russian Proposal on Nuclear Arms

Agencies, Arab News

BUSAN, South Korea, 19 November 2005 — The United States urged Iran yesterday to reconsider a compromise, floated by Moscow, aimed at defusing a standoff over the country’s atomic program and easing fears that it seeks nuclear arms.

US President George W. Bush embraced the plan during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit here, said White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

The Russian compromise has the support of Britain, France and Germany, which have led negotiations with Iran, and Bush considered it “a good idea and potential avenue out” of the standoff, Hadley told reporters.

Iran has rejected Putin’s offer to allow one of the most controversial aspects of its nuclear program — uranium enrichment, which can be a critical step in weapons development — to be carried out on Russian territory. “We think that (rebuff) doesn’t end it, we think that this will be an issue we will return to with the Iranians,” said Hadley. “We hope that over time Iran will see the virtue of this approach, and it may provide a way out.”

While Bush embraced Putin’s proposal, there was no sign that the Russian leader had softened his opposition to a US push to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

There was “no specific talk of a Security Council referral” during their wide-ranging meeting, senior Bush adviser Dan Bartlett told reporters on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit.

Bush and Putin showed no sign of strains in their relationship as they opened the meeting, which Hadley said covered Syria, North Korea, terrorism, bird flu and Iraq.

“Hey, Vladimir, how are you?” Bush said, setting a casual tone from the start of their fifth meeting this year. “We’ve got a very important relationship. We value your advice and we value the strategic relationship we’ve built.” “It’s very agreeable that we have virtually permanent contacts on both bilateral relations and the international agenda,” said Putin, who came to APEC hoping to convert Russia’s wealth in natural resources into regional influence.

Washington charges — and Tehran denies — that Iran has been trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian energy program. Russia has rejected the US push for a UN Security Council referral. Bush touched on concerns about Putin’s moves to centralize political power in the Kremlin and Moscow’s push to close down foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations, said Bartlett and Hadley.

“The issue did come up,” Bartlett said, refusing to provide further details. “I’m confident it will continue to be a subject of discussion with the Russian government,” said Hadley.

Congress objects to observation on Iran issue

Sunday November 20 2005 00: 00 IST

UNI

HYDERABAD: The ruling Congress party on Saturday objected to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddadeb Bhatacharya's observation that the former was deviating from the non-aligned policy and “toeing” the imperialistic USA's line on the issue of Iran's nuclear programme.

The Congress party had all along been advocating a self-reliant and independent foreign policy and there was no change in it, party spokesman P Venkata Rao told reporters here.

It may be recalled that the veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader had found fault with the Congress economic and foreign policies while taking part in the all India Students Federation of India conference here on November 17.

Accusing the Marxist party of adopting “opportunistic” politics, he asked how could the CPI (M), Which had fought the last local body elections having seat adjustments with the Congress, join hands with the Telugu Desam party in cooperative elections in Khammam.

The Congress government had not succumbed to any pressure from the World Bank, he asserted, welcoming the announcement of a Rs. 23,000 crore ambitious development with acronym “INDIRAMMA” (Integrated Novel Development In Rural Areas And Model Municipal Areas).

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