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Iran Capitulates...

 
 
Steppenwolf
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 11:51 am
JustWonders wrote:
Steppenwolf - it's not just "us". Do you seriously think that if Iran pursues the path of obtaining nukes, they don't know they'll be the #1 target of both the US AND the Mossad?


The Mossad? Do you think Israeli intelligence can deter Iran with threats of assassinations, or what exactly will the Mossad do? They have enough trouble in their own country. Perhaps we should have left Iraq to the Mossad if they so easily fulfill the role of deterrents-extraordinaire.

Being the #1 target of overstretched powers is not a fantastic deterrent, no matter how you slice it. We spent our load prematurely. Military invasions have opportunity costsÂ…
0 Replies
 
JustWonders
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 11:55 am
The "big stick" is the one currently leaning against a corner in the Oval Office.

The "cockroaches" was a reference to the murdering fanatics being sent into Iraq from Iran.

Of course, you'll believe otherwise.
0 Replies
 
JustWonders
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 11:58 am
Quote:
Being the #1 target of overstretched powers is not a fantastic deterrent, no matter how you slice it. We spent our load prematurely. Military invasions have opportunity costsÂ…


Depending on what happens next, we'll soon see, won't we? You have your opinion. I have mine. We'll both be watching to see how it plays out.
0 Replies
 
blueveinedthrobber
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 11:59 am
JustWonders wrote:
The "big stick" is the one currently leaning against a corner in the Oval Office.

The "cockroaches" was a reference to the murdering fanatics being sent into Iraq from Iran.

Of course, you'll believe otherwise.


that big stick has no permanent power unless wielded by strong people.....that lets bush out.....
0 Replies
 
Ticomaya
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 02:14 pm
Quote:
Iran Pleads with UN: 'Slap Us with Sanctions Like Saddam's'
by Scott Ott

(2004-11-16) -- Just a day after news that Saddam Hussein bilked the United Nations out of more than $21.3 billion during the 13 years Iraq languished under U.N. sanctions, the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator pleaded with the Security Council to "slap us with sanctions like Saddam's."

"We expect equal treatment," said Hassan Rowhani, who recently told European leaders that his government will freeze its uranium enrichment program while it negotiates the benefits it will receive for not developing nuclear weapons.

"We don't want any special favors," said Mr. Rowhani. "Just hit us with those harsh sanctions and that humanitarian oil-for-food program that brought Saddam to his knees in a prayer of thanksgiving to Allah."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Iran that "such saber rattling could indeed bring down the wrath of the Council."

"In light of the massive siphoning of funds in Iraq, which likely benefitted some U.N. staffers as well, this time I alone will supervise the disbursements," said Mr. Annan. "If there is profit to be made through sanctions and humanitarian aid to dangerous, totalitarian regimes, I will know it personally and take action that I deem appropriate and beneficial."



[size=7]*Dookiestix disclaimer: the foregoing is not a real news story. [/size]
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 16 Nov, 2004 11:33 pm
Re: Iran Capitulates...
Thok wrote:
Craven de Kere wrote:

rather fear of economic sanctions.


But why finally now and not already before?


Well, the European Union has been very active in this regard lately -

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36247

as well as the US.

And Iran has NOT been doing well economically.
0 Replies
 
Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Nov, 2004 12:09 am
Re: Iran Capitulates...
Thok wrote:
Craven de Kere wrote:

rather fear of economic sanctions.


But why finally now and not already before?


Sanctions came a lot closer.
0 Replies
 
Thok
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Nov, 2004 12:34 am
Re: Iran Capitulates...
dlowan wrote:

Well, the European Union has been very active in this regard lately -

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36247

as well as the US.

And Iran has NOT been doing well economically.



Craven de Kere wrote:
Thok wrote:
Craven de Kere wrote:

rather fear of economic sanctions.


But why finally now and not already before?


Sanctions came a lot closer.



That are not the right explanations. Because all about this was already known before.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Nov, 2004 12:36 am
You disagree that the imposition of sanctions was closer than heretofore?

What is your explanation?
0 Replies
 
Thok
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Nov, 2004 12:43 am
dlowan wrote:
You disagree that the imposition of sanctions was closer than heretofore?


Yes, indeed.

dlowan wrote:

What is your explanation?


I don't know, that's why I asked.
0 Replies
 
Thok
 
  1  
Reply Wed 17 Nov, 2004 09:55 am
As I said it is not over:

Quote:
Pakistan's Khan Gave Iran Bomb-Grade Uranium -Exiles

Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and a design for a nuclear bomb from a Pakistani scientist who has admitted to selling nuclear secrets abroad, an exiled Iranian opposition group said on Wednesday.

The group, that has given accurate information before, also said Iran is secretly enriching uranium at a military site previously unknown to the U.N., despite promising France, Britain and Germany that it would halt all such work.

"(Abdul Qadeer) Khan gave Iran a quantity of HEU (highly enriched uranium) in 2001, so they already have some," Farid Soleiman, a senior spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told reporters.

"I would doubt it was given enough for a weapon," he added.

Soleiman said Khan, who ran a global nuclear black market that supplied Libya and Iran with uranium-enrichment technology until it was shut down earlier this year, also gave Iran a Chinese-developed warhead design sometime between 1994 and 1996.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Khan's network gave Libya the bomb design. It has been trying to find out whether Iran got the design as well, but has no proof that Tehran acquired it.

Diplomats in Vienna who follow the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, say the NCRI has been the best source of information on Tehran's previously undeclared nuclear program.

The NCRI is the political wing of the exiled group known as the People's Mujahideen Organization. Both are listed by the State Department as terrorist organizations.

Soleiman said that Iran was enriching uranium, a process of purifying it for use as fuel for power plants or bombs, at a site in northeastern Tehran as part of a continuing covert program to develop nuclear weapons.

"It continues to enrich uranium as we speak," Soleiman said.

Iran first pledged in October last year to suspend all uranium enrichment activities in a bid to allay fears it is seeking a bomb. It promised on Sunday to extend the scope of the freeze, sparing it a referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Soleiman said the enrichment site, called the Center for the Development of Advanced Defense Technology, was run by the defense ministry and located in Lavizan, near a site where the United States suspects Iran conducted secret nuclear work before demolishing all the buildings and carting off the rubble.

He said the NCRI sent the IAEA a letter about the new site a few days ago.

Iran told France, Britain and Germany on Sunday it would freeze all activities related to enrichment while the two sides negotiate a permanent deal on Iran's nuclear program. This will protect Iran from being referred to the U.N. Security Council when the IAEA board of governors meets on Nov. 25.

The NCRI, like Washington, accuses the Iranian government of using its nuclear power program as a front to develop atomic weapons. Tehran dismisses this allegation, insisting its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.

The IAEA said in a new report on its two-year investigation of Iran's nuclear program that Iran had not diverted any of its declared nuclear materials to a weapons program, but did not rule out the possibility secret atomic activities existed.

The NCRI established its reputation as a nuclear whistleblower in August 2002 when it said the Islamic republic had not declared a massive uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak. The allegation was later confirmed and Iran declared the facilities to the IAEA.

Since then, the NCRI has disclosed several sites linked to Tehran's nuclear program, including once connected with uranium enrichment.


Source
0 Replies
 
JustWonders
 
  1  
Reply Thu 18 Nov, 2004 12:25 am
Colin Powell weighs in:

Quote:
Powell Says Iran Is Pursuing Bomb
Evidence Cited of Effort to Adapt Missile

By Robin Wright and Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 18, 2004; Page A01

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 17 -- The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday.

Separately, an Iranian opposition exile group charged in Paris that Iran is enriching uranium at a secret military facility unknown to U.N. weapons inspectors. Iran has denied seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"I have seen some information that would suggest that they have been actively working on delivery systems. . . . You don't have a weapon until you put it in something that can deliver a weapon," Powell told reporters traveling with him to Chile for an Asia-Pacific economic summit. "I'm not talking about uranium or fissile material or the warhead; I'm talking about what one does with a warhead.
Powell's comments came just three days after an agreement between Iran and three European countries -- Britain, France and Germany -- designed to limit Tehran's ability to divert its peaceful nuclear energy program for military use. The primary focus of the deal, accepted by Iran on Sunday and due to go into effect Nov. 22, is a stipulation that Iran indefinitely suspend its uranium enrichment program.

"I'm talking about information that says they not only have these missiles, but I am aware of information that suggests that they were working hard as to how to put the two together," Powell said, referring to the process of matching warheads to missiles. He spoke to reporters during a refueling stop in Manaus, Brazil.

"There is no doubt in my mind -- and it's fairly straightforward from what we've been saying for years -- that they have been interested in a nuclear weapon that has utility, meaning that it is something they would be able to deliver, not just something that sits there," Powell said.

Iran has long been known to have a missile program, while denying that it was seeking a nuclear bomb. Powell seemed to be suggesting that efforts not previously disclosed were underway to arm missiles with nuclear warheads.

Joseph Cirincione, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Powell's remarks indicated that Iran was trying to master the difficult technology of reducing the size of a nuclear warhead to fit on a ballistic missile.

"Powell appears to be saying the Iranians are working very hard on this capability," Cirincione said. He said Powell's comments were striking because the International Atomic Energy Agency said this week that it had not seen any information that Iran had conducted weapons-related work.

In a 32-page report, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei wrote that "all the declared nuclear material in Iran has been accounted for, and therefore such material is not diverted to prohibited activities," such as weapons programs. But ElBaradei said that he could not rule out the possibility that Iran was conducting a clandestine nuclear weapons program

Powell also told reporters that the United States had not decided what action to take following Sunday's agreement. The Bush administration had insisted that Iran's past violations warranted taking the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

Powell said the United States would monitor verification efforts "with necessary and deserved caution because for 20 years the Iranians have been trying to hide things from the international community."

Meanwhile, in Paris, the exile group charged that Iran was still enriching uranium and would continue to do so despite the pledge made Sunday to European foreign ministers. The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, or NCRI, also claimed that Iran received blueprints for a Chinese-made bomb in the mid-1990s from the global nuclear technology network led by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The Khan network sold the same type of bomb blueprint to Libya, which has since renounced its nuclear ambitions.

Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Paris-based NCRI, told reporters at a news conference that the Khan network delivered to the Iranians a small quantity of highly enriched uranium that could be used in making a bomb. But he said the amount was probably too small for use in a weapon

The NCRI is the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen organization, which the State Department has labeled a terrorist organization. The NCRI helped expose Iran's nuclear ambitions in 2002 by disclosing the location of the government's secret uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. But many of its subsequent assertions about the program have proven inaccurate.

On Wednesday, Mohaddessin used satellite photos to pinpoint what he said was the new facility, inside a 60-acre complex in the northeast part of Tehran known as the Center for the Development of Advanced Defense Technology. The group said that the site also houses Iranian chemical and biological weapons programs and that uranium enrichment began there a year and a half ago, to replace a nearby facility that was dismantled in March ahead of a visit by a U.N. inspections team.

The group gave no evidence for its claims, but Mohaddessin said, "Our sources were 100 percent sure about their intelligence." He and other group members said the NCRI relies on human sources, including scientists and other people working in the facilities and locals who might live near the facilities and see suspicious activities.

The IAEA, the U.N. nuclear monitoring body, had no immediate comment on the claims but said it took all such reports seriously.

The agency has no information to support the NCRI claims, according to Western diplomats with knowledge of the U.N. body's investigations of Iran.

Some diplomats and arms control experts privately discounted the Iranian group's latest claim, saying it appeared designed to undermine the deal that the Tehran government signed with Britain, France and Germany. In Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian officials said they considered the enrichment suspension temporary and contingent upon a favorable decision at the IAEA meeting next week and on quick progress in talks next month on long-term guarantees that Iran can apply nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.


Source

Between Iran and N. Korea, looks like it will be an interesting year.
0 Replies
 
 

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