Iran's Nuclear Program Options

[ABLAT Staff]

Rice Says Iran 'Lying' About Nukes
Oct 11, 6:08 PM (ET)
By MATTHEW LEE

SHANNON, Ireland (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program, saying there's no doubt Tehran wants the capability to produce nuclear weapons and has deceived the U.N.'s atomic watchdog about its intentions.

"There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying to the IAEA," she said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"There is a history of Iran not answering important questions about what is going on and there is Iran pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to nuclear weapons-grade material," Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she headed to Moscow.

U.S. officials have long accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of a civil atomic energy program, charges that Tehran denies. But Rice's strong words, including the blunt reference to Iranian "lying," come at a critical time in dealing with the matter.

The United States is trying to win Russian support for new U.N. sanctions against Iran but has faced sharp resistance from Moscow, which has nuclear cooperation agreements with Tehran and argues the country should be given more time to come clean on its programs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week there is no proof Tehran is trying to build the bomb. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are scheduled to see him in Moscow on Friday.

Washington has been pressing for more sanctions since earlier this year.

But last month, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France the United States and Russia - and Germany agreed with the support of the European Union to hold off on a new sanctions resolution until November to allow negotiations with Iran to continue.

If no progress is made on two separate tracks - talks with E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana on an offer of assistance in exchange for a suspension in Iran's nuclear program and discussions with IAEA on its past activities - they are to bring the resolution to a vote.

It remains unclear, though, if Russia and China, which also opposes sanctions, will support it.

Even as work on the proposed resolution is to continue at an Oct. 17 meeting of senior diplomats in Europe, Putin said Wednesday that Russia was not convinced Iran is trying to create nuclear weapons.

His comments came after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government is firmly behind the U.S. sanctions drive, and appeared to deal a new blow to efforts to forge a consensus.

"We have no objective data that Iran is seeking to make atomic weapons," Putin said. "Therefore, we proceed from the assumption that Iran has no such plans."

Rice, however, stressed that Russia had signed on to the Sept. 28 agreement to consider new sanctions in November and said she did not "expect that there is any deviation from that course at this point" from the Russian side.

She also noted that Russia had in the past demonstrated its concern about Iran's program by limiting its cooperation to prevent Tehran from acquiring a full nuclear fuel cycle that could be used to produce weapons-grade material.

"That concern was seen very clearly in Russia's offer to Iran to enrich and reprocess in a joint venture and to bring back any spent fuel so that the fuel cycle wouldn't be available to Iran," she said. "I think there is a reason for that and that is suspicion about Iran's intentions."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071011/D8S79UHO0.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran: Nuclear talks to continue despite top negotiator's resignation
By The Associated Press

The top negotiator of Iran's controversial nuclear program, Ali Larijani, has resigned, the country's government spokesman said Saturday.

The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, did not give a specific reason for Larijani's resignation other than to say he wanted to focus on other political activities.

"Larijani had resigned repeatedly. Finally, the president accepted his resignation," Elham told reporters.

Elham said Saeed Jalili, a deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, was to succeed Larijani, whose resignation was effective immediately.

The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the claim, saying its program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity.

Elham stressed that Iran's nuclear policy would not change because of Larijani's resignation.

"Iran's nuclear policies are stabilized and unchangeable. Managerial change won't bring any changes in [those] policies," Elham said.

The spokesman said a meeting between the nuclear negotiator and the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, scheduled for Tuesday in Rome would still take place.

"Despite Larijani's resignation, meetings ... won't change. Larijani's successor will meet Solana instead," Elham said.

Larijani was considered a trusted figure within Iran's hard-line ruling Islamic establishment who replaced Iran's former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, who was considered a moderate politician, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005.

However, differences had recently emerged between Larijani and Ahmadinejad and his resignation is seen here as a victory for the hardline president on nuclear policy, giving Ahmadinejad a free hand in dictating his views on Jalili, a little-known diplomat.

Larijani's absence during Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week further raised eyebrows in Iran's political circles.

Ahmadinejad had appointed Larijani, a former Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and a close ally of Khamenei, as the top negotiator in August 2005 to replace Rowhani. Ahmadinejad had accused Rowhani and his team of technocrats as weak and giving too many concessions to Europeans in nuclear talks.

Before he was appointed, Larijani was the head of Iran's state-run radio and television network and was seen as one of the hard-liners' most effective weapon in curtailing former President Mohammad Khatami's reform program. At the time, Larijani used the official media as a weapon to suppress democratic reforms and prohibited broadcasting information that might have been harmful to hardline clerics.

After Larijani was appointed to the negotiator post, Iran took a more defiant approach to its nuclear program. It resumed uranium enrichment activities leading to its referral to the UN Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2006. Iran's refusal to halt enrichment subsequently prompted a resolution by the Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran in December 2006 and another resolution widening the sanctions in March.

Larijani, in many cases, held a hardline view on the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West. In 2006, he rejected Western economic incentives in return for a suspension of Iran's nuclear activities, saying the "Security Council should not think that they can make us happy with candies."

But Larijani was also considered to be a moderate figure than Ahmadinejad within Iran's hardline camp. He is seen to be more committed to a diplomatic solution over Iran's nuclear program while Ahmadinejad is not seen as favoring talks with the West over Tehran's nuclear activities.

The differences between Larijani and Ahmadinejad were revealed earlier this year when Larijani was upset after the president contradicted him on whether Iran would attend a meeting in Egypt to discuss Iraq. Larijani traveled to Baghdad in May to discuss Iran's conditions to attend the meeting but was upset after a reporter at the Baghdad airport said Ahmadinejad had already confirmed that Iran would attend the meeting.

The meeting in Sharm el-Sheik brought Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki together for a rare encounter.

Iran says capable of firing 11,000 rockets in first minute of attack
Iran is capable of firing 11,000 rockets into enemy bases within the first minute after any possible attack, state-run television quoted a top Revolutionary Guards Corps commander as saying Saturday.

Gen. Mahmoud Chaharbaghi, the missile commander of the Guards, said Iran has identified all enemy positions and was prepared to respond in less than a minute to any possible attack.

"Enemy bases and positions have been identified. ... The Guards ground force will fire 11,000 rockets into identified enemy positions within the first minute of any aggression against the Iranian territory," the television quoted Chaharbaghi as saying.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/914912.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran won't negotiate over atomic rights: president

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not negotiate with anyone about its right to nuclear technology, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, hours before talks aimed at defusing an atomic row with the West were to start in Rome.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to build an atomic bomb, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it only wants to master atomic technology so it can make electricity and save its huge oil and gas reserves for export.

"We are in favor of talks but we will not negotiate with anyone about our right to nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by Iranian state television during his trip to Armenia, which ended on Tuesday.

"The party which should set conditions is Iran not the other party," he was quoted as saying.

In comments carried by the Fars News Agency, the president also repeated Iran's position that it would not suspend uranium enrichment, the key demand of the U.N. Security Council.

"They said that if Iran suspends its activities, they will hold talks with us. But they don't know that the Iranian nation is in favor of negotiations but will not negotiate over its rights at all ... Iran will not retreat one iota," he said.

The United Nations has demanded Iran suspend enrichment work because it can be used both for making fuel for power plants or, if Iran wanted, material for warheads. Two rounds of sanctions have been imposed on Iran for rejecting the demand.

Iran's new nuclear negotiator and ally of Ahmadinejad, Saeed Jalili, arrived in Rome on Tuesday to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is representing world powers in meetings aimed at resolving the standoff.

Analysts have said Jalili's appointment might signal a hardening of Tehran's position over its nuclear plans. Iranian officials have insisted the change in negotiator does not mean a change of policy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/i...A33947120071023

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran adapts to growing economic pressure
Oil market could help Tehran weather sanctions, but firms weigh risk

By Steven Mufson and Robin Wright
Updated: 10:45 p.m. ET Oct. 28, 2007

Confronted by mounting U.S. and U.N. pressure, Iran has been steadily shifting its trade from West to East and, with the benefit of record high oil prices, is likely to be able to withstand the new U.S. sanctions, according to U.S., European and Iranian analysts.

China, a permanent member of the Security Council that can veto any U.N. resolution, is expected to overtake Germany as Iran's biggest trading partner this year. Germany and other European countries had consistently been Iran's largest trading partners for more than a decade, according to the Iran Investment Monthly.

The U.S. Treasury said that more than 40 banks, mostly in Europe, have curbed business with Iran as a result of U.S. pressure, but smaller banks, Islamic financial institutions and Asian banks are likely to step in and replace the Western financial institutions through which Iran has long sold oil on the international market. Oil traders said that Iran does an increasing portion of its petroleum sales in euros and yen, instead of U.S. dollars, and often through third parties, to help its customers circumvent U.S. financial sanctions.

Oil profits rolling in
"Given particularly the price and demand for oil, Iran clearly has leverage with countries that need Iran's oil," said Shaul Bakhash, a George Mason University historian and author of "The Reign of the Ayatollahs." In addition, he said, "Iran has a huge cushion of foreign-exchange reserves."

Iran's oil revenue this year will far exceed the government's budget forecasts, which had assumed an average oil price of $60 a barrel. On Friday, oil settled above $90. The extra revenue will make it easier for the government to maintain social-services payments designed to bolster its popularity amid economic problems.

Iran has also moved to protect what Leo Drollas, chief economist of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London, calls its Achilles' heel -- gasoline imports. Because of its limited refining capacity, Iran last year imported 200,000 barrels a day of gasoline, about a third of its consumption. But the government has trimmed gasoline subsidies, which has curtailed consumption and smuggling, cutting imports of gasoline in half.

Nonetheless, U.S. efforts to exert financial pressure on Iran were having some impact, even before the new measures taken last week against firms linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Lukoil, a Russian company with an extensive gasoline marketing network in the United States, announced last Monday that its exploration work in Iran's big Anaran oil field "is currently impeded because of the U.S. sanctions," which bar investments of more than $20 million in Iran.

Foreign firms delay investment
The U.S. sanctions, announced Thursday, complicate new oil projects by targeting Iran's main oil-field engineering firms. The firms are controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which the Bush administration has accused of supporting terrorism and aiding nuclear proliferation. One of the firms sanctioned Thursday, Khatam al-Anbiya, is the rough equivalent of the Army Corps of Engineers, according to Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Treasury Department said the firm had $7 billion of contracts in the oil, natural gas and transportation sectors.

European oil companies are holding off on exploration and production deals in Iran. Royal Dutch Shell, Total of France and Italy's ENI have held talks or reached preliminary agreements for new oil and gas projects in Iran in recent years. But now they say they are unlikely to move ahead, in large part because of the commercial terms Iran is offering.

Chinese oil companies have not signed contracts yet for commercial reasons, according to Julia Nanay, a Caspian region expert at PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm.

The picture on the financial front is similar. The United Arab Emirates, a key transit point for Iranian imports and a major financial center for Iran, had closed 42 firms doing business with Iran before the new sanctions list, said an official there.

He said it remained unclear how the new U.S. measures would affect Iran's Bank Melli, targeted by Treasury for allegedly facilitating ballistic and nuclear equipment purchases. The bank, Iran's largest, had nearly $1.4 billion in assets in its U.A.E. branches at the end of 2005, according to its Web site. Bank Melli also has branches in London, Paris and Hamburg.

Rising cost of business
Even if Iran finds ways around U.S. financial sanctions, U.S. pressure could increase the costs of Iran's international banking transactions. European and Japanese banks have made it more difficult for Iran to arrange letters of credit, Drollas said.

"Most of Kuwait's banks have stopped dealing with Iranian accounts," said Abdul Majeed al-Shatti, chairman of Commercial Bank of Kuwait. "There are opportunities in Iran. Unfortunately, we need to be part of the international system," he said. "We have a lot of dealings with the United States." He said his bank had not issued any letters of credit for transactions with Iran in more than a year.

"It raises the cost of operation for all Iranian banks," said Jahangir Amuzegar, a former Iranian finance minister and representative to the World Bank before Iran's Islamic revolution. "But whether sanctions are going to cripple banking operations, I don't think so. Sanctions are effective only if they are comprehensive and universal."

Reduced exposure
Germany and France have been slowly reducing banking exposure and government credit guarantees for exports to Iran, thus shrinking potential for losses in the event of a confrontation with Tehran. Germany issued about $2 billion of credit guarantees for trade with Iran in 2005, helping companies do business that might otherwise be too risky. This year, the government said, the guarantees will drop to about $715 million. France's embassy in Washington said French banks reduced their exposure to Iran from $5.7 billion in December 2005 to $3.8 billion a year by the end of 2006.

Both countries still buy oil from Iran.

The most important question may be what political and psychological impact the sanctions will have on Iran, especially with parliamentary elections next spring and presidential elections in 2009. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has faced growing internal rumblings over his erratic economic policies.

Political effect debated
A few critics of the regime inside Iran have gone public. "Are we to endure the hardship of sanctions and other harsh measures on our nation as a result of our illogical and unreal glorification?" Mohsen Mirdamadi, former chairman of parliament's foreign relations committee, said at a reformist conference Friday.

But other observers said that sanctions had little political effect in places like Cuba, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), South Africa and North Korea. "Iranians have a strong sense of themselves," said J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy. "If these new sanctions create internal problems and cause the people to unify, then they won't work. But if the sanctions can drive a wedge [between the regime and its constituents], then they have a chance of being successful."

Sanctions could even generate greater resistance. "This is a regime that hates to be seen to be backing off under international and U.S. pressure, so it seems unlikely that the threat of international sanctions alone will cause the Iranians to back off on the nuclear issue," said Bakhash, the George Mason historian.

Carnegie's Sadjadpour said: "These sanctions are not negligible, and they're not going to be pain-free for Iran. The question is: Will they be substantial and painful enough to change Iranian behavior? No, I don't think they will be."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21520466/

[ABLAT Staff]

Did West blow chance to halt Iran's nuke plans?
British agent says he alerted U.S., U.K. to A.Q. Khan's network in 2000

By Richard Greenberg and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Updated: 8:20 a.m. ET Oct. 30, 2007

As the U.S. and Europe brace for a showdown with Iran over that country’s nuclear program, a former British Customs investigator is asserting that the West missed a golden opportunity to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear effort seven years ago.

Atif Amin says that as a U.K. Customs agent in 2000, he uncovered evidence that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was running a nuclear black market. But the United States and United Kingdom waited more than three years to take action to shut down the Khan network, which supplied Libya, North Korea and Iran with gas centrifuge technology to enrich uranium.

Had they moved against Khan sooner, Amin believes and some critics agree, Iran might not have as many as 3,000 centrifuges today and be threatening to become a nuclear power.

The previously undisclosed account of Amin’s thwarted investigation is included in a new book about A.Q. Khan titled “America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise” by David Armstrong and Joseph Trento of the National Security News Service. Amin recently sat down with NBC News and discussed details of his investigation, recounted in the book, including his frustration over the decision to limit his criminal probe.

U.S. intelligence officials who worked on the Khan case tell NBC News that Amin’s concerns are misguided. They say that premature action could have jeopardized secret operations under way at the time targeting Khan, his cohorts and his clients. The officials say that intelligence gained during that period enabled the U.S. to mount other clandestine operations that may still be active, including one aimed at slowing down Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Amin was tapped to work on what initially appeared to be an export control case involving a suspicious shipment of high-tensile aluminum that could be used to make centrifuge and missile parts. “It didn’t matter who the end user was,” Amin said. “It needed an export license.”

The shipper was a U.K.-based company run by Abu Bakr Siddiqui, a British businessman whose father was a friend of Khan. The stated destination: a company in Dubai, a port that intelligence sources say is notorious for a process in which a shipment is illicitly forwarded to another country.

Despite a warning from British Customs, Siddiqui shipped the aluminum in May 1999 without obtaining the required license, according to Amin. British Customs intercepted the shipment and searched Siddiqui’s office, home and his parents’ home, he said.

Amin, 30 at the time and a member of a special counterproliferation unit, was assigned to be the case agent. He had worked on several big weapons smuggling cases before, but this was the most daunting assignment of his career.

During the summer of 1999, he said, he and his team pieced together Siddiqui’s history of shipments and business ties.

A Sri Lankan 'ran the show'
According to Amin, the Dubai company to which the aluminum was supposed to be shipped was Sama Machinery and Equipment. Amin said he learned that Sama was controlled by one of Siddiqui’s business partners, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan operating out of Dubai and Malaysia. “From a practical point of view,” Amin said, Tahir “ran the show.”

Since Dubai did not have aerospace or nuclear industries that would require the specialized aluminum, Amin wanted to know where the aluminum was really going. “That was really the million dollar question,” he said.

The Dubai-Pakistan connection
Increasingly, he said, evidence pointed to Dubai as the hub of an illicit procurement operation run by Khan, funneling nuclear technology to Pakistan.

Authorities in Dubai, who Amin said typically weren’t cooperative on foreign investigations of nuclear proliferation matters, surprisingly allowed Amin to pursue his investigation there, as long as he worked with local police.

After arriving in April 2000, Amin said, he made slow progress until he followed up on a Dubai telephone number found in Siddiqui’s diary for someone with the initials “D.S.” Amin said “D.S.” stood for “Dr. Sahib,” a Pakistani term of respect, in this case for A.Q. Khan. According to Amin, Dubai officials told him the number was registered to Green Crest Industries (M.E.) Ltd.

Amin and a local police officer paid a visit to Green Crest, where, Amin said, he explained in English the focus of their inquiry. “This was an overt investigation, so I didn’t make it secret that I was there to investigate … the A.Q. Khan network,” he said.

The Green Crest manager said he had never heard of Khan, Amin recalled, but then another employee appeared to contradict him, interjecting in Urdu (a language Amin understands): “Oh, yeah, Khan, he comes here all the time.”

Green Crest Chairman S.M. Farooq later denied in an interview with the National Security News Service that Khan had ever visited Green Crest, though they seemed to have other ties. The news agency also reported that Farooq served on the boards of several organizations with Khan and was vice chairman of the A.Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering; more significantly, for years, Farooq’s companies allegedly helped procure nuclear technology for Khan’s bomb program in Pakistan.

Amin said he believed that he was unraveling an illicit pipeline funneling nuclear technology from the West through Dubai to Pakistan until he made a shocking discovery: evidence that nuclear technology was being shipped to Libya.

A 'fidgety manager'
One entry in Siddiqui’s files led Amin to Deepsea Freight Services, where, he said, a “very nervous and very fidgety” manager handed over a binder of documents indicating that Siddiqui’s shipments were going to companies controlled by Tahir in Dubai, then being reshipped to companies in Pakistan. Among the companies was United Engineering and Trading Co. (UETC), which Amin described as a Khan Research Laboratories “front” long suspected of illicit procurement of nuclear technology for Pakistan.

Amin said he was startled to find records of shipments of nuclear components in the other direction — from UETC in Pakistan to Dubai. Among the parts were specialized equipment called ring magnets sent to Desert Electrical, which in turn, Amin said, was shipping them to Libya. Amin said the prospect of ring magnets going to Libya “rang alarm bells in my mind — because I know they're the kind of products or items that can be used in centrifuge technology.”

Deepsea Managing Director K. Hafeezuddin confirmed to NBC News that Amin visited his company in 2000. He said that the entire file was taken from his office and that he is “not in a position to comment” on its contents. He said Amin’s account “could be true. I don’t know,” he added, “We just clear cargo.”

Officials at Green Crest did not respond to requests for comment. Neither company has been accused of violating laws.

Amin said his visits to Green Crest and Deepsea drew the attention of Dubai police officials, who took the evidence he had collected and told him that all future investigative requests would need to be handled through them, essentially relegating him to the office and ending any meaningful inquiry.

Abiding by the new guidelines, he asked the police to provide him a copy of the Deepsea records, but when they brought him the file, he said, it was much thinner. All the key documents he had seen earlier were missing.

Though thwarted from carrying on his investigation, Amin said he reported his discovery of the Libya connection to the British Customs liaison and to the station chief for the British intelligence service MI6. The station chief, he said, “was particularly interested in the Libyan ring magnet issue.”

The MI6 officer sent a report to his headquarters, portions of which were shared with other Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA, according to the National Security News Service.

Soon after, Amin said, he got an urgent phone call in the middle of the night telling him to meet the station chief and a Customs official in his hotel lobby. “The station chief cut to the chase,” Amin said. “He basically said to me … ‘Your life's in danger.’”

Back to London on the next plane
Amin said he did not believe the threat was that serious. The next evening, Amin said, his boss ordered him to return to London on the next plane. Amin returned to England dispirited late in April 2000, without evidence of the Libya connection and without an interview with suspect Buhary Syed Abu Tahir. In October 2001, the case ended with a whimper: Abu Bakr Siddiqui was convicted in a British court on three counts of export violations, but given a suspended sentence. The judge said he was satisfied that Siddiqui was unaware of the intended use of the exports. A family member told NBC News that Siddiqui was traveling and unavailable for comment.

In October 2003, authorities boarded the cargo ship BBC China in Italy and found thousands of centrifuge parts destined for Libya. That case, which led to a cascade of information about Khan’s operations, was widely considered an enormous intelligence success. In February 2004, then-CIA director George Tenet described the “unrelenting” investigation: “Working with our British colleagues we pieced together the picture of the network, revealing its subsidiaries, scientists, front companies, agents, finances, and manufacturing plants on three continents. Our spies penetrated the network through a series of daring operations over several years.”

Arrests were made in South Africa and Europe. In Malaysia, police detained Tahir, who admitted helping Khan send used centrifuge units to Iran in the mid-1990s, according to a police report. After more than two years in custody, Tahir reportedly was released and left Malaysia. NBC News has not been able to confirm his current whereabouts. Malaysian authorities did not reply to a request for comment.

Did spy agencies want to see more?
Atif Amin believes Khan’s network could have been disrupted much earlier had he been allowed to probe further in spring 2000. It appeared to him that the CIA and MI6 (through their Joint Intelligence Committee) had decided to let Khan continue operating in the interest of gathering more intelligence.

He acknowledged that intelligence interests do sometimes outweigh those of law enforcement, but gambling with such a threat, he believes, was a mistake. “It's a question of where do you stop it?” he said. “Do you stop it then? Do you stop it four years later? And if you stop it four years later, how much damage has been done?”

The government of Dubai and U.K. Customs did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. officials involved in the Khan case acknowledge that from 2000 to 2003 Iran made significant strides thanks in part to know-how obtained via Khan.

One former senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, described Amin as a “brave fellow” who was “right in his investigation” but wrong in his conviction that Khan’s network should have been shut down immediately after his discovery. A second former senior intelligence official agreed, telling NBC, “We felt it was necessary to gather enough intelligence so that when we ripped up the network, we got it root and branch, not just knocking off the head and having the rest of it regenerate.”

Persuading Pakistan to act against Khan also was a concern, according to this official. “It was hard enough to get the Pakistanis to act when we provided them all the detail we did. If we had asked a couple years beforehand, the answer would have almost certainly been no.”

In fact, efforts by the U.S. to disrupt Khan’s activities outside Pakistan date back to at least 1998. According to retired Pakistani Brig. Gen. Feroz Khan, then a senior military official, top U.S. diplomats asked Pakistan about Khan’s dealings with North Korea, and Pakistani officials in turn questioned him.

"In my presence, he completely denied he had any linkage on nuclear issues with North Korea,” the Pakistani general told NBC News.

He said Pakistani officials believed A.Q. Khan, in part because the scientist had made authorized trips to North Korea for a “non-clandestine” deal involving missile and conventional technology. Later, it was determined that Khan had provided Pyongyang with centrifuge technology.

As for Iran, the former Pakistani military official said the centrifuges that A.Q. Khan sent in the 1990s were "old" and "redundant." Iran’s big advances, he said, came in 2002 and 2003, and not necessarily because of A.Q. Khan. In February 2003, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei inspected Iran’s gas centrifuge plant at Natanz and reportedly was surprised at the progress Iran had made toward putting 1,000 centrifuges into operation.

Iran now claims 3,000 centrifuges
Last month, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad said Iran had reached its long-stated goal of producing 3,000 centrifuges. If that claim is true — and some experts are skeptical — it would be enough to generate the amount of highly enriched uranium needed for at least one nuclear weapon within a year.

Today, the United States is still trying to recover from the impact of the Khan network, and doing what it can to thwart Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Tehran, which denies pursuing nuclear weapons, has claimed that the United States and other Western intelligence agencies have engaged in sabotage by inserting defective and even dangerous equipment into the supply pipeline for the Iranian centrifuge program. A former senior intelligence official confirms as much, telling NBC News: “I don't know how much is bad equipment and how much is sabotaged, but they're not fantasizing when they say the Great Satan is engaged in sabotage.”

A.Q. Khan remains under house arrest in Pakistan. U.S. authorities have never questioned him directly. Some of his partners have faced criminal charges elsewhere. Experts like former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright consider the response since then “tepid.” The nuclear black market, Albright told NBC News, “remains a lucrative business and the chance of getting caught and punished isn’t that great.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21444166/

[ABLAT Staff]

Ahmadinejad: Iran has 3,000 working centrifuges

Iranian president announces Wednesday country's nuclear program has succeeded in making 3,000 centrifuges operational at one of its uranium enrichment plants
Associated Press

Iran has achieved a landmark, with 3,000 centrifuges fully working in its controversial uranium enrichment program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday.

"We have now reached 3,000 machines," Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians in Birjand in eastern Iran, in a show of defiance of international demands to halt the program believed to be masking the country's nuclear arms efforts.

Ahmadinejad has in the past claimed Iran succeeded in installing the 3,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Wednesday's claim was his first official statement that the plant is now fully operating the 3,000 centrifuges.

Centrifuges are used in enriching uranium, a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.

Visit to Bahrain?

Meanwhile, an embassy official said on Wednesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Bahrain this month, , days after British newspapers quoted the kingdom's crown prince accusing Iran of building a nuclear bomb.

The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers on Friday quoted Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa as saying Iran was developing nuclear weapons, a view shared by the West but rarely expressed in public by Iran's Arab neighbors.

Iran denies the accusations, and says its nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes.

"Ahmadinejad is coming to Bahrain in November, but the date has not been finalized. He will discuss bilateral ties and regional issues of common interest," Iranian embassy spokesman Abulghasem Vafaei said, declining to give further details.

Bahrain, a US ally, is home to the US navy's fifth fleet, which has conducted several war-game exercises in waters close to Iran's coast.

Since the British newspaper articles were published, Iran's state news agency IRNA carried a report quoting Bahrain's foreign minister saying the prince's words were "distorted".

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLa...3468690,00.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Rice: Iran resolution doesn't OK war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she does not believe a Senate resolution authorizes President Bush to take military action against Iran.

"There is nothing in this particular resolution that would suggest that from our point of view. And, clearly, the president has also made very clear that he's on a diplomatic path where Iran comes into focus," Rice said.

The Senate in late September voted 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

While the resolution, by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only Senate Democrat running for president to support the measure. Her rivals have argued that Bush could use it to justify war with Iran. Clinton insists her vote would not support military strikes and instead was a vote for stepped-up diplomacy.

On Sunday, Rice echoed that view. She said Bush was focused on diplomatic options — not waging war.

"Obviously, it can be the case that he will never take his options off the table, but this particular resolution has nothing to do with that from our point of view," Rice said. "This resolution is saying that there needs to be strong measures taken against Iran, which we have definitely done."

"And if the Iranians suspend their enrichment and reprocessing, I'm prepared to meet my counterpart anyplace, anytime, anywhere," she added. "So the question isn't why will we not talk to Tehran. The question is, why will Tehran not talk to us?"

Rice spoke on ABC's This Week.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...rice-iran_N.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

Ahmadinejad vows no concessions over nuclear program
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 21, 2007

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday that Iran would not give any concessions to the West over it nuclear program, only days after a UN report said Teheran had been generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history.

Ahmadinejad said concessions to the United States and its allies would only result in more concessions further down the road over its controversial nuclear program.

"They want get a small concession from us, for instance, that we won't go beyond a certain point within the next four years or we annually make just a certain amount of progress," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in the northwestern Iranian city of Ardabil.

"This will become a legal precedent. Then, they will come and threaten us to obtain another concession," he added.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...Article/Printer

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran says it expects end to Security Council involvement in its nuclear file
The Associated Press
Published: November 22, 2007

VIENNA, Austria: Tehran expects the U.N. Security Council to close the file on its nuclear activities once it has answered all questions about its past atomic programs, a senior Iranian envoy said Thursday.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, also accused Washington of "poisoning the atmosphere" of an IAEA probe into its past with its attempts to impose new U.S. Security Council sanctions.

As the Council's three permanent Western members, the U.S., France and Britain are at the forefront of a push for a third set of U.N. sanctions on Tehran for defying council demands to freeze uranium enrichment. However, Russia and China are opposed, leaving the likelihood of such measures unclear.

"There is no legal and technological justification" for continued Security Council involvement once the IAEA declares an end to its current probe, Soltanieh told reporters outside a Vienna meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board. "Security Council involvement has to stop — the sooner the better."

That goes against recent U.S. statements. Earlier this month, chief U.S. delegate Gregory L. Schulte, responding to similar comment from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Tehran's file was "not closed" as long as any doubts remain about the nature of Tehran's nuclear activities and until Iran heeds council demands on enrichment.

Iran now is running 3,000 declared centrifuges — which is sufficient to produce enough fissile material for a weapon within 1 1/2 years, should Tehran go that route, and Soltanieh declared his country "the master of enrichment technology."

While noting some progress in clearing up past nuclear ambiguities, Schulte has labeled Iran's cooperation with the investigation inadequately "selective."

Inside the meeting, meanwhile, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told delegates that his agency knows less now about Iran's atomic activities than it did a year ago.

ElBaradei also said his agency is still in the dark about possible military applications of what Iran says is a purely civilian nuclear program. However, he praised Iran for providing long-sought answers about its nuclear past.

The two-day board meeting is focusing on a report from ElBaradei outlining the progress of his agency's nuclear probe. The report will also be crucial in expected U.N. Security Council deliberations.

The report, forwarded to the 35 nations last week, gives Tehran mixed marks. It suggests that, as far as the agency can determine, Iran has told the truth about its black market purchases of centrifuge technology used to enrich uranium.

But it points out that the IAEA will be unable to look at the present status of centrifuge development until the Islamic Republic restores fuller inspection rights to agency experts.

"The agency has not been able to verify some important aspects of Iran's nuclear program ... relevant to the scope and nature of Iran's enrichment activities as well as ... other activities that could have military applications," ElBaradei said.

While praising the increased level of cooperation shown by Iran in the past two months, he said his agency could not provide "credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities."

And he said the IAEA's knowledge about Iran's current nuclear activities has "diminished" since Iran rescinded fuller inspection rights last year.

In Tehran, Iran's top nuclear negotiator warned Thursday that any threat against his country would affect the stability of the entire Middle East, in an allusion to U.S. suggestions that no option — including force as a last resort — is off the table in attempts to stop Iran's enrichment program.

"Playing with the security of Iran is like dominos," Saeed Jalili said. "We believe the world powers are aware about Iran's effective role in the global security. ... Our role in Afghanistan and Iraq is in direction with peace, stability and improving governments there."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/22/...ran-Nuclear.php

[ABLAT Staff]

Iranian envoy rejects U.N. sanctions, U.S. allegations

VIENNA (AP) — A senior Iranian envoy on Friday rejected U.N. sanctions on his country as invalid, and accused the U.S of using unfounded scare tactics in insisting Tehran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

The comments by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, were made available to The Associated Press before delivery at the closing session of the IAEA's 35-nation board as it focused on an agency investigation of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and its defiance of a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment.

Soltanieh on Thursday called on the Security Council to close the file on his country's nuclear activities, saying Iran was close to dispelling fears about its intentions that have prompted sanctions.

In comments Friday, he said Security Council resolutions demanding a stop to the activity — a possible path to nuclear weapons — have "no legal basis." And he accused Washington of making "a political issue" of what he maintained was Tehran's peaceful nuclear program by falsely warning of the "threat of Iran's plutonium nuclear weapon."

"Allegations ... (of) Iran's clandestine and non-peaceful activities are now proved to be baseless," he said.

But the U.S. said Tehran only wanted to "distract the world" while moving closer to being able to make atomic bombs. Washington and its allies suggested further U.N. penalties might be in the offing unless Iran suspends uranium enrichment and complies with other Security Council demands.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11...an-vienna_N.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran has produced nuclear fuel pellets for its heavy water reactor
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 24, 2007

Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Saturday that Iran has produced nuclear fuel pellets for its 40-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor, a technological advancement in the cycle of nuclear fuel, according to the state news agency.

"Fuel pellets to be used in the 40-megawatt Arak research reactor have been produced," IRNA quoted Aghzadeh as saying Saturday.

Iran has gone a long way in building a 40-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak, central Iran, which the United States fears could be used to produce plutonium and build nuclear weapons.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter

[ABLAT Staff]

Sneh: Iranian missile threatens Moscow
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP

Iran's new ballistic missile not only increases the threat against Israel, but against European cities as well, including Moscow, MK Ephraim Sneh (Labor) said on Tuesday.

"It is time the world opened its eyes," Army Radio quoted him as saying.

Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar announced on Tuesday that his country had developed a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers, capable of reaching Israel and US Army bases in the Middle East.

According to the country's IRNA news agency, Najjar said the missile was named the "Ashoura," meaning "the tenth day" in Farsi - a sacred reference among Shi'ite Muslims to the martyrdom of the third imam.

The Iranian defense minister said that "the production of the new missile was one of the Defense Ministry's greatest achievements."

Najjar did not specify how the Ashoura was different from the Shihab-3 missile, which is currently considered the country's longest-range missile.

The Ashoura was produced by factories affiliated with the ministry, according to IRNA. Najjar did not say whether Iran had test fired the missile or had plans to do so.

Analysts believe much of Iran's military production has benefited from assistance from Russia, China and other countries, but many of their weapons development claims have not been independently verified.

Iran launched an arms development program during its war with Iraq to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has reportedly produced its own jets, torpedoes, radar-avoiding missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Recent weapons development has been motivated by Iran's standoff with the US over its controversial nuclear program.

The Shihab-3, which means "shooting star" in Farsi, has a range of at least 1,300 kilometers. In 2005, Iranian officials said they had improved the range of the Shihab-3 to 2,000 kilometers, equal to the new missile announced Tuesday.

Experts also believe Iran is developing the Shihab-4 missile, thought to have a range between 2,000 and 3,000 kilometers, that would enable it to hit much of Europe.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran: Sanctions won't stop atomic work

EU envoy says meeting with Iranian negotiator Jalili on Iran's nuclear program was 'disappointing'; Jalili says demand that Iran halt works 'unacceptable'

Reuters
Published: 11.30.07, 20:01 / Israel News

The European Union said it was disappointed after talks with Iran Friday seen as a last chance to avert US pressure for tougher international sanctions over Tehran's disputed atomic program.

The absence of a breakthrough at the London talks means six world powers meeting in Paris on Saturday will try to agree on new penalties to propose to the United Nations, despite differences in their approach to halting Iran's nuclear program.

"I have to admit that after five hours of meetings I expected more. I am disappointed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters, adding he would meet Iran's negotiator Saeed Jalili again before the end of December.

Jalili told reporters after the meeting it was "unacceptable" to demand Iran halt its uranium enrichment program and that any new UN sanctions would fail to prevent Tehran from pursuing its atomic work.

"If some countries want to use the UN Security Council and its resolutions to stop Iran's atomic work, surely they will not be successful," Jalili said.

Asked whether Iran had brought any new initiatives to the table on Friday, Solana's spokeswoman said: "Not enough new in order not to be disappointed."

Disagreement over sanctions

The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany plan to draft a new resolution imposing wider financial, trade and visa restrictions to increase pressure on Tehran to stop enriching uranium, which can be used in atomic bombs.

But the six powers remain at odds over how soon to resort to more United Nations penalties, or how harsh they should be.

Russia and China, and to a lesser extent Germany, have close commercial ties with Iran and are likely to tailor their new sanctions proposals accordingly, taking a less hawkish approach than that of the United States, Britain and France.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3477620,00.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran: Sanctions won't end nuke dispute
Tehran says U.N. powers trying to deprive country of its rights
--Reuters

Iran says sanctions won't help end nuclear row
Sun Dec 2, 2007 11:45am EST
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Further U.N. sanctions will not solve the row with the West over Iran's disputed nuclear plans, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, a day after six world powers discussed imposing new penalties on Tehran.

The powers met in Paris on Saturday after the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana, said he was disappointed about his latest talks with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator that had aimed to persuade Tehran to halt sensitive atomic work.

"If these powers are trying to deprive Iran of its rights, resolutions and sanctions will be fruitless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference.

The five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany agreed in September to delay sanctions against Iran until the end of November, pending a report by Solana on his mediation efforts and another by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report found Iran was cooperating, but not proactively.

Two rounds of sanctions have already been imposed on Iran for failing to heed a U.N. demand that it halt uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Tehran is trying to master so it can build atomic bombs.

Iran insists it wants only fuel for power plants.

Iran has refused to stop the activity, saying it is a national right and insisting its work is based on international law and regulations.

"If there are some expectations that are beyond treaties, then they are unacceptable to us," Hosseini said.

A French diplomat said the Paris talks were positive and progress was made but a decision on sanctions could not be taken because Russia's envoy was unable to attend.

In previous meetings Russia and China, which have strong trade ties with Iran, have agreed only to the mildest measures proposed by Britain, the United States and France.

Hosseini said Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would travel to Moscow on Monday for talks, but did not give details. "He will meet high-ranking Russian officials to discuss the two countries' strategic issues," Hosseini said.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, writing by Edmund Blair, editing by Tim Pearce)


http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBLA22917920071202