UN accuses Iran of working to build nuclear bomb

[Enoch]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7266349/UN-accuses-Iran-of-working-to-build-nuclear-bomb.html



UNweapons inspectors have officially accused Iran of carrying out work to build a nuclear bomb for the first time.

A damning report to be issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency next week will say Tehran has processed a substantial quantity of uranium to a point where it could be used to trigger a nuclear explosion.

The document provides direct evidence of Iran's efforts to assemble a nuclear weapon which could provide a compelling justification for new UN sanctions against the country's regime.

"Iran has not provided the necessary co-operation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," a leaked copy of the report said yesterday.

"The information available to the agency raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile."

Diplomats said the report marked a turning point in efforts to expose Iran's ambitions. Credit for the abrupt change in the IAEA's stance went to Yukiya Amano, who took over as head of the agency, at the turn of the year.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's Egyptian former chief, was consistently reluctant to make definitive conclusions about evidence of Iranian violations.

Some diplomats believed Mr ElBaradei bore the scars of the IAEA's inaccurate accusations that Iraq and Saddam Hussein harboured a secret programme to build a weapon.

"He was determined not to slide into a march to war against Iran," said one Western diplomat. "Unfortunately it became a dogma for him over Iran."

A second departure in the report, which will be submitted to the IAEA's governing board on Mar 1, was an endorsement of intelligence passed on by Western governments, including CIA and MI6.

It said: "The information available to the agency is broadly consistent and credible in terms of the technical detail, the time frame in which the activities were conducted and the people and organisations involved."

The accusation that Iran is producing uranium that can be used in a nuclear weapon goes beyond the official American assessment of Iran's nuclear programme. America's spy chiefs have officially concluded that Iran stopped weapons experiments as far back as 2003. The White House has confirmed that the assessment is currently under review.

The IAEA further criticised Iran for allowing its scientists to enrich uranium to a new, denser level before international inspectors had arrived at the plant, a violation of its obligations.

The Foreign Office last night welcomed the report and said it bolstered the case for tough new sanctions that are designed to curb the regime.

"The report makes clear that Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities or its work on heavy water related projects as required by the UN Security Council," a spokesman said. "The IAEA's charge sheet against Iran is getting longer and longer with each report."

It added that the full nature of Iranian "duplicity" had been put on display by the report.

Western powers have said "all options" including military force are on the table to stop Iran but government leaders still hope that a diplomatic solution can be struck by curtailing the funds of Iran's power brokers.

However Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said the report had cleared Tehran. "The IAEA's new report confirmed Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and the country's non-deviation towards military purposes."

[Enoch]

This comes exactly 7 days after Iran's February 11th (31st anniversary of Islamic Revolution) announcement, that they are officially a nuclear country.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35343465/

Ahmadinejad: Iran is now a ‘nuclear state’




TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions.

Ahmadinejad reiterated to hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a "nuclear state," an announcement he's made before. He insisted that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons.

It was not clear how much enriched material had actually been produced just two days after the process was announced to have started.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Iran's claims, saying that country's leadership has made a series of statement based on politics, not physics.

The claim of new progress in Iran's nuclear program came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions, freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdiction of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs.

David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said that any 20-percent enriched uranium produced just a few days after the start of the process would be "a tiny amount."

The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying the program is just geared toward generating electricity.

"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," he said.

Enriching uranium produces fuel for nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons if enriched further to 90 percent or more.

"We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it," he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Iran announced Tuesday it was beginning the process of enriching its uranium stockpile to a higher level. The international community reacted by discussing the imposition of new U.N. sanctions.

Revolutionary Guard assets frozen
The U.S. Treasury Department went ahead on Wednesday and froze the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs for their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran has said it wants to further enrich the uranium — which is still substantially below the 90 percent plus level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads — as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.

But the West says Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad restated Iran's position that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb," he told the crowd. "If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it."

"We told them the Iranian nation will never give in to bullying and illogical remarks," Ahmadinejad added.

Western powers blame Tehran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to defuse the situation by having Iran export its low enriched uranium for enrichment abroad and returned as fuel rods for the Tehran reactor.

Iran, in turn, asserts it had no choice but to start enriching to higher levels because its suggested changes to the international plan were rejected.

The president said Iran will triple the production of its low-enriched uranium in the future but didn't elaborate.

"God willing, daily production (of low enriched uranium) will be tripled," he said.

A confidential document from the U.N. nuclear agency shared Wednesday with The Associated Press said Iran's initial effort at higher enrichment is modest, using only a small amount of feedstock and a fraction of its capacities.

[Enoch]

Recap:

Shortly after Iran announces their nuclear abilities and their disliking of UN sanctions, UN inspectors, for the very first time, officially declare that Iran is working to build a nuclear weapon.