The most widely touted outcome of last week's Geneva talks with Iran was the "agreement in principle" to send approximately one nuclear-weapon's worth of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for enrichment to 19.75% and fabrication into fuel rods for Tehran's research reactor. President Barack Obama says the deal represents progress, a significant confidence-building measure. In fact, the agreement constitutes another in the long string of Iranian negotiating victories over the West. Any momentum toward stricter sanctions has been dissipated, and Iran's fraudulent, repressive regime again hobnobs with the U.N. Security Council's permanent members. Consider the following problems:
Is there a deal or isn't there? Diplomacy's three slipperiest words are "agreement in principle." Iran's Ambassador to Britain exclaimed after the talks in Geneva, "No, no!" when asked if his country had agreed to ship LEU to Russia; it had "not been discussed yet." An unnamed Iranian official said that the Geneva deal "is just based on principles. We have not agreed on any amount or any numbers." Bargaining over the deal's specifics could stretch out indefinitely.
Other issues include whether Iran will have "observers" at Russian enrichment facilities. If so, what new technologies might those observers glean? And, since Tehran's reactor is purportedly for medical purposes, will Mr. Obama deny what Iran pretends to need to refuel it in 2010?
The "agreement" undercuts Security Council resolutions forbidding Iranian uranium enrichment. No U.S. president has been more enamored of international law and the Security Council than Mr. Obama. Yet here he is undermining the foundation of the multilateral campaign against Tehran's nuclear weapons program. In Resolution 1696, adopted July 31, 2006, the Security Council required Iran to "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development." Uranium enriched thereafterthe overwhelming bulk of Iran's admitted LEUthus violates 1696 and later sanctions resolutions. Moreover, considering Iran's utter lack of credibility, we have no idea whether its declared LEU constitutes anything near its entire stockpile.
By endorsing Iran's use of its illegitimately enriched uranium, Mr. Obama weakens his argument that Iran must comply with its "international obligations." Indeed, the Geneva deal undercuts Mr. Obama's proposal to withhold more sanctions if Iran does not enhance its nuclear program by allowing Iran to argue that continued enrichment for all peaceful purposes should be permissible. Now Iran will oppose new sanctions and argue for repealing existing restrictions. Every other aspiring proliferator is watching how violating Security Council resolutions not only carries no penalty but provides a shortcut to international redemption.
Raising Iran's LEU to higher enrichment levels is a step backwards. Two-thirds of the work to get 90% enriched uranium, the most efficient weapons grade, is accomplished when U235 isotope levels in natural uranium are enriched to Iran's current level of approximately 3%-5%. Further enrichment of Iran's LEU to 19.75% is a significant step in the wrong direction. This is barely under the 20% definition of weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU). Ironically, Resolution 1887, adopted while Mr. Obama presided over the Security Council last week, calls for converting HEU-based reactors like Iran's to LEU fuel precisely to lower such proliferation risks. We should be converting the Tehran reactor, not refueling it at 19.75% enrichment.
After Geneva, the administration misleadingly stated that once fashioned into fuel rods, the uranium involved could not be enriched further. This is flatly untrue. The 19.75% enriched uranium could be reconverted into uranium hexafluoride gas and quickly enriched to 90%. Iran could also "burn" its uranium fuel (including the Russian LEU available for the Bushehr reactor) and then chemically extract plutonium from the spent fuel to produce nuclear weapons.
The more sophisticated Iran's nuclear skills become, the more paths it has to manufacture nuclear weapons. The research-reactor bait-and-switch demonstrates convincingly why it cannot be trusted with fissile material under any peaceful guise. Proceeding otherwise would be winking at two decades of Iranian deception, which, unfortunately, Mr. Obama seems perfectly prepared to do.
The president also said last week that international access to the Qom nuclear site must occur within two weeks, but an administration spokesman retreated the next day, saying there was no "hard and fast deadline," and "we don't have like a drop-dead date." Of course, neither does Iran. Once again, Washington has entered the morass of negotiations with Tehran, giving Iran precious time to refine and expand its nuclear program. We are now even further from eliminating Iran's threat than before Geneva.
Continued on Page 47
[Iran Press TV Latest] Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has appointed a number of new commanders at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
The leader appointed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi on Sunday to replace the cleric Hossein Ta'eb as the new commander of the Basij force.
Brigadier Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi has also been appointed by the leader to serve as the new commander of the Logistics of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Hossein Salami has been promoted to deputy commander of the IRGC.
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh has also been named as the new commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force.
[Iran Press TV Latest] In the continuing political posturing at various levels since Iran's June 12 presidential elections, some Principlist lawmakers have put out rumors of a bid to oust the Speaker of the Majlis as the majority leader.
Ali Larijani, the outgoing and highly influential speaker of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), is considered a heavyweight principlist who heads the majority principlist bloc in the Majlis that, for the most part, backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election bid.
Before taking the helm at the Majlis, Larijani was the influential Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.
Though a common critic of former opposition candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, Larijani has been regarded as 'too mild' by some of President Ahmadinejad's more ardent supporters.
The reported parliamentary measures against Larijani, however, are opposed by the minority Reformist bloc of the Majlis.
"With the removal of Larijani from the Speaker's chair, the pro-government faction pursues a Majlis which is (only) a formality," said the spokesman of the Reformist bloc, Dariush Qanbari, according to an October 4 report in 'Perlemannews,' a web news outlet reflecting the views of the minority, reformist bloc of the Majlis.
"Because of his independent position, the pro-government bloc is trying very hard to eliminate Larijani from the Majlis, Qanbari, a vocal Ahmadinejad critic, claims.
"If this occurs, then nothing will be left of the independence of the Majlis, and the assembly will fall into the hands of the government," he added.
From the other side of the Majlis, the influential Principlist Majlis Deputy Speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar explained: "It seems that the Principlist bloc feels that [it is better for] the Speaker to be different from the head of the Principlist' bloc."
"It is better and more expedient for him (Larijani) to continue to lead the Principlist bloc," added Bahonar, who has often criticized Ahmadinejad himself.
Bahonar claimed that Larijani was also reluctant to hold both positions simultaneously.
"The people's representatives make decisions in a way to increase unity among the Principlist bloc," he said.
Under Iranian constitution, the three arms of the state - executive, legislative and judiciary - are clearly separated.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2009 00:00 ||
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After a series of breakthroughs in space research and technology, Iran sets the wheels turning on plans to send its first astronaut into orbit.
Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Reza Taqipour, said Wednesday that scientists are exploring ways to implement preliminary plans to launch a manned mission into space.
"We have a clear outline of the plans, but at the same time we are aware that implementing our plans depend on a broad national participation," Taqipour told Mehrnews on Saturday.
Earlier in February, Iran went down in history for placing its domestically-made satellite into orbit and thus joining a small group of countries that have the ability of both producing satellites and sending them into space using domestic launchers.
The Omid data-processing satellite was designed to circle the Earth 15 times every 24 hours and to transmit data via two frequency bands and eight antennas to an Iranian space station.
With a full mission accomplished, Omid went up in flames in late March after successfully ending its 50-day orbit around space.
Iran's space breakthrough came as a big surprise for European powers and the US, mainly because the country has been under Western sanctions for nearly 30 years.
MIT scientist Geoffrey Forden said Iran's breakthrough in space research and technology is to such an extent that the country "could get a person up into low-Earth orbit certainly within the next few years, at the rate they're going."
Forden, a former inspector with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), said Iran has designed the Omid data-processing satellite using state-of-the-art technology such as more efficient hydrazine fuel.
"If Iran really has developed more advanced rockets that can burn more efficient fuel, then it is a step closer to launching people into space," Forden said in an article in New Scientist.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned the US and Europe of what he calls Israel's 'danger' over their continuous support for Tel Aviv.
"The US is facing a big test, because Israel is a threat to the region and even to Europe and the USA, and citizens of the West are no longer willing to put up with any more humiliation for supporting racists," Mottaki said during a meeting with Hamas official Musa Muhammad Abu Marzuq in Tehran on Sunday.
He also condemned latest Israeli provocation after Israeli forces shut access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Al-Quds).
"The recent acts of the Zionists in the Al-Aqsa Mosque reveal Israel's racist nature and should be a warning to the Muslim and Arab countries," said Mottaki, according to a press release from Iran's Foreign Ministry.
Calling the ratcheting up the pressure against the Palestinians "a violation of human rights", Iran's chief diplomat said the Israeli policies stiffens the resolve of Palestinian residents, "and makes them more resolute on the path of resistance."
Mottaki supported the notion of reconciliation between different Palestinian groups and expressed the hope for the day when the world witnesses "a democratic and popular state with the participation of all Palestinians."
The deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, for his part, expressed appreciation for the moral support of Iran for the resistance movement.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam's third holiest place, and has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967. Israeli authorities have recently shut off the mosque to Muslims and have instead allowed large number of Jewish worshippers into the area of the Dome of the Rock to coincide with the Jewish Festival of Sukkot.
The recent measures have resulted in disturbances in the area and Palestinian casualties.
The Palestinian resistance is fully prepared to counter Israel's warmongering policies, Abu Marzuq said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The real story is that non-muslim are not allowed to pray near the location of the Holy Temple , if somebody is suspected of the "crime" of praying is remove immediately by the police.
Posted by: Ana ||
10/05/2009 13:04 Comments ||
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#2
You mean like the Al Aqsa mosque, Ana? Or like last year, when the pope (the Catholic one from Rome) prayed at the Wailing Wall, the last remaining part of Temple in Jerusalem?
#3
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam's third holiest place, and has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967.
When you kick the living sh$$ out of your enemies and take over his territory IN A WAR OF NATIONAL DEFENSE, there's nothing "illegal" about it. This whole "illegal" BS is just an attempt to force Israel to concede territory it actually has every right to keep for the next 1000 years.
One of these days an Israeli leader is going to get thoroughly fed up with the riff-raff that surrounds Israel, and there will be some instant sunrises. There will be a lot fewer Arab enemies afterwards.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2009 22:46 Comments ||
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TEL AVIV -- The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said President Barack Obama has been rebuffed by Arabs and Israelis regarding U.S. initatives to help establish a Palestinian state and stabilize Iraq. Another potential triumph in diplomacy down the drain.
BESA said the U.S. allies in the Middle East have been alarmed by Obama's decision to reconcile with Iran, determined to be pursuing nuclear weapons. The policy of the open hand extending to the clenched fist is not playing well in the ME.
"This ambitious agenda has so far produced meager results," the report, titled "Obama and the Middle East," said. "Many regional players are primarily concerned about Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and are not easily amenable to American overtures." A very diplomatic way of saying that the Big O's strategy is naive and destined to failure.
Authored by BESA director Efraim Inbar, the report said Obama achieved little in the Israeli-Palestinian summit in New York on Sept. 22. Inbar, regarded as close to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, said Obama's goal of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2011 appears to have reached a dead-end.
"U.S. President Barack Obama's summit meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas in New York this week was a good thing, but it amounted to little more than a photo opportunity," the report said. A high carbon footprint photo opportunity. It was not in harmony with Gaia.
The report said Obama, despite an unprecedented U.S. outreach, has failed to change Muslim perceptions in the Middle East. Inbar said Obama's engagement with Iran has also not produced results. Hey, we're the Great Satan. That ain't changing.
"His belief in the power of words to change people is naive when it comes to well-rooted attitudes or entrenched interests of nations," the report said. "In instances where the United States sided with Muslims when in conflict with non-Muslims, such as in Pakistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, there was little impact on Muslim dispositions. Obama's words are unlikely to have long-term positive effects for the United States, which in final analysis is seen as foreign and domineering."
The report appeared to echo an analysis by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Aug. 28, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, essentially dismissed Obama's outreach to the Muslim world as a wasted effort. The big O has quite the rack of friends in the military.
"Our messages lack credibility because we haven't invested enough in building trust and relationships, and we haven't always delivered on promises," Mullen wrote in the Joint Force Quarterly.
The U.S. policy toward Iran and Syria was said to mark a major cause of concern by traditional allies of Washington. The BESA report said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, later joined by other Arab leaders, has already rejected a U.S. plan for a nuclear umbrella in the Middle East.
"During his August trip to Washington, Mubarak of Egypt tried to inject sense into the young American president," the report said. "Moreover, Mubarak rejected Obama's offer for a nuclear umbrella. So did other pro-American Arab states. American promises to defend them are simply not credible if the U.S. is reluctant to use military force to stop the Iranian nuclear threat." And therein lies the rub. Under the big O, the US is not seen now as a bottom line ally to protect other nations in the ME against Iran. How far we have fallen.
The report said Arab allies would refuse to cooperate in Obama's drive to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Inbar said Arab countries have rejected U.S. proposals to normalize relations with Israel as part of a regional peace accord.
"What is missing in Washington is healthy skepticism and a realistic foreign policy based upon the premises that not all problems are soluble and that foreigners have limited capacity to induce change," the report said. "Finally, Obama's Washington seems unaware of the fact that the regional parties have great obstructive power. Only when they are ready there will be peace."
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Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
HMMMM, HMMMMM, wehell, "SINK THE USS ISRAEL" ["Bismarck']
versus
NEWSMAX > DE BORCHGRAVE > DEFEAT NOW CONCEIVABLE IN AFGHANISTAN, iff the Bammer doesn't give his Commanders = GENERAL MCCHRYSTAL the troops they need???
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
After a series of breakthroughs in space research and technology, Iran sets the wheels turning on plans to send its first astronaut into orbit. 
