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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IAEA / Mad Mullahs Marathon Dance Continues |
| 2005-11-14 |
| Wanking for show. UN nuclear chief to press Iran on compromise Proposal would move program to Russia The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency is supporting a proposal that calls for Iran to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, and he plans to carry the details with him to Tehran within days, diplomats said yesterday. The planned trip by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is meant to persuade Tehran to accept the initiative aimed at eliminating Iran's capacity to make fuel for nuclear weapons, despite an initial rejection. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of the Iranian nuclear agency, ruled out the compromise proposal on Saturday and insisted that the uranium enrichment program must be carried out in Iran. But a European official and a diplomat close to the agency downplayed Aghazadeh's reaction, saying it was given before he had seen the plan, which would first be presented to the Iranians by ElBaradei and his delegation. Both officials received anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information. Speaking from outside Vienna, the European official said ElBaradei was acting with the approval of the European Union and the United States, which have endorsed the arrangement. The official said Iran had little choice but to accept the proposal if it wanted to avoid the likelihood of a European-US push to refer it to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions when the IAEA's 35-nation board meets Nov. 24 in Vienna. A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, had no comment on the report. Washington says Iran is aiming to produce nuclear warheads. Tehran says its program is solely to produce electricity and insists it has the right to develop the entire nuclear fuel cycle on its own. In an effort to blunt chances of referral to the Security Council, Iran recently allowed IAEA inspectors to revisit the Parchin military site, southeast of Tehran. Another diplomat close to the agency said yesterday that initial results of environmental samples from the site showed no trace of radiation, although US officials say the site may be part of Iran's nuclear arms research program. But the diplomat emphasized that further tests were needed before a conclusion could be reached. Specialists have said Iran could have conducted "dry testing" without radioactive components even if it was working on a nuclear weapons program in Parchin. Diplomats said earlier this year that US officials presented computer simulations to IAEA officials this summer indicating that Iran was trying to design a nuclear warhead to fit on its Shahab missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Reacting to a report in The New York Times yesterday that offered new details on the presentation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran that the US intelligence information was "rubbish." The Times said the Americans asserted that the simulations and other documents came from a stolen Iranian laptop. |
| Posted by:Graish Flique6080 |
| #1 Cue Scheherezade. |
| Posted by: Curt Simon 2005-11-14 15:28 |