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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran Has Enough Uranium For Ten Atomic Bombs, U.S. Official Says |
| 2006-03-08 |
| Iran has enough uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which, if enriched, would allow it to manufacture ten atomic bombs, the US permanent representative to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday. Gregory Schulte adressed a meeting in Vienna of the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warning that "Iran is pursuing in a very determined way its [uranium] enrichment programme." Schulte added in his speech that it was time the UN Security Council intervened in the international crisis over Iran's nuclear plan, unless Tehran started cooperating with the IAEA. "Iran has informed the Agency that it means to install the first 3,000 P-1 centrifuges [needed for erichment] in Natanz next autumn," said Schulte. According to the US official, the Islamic Republic "has a stock of 85 tons of UF6 which, if enriched, can produce enough material for approximately 10 nuclear weapons." The time has come for the Security Council to take action, Schulte also said, and Iran must be warned of the "consequences" of its behaviour if it doesn't respect its obligations on the nuclear issue. The ongoing IAEA meeting is expected to pave the way to Security Council action against Iran. Sources say the Security Council could discuss Iran as early as next week. The council has the power to impose sanctions, although it is not clear that all key members would agree to do so. "The United States believe the involvement of the Security Council should strengthen the role and investigations of the Agency," Schulte said. The official added that "Iran's actions will obviously influence the way in which the issue is discussed by the Security Council." Meanwhile Iran's top negotiator in Vienna, Javad Vaodi, said on Wednesday that his country at the moment did not mean to use oil as a weapon in negotiations but would consider doing so in the future if forced by the West. The IAEA wants Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Western powers believe Iran wants to develop nuclear arms, a claim denied by Tehran which says it wants to develop its nuclear sector only to produce energy for civilian purposes. Three years of negotiations between Iran and the EU have brought no significant result, and Iran resumed enrichment in January after a two-year moratorium. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 ... while the latter allows the UNSC to merely listen intently and nod with no formal hand-wringing required. Yeah, all that heavy |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-08 21:24 |
| #9 Apparently the IAEA today officially referred Iran to the UNSC. Did they actually refer the issue to the UNSC or did they merely vote to report their findings and the current state of affairs? Big difference (not in reality but in diplo-speak) as the former formally dumps the entire problem on the UNSC who is then obligated to formally wring their hands about it while the latter allows the UNSC to merely listen intently and nod with no formal hand-wringing required. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2006-03-08 21:08 |
| #8 Liberalhawk No, not quite. I believe that the first step would be a UNSC resolution condemning Israel for, oh, any number of things. |
| Posted by: kelly 2006-03-08 17:30 |
| #7 Xbalanke: And we all remember the UN performance in Rwanda. |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-08 16:07 |
| #6 On occasion, I monitor Iran's official "Islamic Republic" news agency for content of Teheran University's Friday Prayers. As far as I know, the "Death to ____" list includes: America; Israel; Denmark; France; Germany; England. Except for Denmark and Germany (which are NATO allies), the other States are nuclear powers. Someone has a problem with fact absorption. |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-08 16:04 |
| #5 Apparently the IAEA today officially referred Iran to the UNSC. (Id be very curious as to the vote at the IAEA) The next step is for the UNSC to ask nicely for the Iranians to stop enrichment. When they dont, the next step is to order them. The next step after that is to vote sanctions. IIUC Bolton is hoping to get the first resolution passed within a week. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2006-03-08 15:11 |
| #4 The time has come for the Security Council to take action... Why am I reminded of this poem? 'The time has come,' the 'To talk of many things: Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax -- Of cabbages -- and kings -- And why the sea is boiling hot -- And whether pigs have wings.' |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-03-08 11:43 |
| #3 I'm hoping someone here has a link to the mention I saw of how Iran's UF6 supply has proven to be tainted by impurities resulting from poor refining and gasification processes. Considering that Iran has limited experience in operating the high speed centrifuges as well, this could point to a substantial bottleneck in their ability to enrich the supplies of UF6 that they have. Regardless, this is just one more button on the coat of why Negotiating with Iran brings to mind the old Mark Twain quote: Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-08 11:29 |
| #2 I'm no expert, but it seems to be that the current weak link in Iran's scheme is 1) the location of the yellowcake and 2) the centrifuges to purify the yellowcake. If something really unfortunate happened to those, they'd be set back for a few years at least. We don't need a MOAB or cruise missiles to do that, some sort of major work accident is all that's required. Just need to scale up the 'red-wire/green-wire' scenario to the appropriate size. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-03-08 10:58 |
| #1 Things are warming up. I expect that gas will either be liberated or entombed sometime in the next couple of months. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-03-08 09:30 |