Posted on 12/10/2004 9:18:01 PM PST by nuconvert
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VIENNA : High-energy neutron experiments in Iran that could be either civilian oriented or related to making an atomic bomb have raised suspicions since they are allegedly conducted under military supervision, diplomats told AFP in recent interviews.
The experiments, carried out with a neutron generator, are thought to be taking place at an alleged base of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
They involve the sort of dual-use technology which the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has its eye on but has trouble investigating since it can have civilian as well as military applications.
But a diplomat with close links to intelligence sources said "the combination of the existence of a neutron initiator in a secret facility run by the Revolutionary Guard, making high- and not low-energy neutron experiments is a sufficient good indicator to a suspected military program."
The experiments may involve beryllium metal, a strategically sensitive item which the Vienna-based IAEA discussed in a report in November on Iran.
One diplomat cited open-literature reports by Iranian nuclear scientists about work with high-energy neutrons and beryllium in universities in Birmingham, England and in Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, northeast Iran.
The experiments could be a link in alleged weapons activities, involving beryllium and another sensitive metal polonium.
Iranian officials insist that their nuclear program is a peaceful effort to produce electricity and that their work with polonium is intended to make nuclear batteries.
But polonium combined with beryllium can be the trigger for an atomic bomb while beryllium can be used to make the reflector that captures neutrons in order to kick off the actual nuclear explosion.
The accusations come as Iran and the European Union are set to meet Monday in Brussels to discuss a long-term deal in which Iran would get peaceful nuclear technology, trade benefits and regional security help in return for suspending uranium enrichment, the key part of the nuclear fuel cycle.
It also comes as the IAEA is trying to look into claims from the United States and the Iranian resistance that Iran is hiding nuclear weapons development at military facilities.
According to the first diplomat, the neutron experiments are being conducted at a base of the elite Revolutionary Guard military on the outskirts of Tehran "in a neutron generator in an isolated underground building."
The base is near the Malek Ashtar Technology University where a team of "six senior nuclear scientists and several research assistants" do calculations from the data, the diplomat said.
The diplomat said "fast (high-energy) neutron experiments, involving 14 million electron volts, which are not slowed down by moderators and are performed in a classified facility, are designed for nuclear fission processes, that is nuclear bomb systems."
An expert close to the IAEA said the agency was conscious of this work and was measuring it against a scale it has of determining whether to investigate the matter.
The expert said the fast neutron experiments can have three applications: to study research reactors which also can use beryllium shields, to study fusion or to develop energy reflectors for atomic bombs.
But the IAEA is limited in its investigations of alleged weapons work since its mandate under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is to guarantee that a country has declared all its nuclear material, diplomats said.
The IAEA, for instance, wants to visit the Parchin military testing site, where US officials say the Iranians may be "dry-testing" atomic bombs using inert uranium.
But the IAEA cannot insist on this since it has no evidence there is nuclear material at Parchin and the agency is asking for the visit as a "transparency" gesture of good faith on the part of Iran.
This is true of most military sites since Iran claims its nuclear program is strictly civilian.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said that countries can honor the NPT and still develop under civilian auspices the technology for nuclear weapons, as North Korea did before kicking out IAEA inspectors and withdrawing from the NPT in 2003.
For instance, uranium enrichment can serve to produce fuel for nuclear power stations but can also manufacture the explosive core of an atomic bomb.
Alleged weapons work, as with the neutron experiments, or beryllium or other dual-use technology such as high-speed cameras and flash X-ray equipment, can also be strictly peaceful technology.
Neutron experiments, for instance, can be devoted to developing neutron guns to measure the walls of oil wells.
The IAEA thus tries to find links or connections that strengthen its case and has been looking into whether Iran has succeeded in obtaining large amounts of beryllium.
But the agency has not seen this, the expert said.
- AFP
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Shiite cleric with links to Iran tops Iraqi election list -
vice president denies Iranian influence
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Compiled by Daily Star staff
A cleric with links to Iran leads the candidate list of a powerful coalition of Iraq's mainstream Shiite groups for next month's election, an aide said Friday.
Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim - the head of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) - would stand to take a central position in the assembly that will create Iraq's next government and constitution, if the coalition takes most Parliament seats in the Jan. 30 vote.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari denied in remarks published Friday that Iran was trying to influence Iraqi elections with the aim of creating a "crescent" dominated by Shiites in the region.
"We have been assured by the Iranians they will not interfere in Iraq's domestic affairs," he said in response to comments published Wednesday by King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Abdullah told The Washington Post Iran sought to influence Iraqi elections to create a "crescent" dominated by Shiites extending from Iraq to Lebanon.
A SCIRI senior official on Friday denounced the claim.
"Some Arab leaders pressure their peoples (by saying) the success of the elections will benefit the Shiites, this means (Iran)," the cleric, Sadreddine al-Qobanji, told a crowd of 2,000 people gathered at the al-Fatimiyya Mosque in Najaf.
Qobanji said some people fear Shiites seek to dominate the post-election government, but called such fears "illusory."
Shiites on Thursday unveiled a broad electoral alliance. The 228-strong list, backed by the Shiites' highest religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, includes no major Sunni political movements and excludes firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The coalition's platform, which has not been finished, will include a call for working toward the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq, members said.
"There must be a timetable for this," said Hussein al-Mousawi, an official of the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group that has some parties represented in the alliance.
Hakim was the longtime head of SCIRI's armed wing, the Badr Brigades, which was based in Iran during the Saddam Hussein's rule. Hakim returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall and took up the leadership of SCIRI after his brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, was killed in a car bomb last year.
Iraq's electoral commission, meanwhile, postponed until Dec. 15 the deadline for parties to present their list of election candidates. The original deadline was the end of Friday, but several political movements asked for more time.
In a troubling sign, masked gunmen in a black BMW killed three members of Iraq's Hizbullah Shiite movement, which is one of the 23 groups in the United Iraqi Alliance, according Essa Sayyid Jaafer, director of the group's political office.
Jaafer said one of the three, Sattar Jabar, was on the United Iraqi Alliance candidate list and had been warned he would be killed unless he bowed out.
In Basra, Iraqi security officials reported that U.S. soldiers ordered to Iraq had crossed the border with Kuwait on Friday.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad declined to comment on the reported troop movement, citing security concerns.
There are about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Washington announced the 12,000-troop increase last week.
Despite the relative calm in Iraq, insurgent attacks continued Friday. An Iraqi civilian was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra, and a businessman working with coalition forces was kidnapped in the Baiji area, further to the north, police said.
Also in the Baiji area, unknown assailants fired anti-tank rockets at a Turkish truck carrying goods to a U.S. military base, setting the vehicle ablaze. The fate of the driver was not immediately known.
In Baqouba, three civilians were wounded when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb.
A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty at his court-martial Friday to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder in the Aug. 18 killing of a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi male in Baghdad.
Staff Sergeant Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, was among several soldiers who had found the wounded teen in a burning truck with severe abdominal wounds. A criminal investigator said at an earlier hearing the soldiers decided to kill him to "put him out of his misery."
In northern Iraq, the younger brother of an Australian man held in Lebanon on terror charges has been detained by a Kurdish group, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Ahmed Jamal, 22, from Sydney, is being held by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Australian Consular officials are trying to contact him, a ministry spokeswoman said. - Agencies
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=10917#
Remarks of Jordanian king an insult to Iraqi nation: Iran
TEHRAN, Dec. 10 (MNA) –- Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi responded here Thursday to the unwise remarks of certain officials, including Iraqi Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, about the interference of Iran in the upcoming Iraqi electoral process.
Expressing regret over al-Yawar’s accusations against Iran, Asefi said that the Iraqi officials are well aware of the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran has always underlined the Iraqi nation’s right to decide its own fate.
“Iran has always considered the Iraqis’ right to decide their own fate as an effective step toward establishing peace and stability in Iraq as well as in the Middle East,” he added.
"Unfortunately, some political currents in Iraq seek to tarnish the trend of election there and cause concern in the public opinion," Asefi said.
"We expect that Mr. al-Yawar takes the existing sensitive situation into consideration and avoids repeating such comments."
Asefi further referred to the remarks of the Jordanian king as an insult to the Iraqi nation and a sign of King Abdullah’s ignorance about the situation in Iraq.
He said that the Iraqi nation has proved it will not tolerate the dominance of occupying forces over the country.
Abdullah II recently claimed that the Iranians have sent over one million Shias to Iraq in order to take part in the country’s general elections.
Some news resources have also announced al-Yawar’s concern over a number of neighboring countries including Iran, Syria and Jordan.
The Iraqi interim president stated that although some Iraqi Shias believe they are a part of the Shia community in Iran, there is a common policy in Iraq which gathers everyone together and that is the Iraqi identity.
-Asefi rules out claims on Iran's alleged role in plots in Egypt
Iran's Foreign Ministry also on Wednesday dismissed as "sheer lie" a claim by an Egyptian prosecutor general that an Iranian national had been involved in plots against Egyptian officials, IRNA reported.
Asefi raised strong protest against the allegations, saying the scenario is full of hostility and animosity, masterminded under the influence of Iran's enemies.
"Iran is itself a victim of terrorism and our stance against terrorism is fully clear," said Asefi.
He stressed that the principled policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are based on observing the principle of mutual respect and non-intervention in other countries' affairs.
Such vain allegations serve policies of Zionist regime and are against public interests of regional states, said Asefi.
Egyptian prosecutor general Maher Abdel Wahed told a press conference on Tuesday that Egyptian national, Mahmud Aid Dabbus, had been under surveillance for planning assassination of an Egyptian personality and providing an Iranian national with information about Egypt's national interests.
SA/HL/MS
End
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=137699
Iran seeks Indian participation in refineries:
[India News]: New Delhi, Dec 10 : Iran has sought India's participation in its refineries and petrochemical plants, state-owned energy major Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) said here Friday.
The matter was discussed during the visit of Iranian MP and Head of Energy Commission Kamal Daneshyar.
"Daneshyar invited Indian companies, including IndianOil, to invest and participate in the new refineries and petrochemical plants proposed to be set up in Iran," said IndianOil in a statement.
IndianOil director (Pipelines) A.M. Uplenchwar told the Iranian delegation about the various projects the company was pursuing in Iran, including those related to the revamping of refineries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petrochemicals.
He made a specific reference to the bid submitted by IndianOil with National Iranian Oil and Engineering Construction Company (NIOEC) for the revamp of refineries at Tabriz and Tehran, for which a formal decision is yet to be conveyed by Iran.
Focusing on the increasing need of India to source gas and oil, Uplenchwar emphasised the need for Iran to offer LNG at competitive prices so as to ensure a long-term supply arrangement.
Pending a decision on prices, India and Iran are still to finalise an agreement on LNG supplies to India.
In turn, Daneshyar hoped that the long awaited Iran-India gas pipeline would eventually become a reality, as it would transform the economic growth of the entire region.
-Indo-Asian News Service
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=47099
EU-Iran to Launch Long-term Cooperation Talks
12/10/04
London, Dec 10, IRNA -- The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rowhani will meet the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Monday to officially talk on a long-term nuclear cooperation agreement.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London Friday told IRNA that the meeting would be held while Jack Straw, Michel Barnier, Joschka Fischer and EU High Representative Javier Solana attend their regular General Affairs Council with other foreign ministers.
The talks are part of the agreement reached last month by the so- called EU3 to allow confidence-building measures to overcome concerns over Iran's civilian nuclear programme.
In return for Iran offering to suspend the enrichment of uranium, the European Union has offered to provide Tehran "guarantees on nuclear, technological and economic cooperation and firm commitments on security issues."
The spokesman said that a steering committee, made up of senior officials, was being set up, as well as three working groups on political and security issues, technology and cooperation, and nuclear issues.
The steering committee is due to meet again within three months to receive progress reports from the working groups and move ahead with projects and measures that can be implemented in advance of a full long-term agreement.
The 25-nation EU is also due to formally agree to resume stalled talks with Iran on a trade and cooperation agreement, which includes European support for its membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and loans by international financial institutions.
The first test of EU support will come next week, when the WTO is due to consider Iran's 20th bid to start accession talks, which have previously been blocked by the US.
At their General Affairs Council, EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the so-called Paris Agreement with Iran, which has been unanimously endorsed by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Straw has previously described the deal a "significant development in relations between Europe and Iran." Solana has also said work on long-term arrangements "could now proceed rapidly" and aim at providing lasting confidence over Iran's nuclear programme.
The session on General Affairs is essentially being dedicated to the European Council summit next week, which marks the end of the Dutch 6-month presidency.
The final declaration of the two-day summit in Brussels, starting on December 16, is expected to include an endorsement of the EU's policy towards Iran.
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1082.html
Iran, Thailand underline bilateral relations
Friday, December 10, 2004 - ©2004 IranMania.com
Tehran, Dec 10 (IranMania) - Iran`s Ambassador to Thailand Mohsen Pak Aeen on Thursday said that the two countries have enough potentials to promote bilateral relations in various fields, Iran's State News Agency, IRNA said.
In his meeting with Palakorn Suwanrat, Thai king representative to the Privy Council, he remarked that Iran is ready to expand relations in economic and trade areas with the south-east Asian country.
The Iranian diplomat also attached importance to the role the mass media play to introduce different cultures among nations and called for interaction in mass media of the two countries.
In the meeting, the Thai official called for implementing research and joint projects given the long-term relations between his country and Iran.
He also proposed holding bilateral seminars in an effort to know the fields for developing mutual relations between Iran and Thailand.
Privy Council has a duty to render advice to the king on all matters pertaining to his function as he may consult. The Privy has 18 Councilors.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=27702&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Iran to Pull out of ThyssenKrupp
Friday, December 10, 2004 - ©2004 IranMania.com
LONDON, Dec 10 (IranMania) - Iran is to sell its stake in the German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp in the medium term after pressure from the United States forced a representative from Tehran off the company's supervisory board, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Friday.
"There is no sense in keeping hold of our stake, since we can no longer control our investment," the newspaper quoted a source close to the Iranian public holding company IFIC as saying.
There were no concrete plans to sell the stake just yet. But if the price were right, there was nothing opposing a sale, the source was quoted as saying.
At current market prices, Iran's 4.5-percent stake in ThyssenKrupp would be worth around 357 mln euros ($470 mln), FT Deutschland estimated.
On Thursday, it emerged that the Iranian government's official on ThyssenKrupp's supervisory board -- the deputy minister for economic and international affairs Mohamad-Mehdi Navab-Motlagh -- was not standing for re-election at the German company's upcoming annual shareholders meeting on January 21.
ThyssenKrupp itself made no comment on the matter. But press reports suggested the move was a result of pressure from the US, which was threatening to exclude the German steel and engineering giant from public contracts if Iran did not give up its seat on the board.
"We're not happy with the way we're being treated," the newspaper quoted the IFIC source as saying.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=27703&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Construction of Karkhe Dam a great achievement: leader
TehranTimes
ANDIMESHK, Khuzestan Prov. (IRNA) -- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei visited the various parts of the great Karkhe Dam in northwest of Andimeshk on Wednesday evening and was briefed about its technical aspects by Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf and the dam's managers. Bitaraf referred to the ongoing drinking water crisis around the globe that he said would become more acute in the near future, adding, "Water management and safeguarding of the subterranean water resorts is therefore of utmost importance today."
Referring to the high potentials of the Iranian technicians in designing and constructing huge dams, the energy minister offered a comprehensive statistical report about the process of dam construction in Iran and the Iranian technicians' achievements in constructing hydro-electrical generators.
Following Bitaraf's report a series of photos were cast on a screen, showing the various stages of Karkhe Dam and Karun III Dam's construction.
Iran's greatest dam, the Karkhe Soil Dam, is mainly made up of clay soil, fully designed and constructed by Iranian technicians over Karkhe River in Khuzestan province.
The dam's average height is 127 meters, its crown's width is 3,030 meters long, and the dam crown's average thickness is 12 meters.
Some 13 million cubic meters of soil were removed in the process of Karkhe Dam's construction, while another 32 million cubic meters of soil were dumped in erecting its crown. Also 1,347 million cubic meters of cement were poured in construction of the dam's side walls and related structures.
In addition to controlling the destructive annual floods of Karkhe River, the Karkhe Dam reserves enough water for irrigation of 320,000 hectares of agricultural lands and its hydro-electrical generators produce 934 million mega watts electricity. After visiting the dam and its hydro-electrical generators, Ayatollah Khamenei in an interview evaluated the construction of Karkhe Dam by Iranian technicians as "a great and worthy achievement" reiterating, "Achieving such a great objective is proof for the strong will of the pious, revolutionary, and prestigious youth of this country, who have once again proved that relying on self-esteem we can achieve great objectives." Pointing out that only 13 dams were constructed before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, all by foreigners, Ayatollah Khamenei said, "After the victory of the Islamic Revolution the Iranian technicians constructed 72 dams, and their experience in this sensitive and important field is an asset for this country and the Iranian nation." The leader said, "The huge Karun III cement Dam is one of those 72 dams that can reserve many times more water and generate many times more hydro-electrical power than the Dez Dam, the biggest dam constructed by foreigners in Iran before the victory of the revolution." Emphasizing the importance of the strong will of the pious and revolutionary manpower of the country, Ayatollah Khamenei said, "Although Iran ranks among top countries capable of constructing different types of huge dams today, some of the shortcomings inherited from the past are still creating difficulties, making up for which calls for more serious efforts."
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/11/2004&Cat=2&Num=005
Iranian nuke bump for later read.
Major Bump!
I am surprised that there is ANYONE who still doubts the intention of the Iranian regime to produce nuclear weapons.
The real question is who will do something about it besides talking.
Thanks Nuconvert for helping me with the Iranian Alert Daily Thread.
For my regular readers, I had to travel to Mexico for a couple of days and have very limited internet connectivity.
I will join you all again soon.
Again, thanks Nuconvert!!!
DoctorZin: Greetings from Mexico...
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The regime of the mullahs in Iran is ready to fall
VOA ^ | 12-11-04 | VOA
An Iranian opposition leader in the United States whose sources inside Iran may be second to none, Mr. Homayoun has little patience with efforts to conciliate or compromise with the government in Tehran.
Westerners, he insists, are misled by the religiously inclined but ineffectual reformists associated with President Khatami. The Iranian future does not lie with them, he says, but with the growing coalition of secular nationalist forces that favor democracy.
"I believe that the solution is in the hands of the Iranian people, but the Iranian people need support," says Mr. Homayoun. "The United States should come enthusiastically, vigorously, openly in support of the Iranian people. President Bush supported Iranians before, but different voices from different branches of the administration confused the Iranian people."
Mr. Homayoun writes in the CIPA journal: "What the secular force needs is legitimization through recognition - not financial or covert assistance but rather the unconditional moral and political support of the world democratic community."
This thread is now closed.
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The Mass Murdering Mullahs of Iran are positioning themselves for a very quick and violent regime (violent against them) change.
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