Posted on 03/08/2003 6:38:20 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
In another worrying development for the Bush administration, Iran moves to begin operation of a facility to enrich uranium
With war in Iraq looming and North Korea defiantly pursuing its own nuclear program, the last thing President Bush needs is another nuclear crisis. But that is what he may soon face in Iran. On a visit last month to Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei announced he had discovered that Iran was constructing a facility to enrich uranium — a key component of advanced nuclear weapons — near Natanz. But diplomatic sources tell TIME the plant is much further along than previously revealed. The sources say work on the plant is "extremely advanced" and involves "hundreds" of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and "the parts for a thousand others ready to be assembled."
Iran announced last week that it intends to activate a uranium conversion facility near Isfahan (under IAEA safeguards), a step that produces the uranium hexafluoride gas used in the enrichment process. Sources tell Time the IAEA has concluded that Iran actually introduced uranium hexafluoride gas into some centrifuges at an undisclosed location to test their ability to work. That would be a blatant violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory.
The IAEA declined to comment. A senior State department official said he believed El Baradei was trying to resolve the issue behind the scenes before going public. But experts say the new discoveries are very serious and should be handled in public. "If Iran were found to have an operating centrifuge, it would be a direct violation [of the non-proliferation treaty] and is something that would need immediately to be referred to the United Nations Security Council for action," says Jon Wolfstahl of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and told elBaradei that Tehran intends to bring all of its programs under IAEA safeguards. U.S. officials have said repeatedly they believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
The new discoveries could destabilize a region already dangerously on edge in anticipation of war in Iraq. Israel — which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear plant in Osirak in a 1981 raid — is deeply alarmed by the developments. "It's a huge concern," says one Israeli official. "Iran is a regime that denies Israel's right to exist in any borders and is a principal sponsor of Hezbollah. If that regime were able to achieve a nuclear potential it would be extremely dangerous." Israel will not take the "Osirak option" off the table, the official says, but "would prefer that this issue be solved in other ways."
The revelations come at a particularly bad time for Washington, which is locked in a battle to gain U.N. approval for an attack on Iraq and to build consensus among its allies for a multilateral approach to the crisis in North Korea. Critics of the Administration say Bush's hard public line against the so-called "Axis of Evil," combined with the threatened war with Iraq, have acted as a spur to both Iran and North Korea to accelerate their nuclear programs. "If those countries didn't have much incentive or motivation before, they certainly did after the Axis of Evil statement," says one western diplomat familiar with the Iranian and North Korean programs. The Administration counters that both programs have been underway for many years.
Due to our negligience in dealing with this matter for decades, the situation is quickly reaching critical mass. Unless something is done on a drastic scale, dozens of nations will have nuclear weapons very soon and nuclear war will be unavoidable.
It is time for the civilized nations of the world to band together and stop nuclear proliferation. We may even have to remove nuclear weapons from some of those countries that already have them. Pakistan comes to mind.
Iraq is just the beginning. The world cannot afford every nation having nuclear bombs. We are just a North Korea away from an event that will make 9/11 look like a 1980s disco bombing.
sam, it is time for America to kick some $SS. let's roll.
The counterrevolutionaries in Iran should just lay low for a few months. If the mullahs decided to wipe them all out today, there's nothing we could do to help; all the funding in the world would make little difference. First we're going to establish a free Iraq for them to flee to, an Iraq full of US troops and especially US planes to provide support, then we're going to fund the counterrevolution.
Next year, when George Bush is elected to his second term, Iran will have liberated herself, Syria will have reined in Hezbollah and the PLO will be negotiating with Israel in good faith—all because of what Bush is doing right now with Iraq.
Five years ago we assured by the then administration that China agreed to end their nuclear aid to Iran.
Good grief. Couldn't they at least say that it's another worrying threat for America and the whole world?
These reporters have all gotten used to thinking like Democrats. "Gee, if Iran Nukes a couple of cities, maybe that might lower Bush's poll numbers."
Gee, I wonder when most of this work went on?
I would love to see Bob Dole throw the Iraq, Iran AND North Korean situations in Clinton's face during one of there little 60 Minutes debates. I know, it will never happen, but it would be great if Bob asked Bubba WTF he was doing? How could he fail to address the dangers building in the Axis of Evil states?
Well, I guess when you are president and you only meet with your CIA director a couple of times in 8 years you might not be up to speed on boring subjects like nuclear proliferation in rogue states. You know, there is only so much time in the day and somethings are just more important, like selling influence in the WH to foreign criminals, cutting pardon deals and having your tool polished by interns.
The liberal media and the peanut farmer with all their condemnation of GW's apt phrase are beneath contempt.
They are complicit in the delay to destroy these threats to America and peace.
Even if something is done on a drastic scale nuclear war is still inevitable. The only question is when and where will it start.
I say Pakistan will start it by taking out a major Indian city.
and their 72 virgins await. Oh my bad, are Mullahs sellabutt?
Besides it will not take very much funding when Saddam leaves or is killed.
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