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The United Nations nuclear watchdog released a report Saturday stating that Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, adding that the Islamic Republic has upgraded its nuclear facilities in order to defend them from possible cyber attacks. According to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has installed new and improved 2IR as well as 4IR centrifuges, which according to experts, will be immune to cyber attacks that were able to breach the older centrifuges. The centrifuges have allegedly been installed, the report states, in a fortified underground facility for uranium enrichment near the city of Qom.

The State Department in 2009 sought the Chinese government's help in blocking a sale to Iran of 25 tons of specialty steel for Tehran's defense industry to be used in building nuclear-related centrifuges, according to a classified department cable. "Post is instructed to inform appropriate-level Chinese officials of this transaction, and request that they investigate the entity and individuals involved," according to the cable, which is labeled "secret." It noted that the Chinese were to be told that the company faces sanctions for the proposed sale under U.S. law. (Snip) An earlier State Department cable revealed that China helped North

The New York Times reported rather conclusively on Saturday that the super-advanced computer virus that has at least partially crippled Iran’s nuclear program was developed and tested by Israel, with American involvement. Known as Stuxnet, the virus was first identified “in the wild” about two years ago. About one year ago, it infected the computers that control the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran. By all accounts, Stuxnet has to date managed to knock out 984 centrifuges and has, according to Israeli officials, set back Iran’s nuclear program by a good three-to-four years. According to the report, the...

Report: Israel used centrifuges identical to those in Iran to test out worm that set Teheran's nuclear program years back; virus was authorized by Bush administration, rather than allow an Israeli attack. Israel tested the Stuxnet virus in Dimona, according to a Sunday report by The New York Times. Israel reportedly has centrifuges that are identical to those at the Iranian nuclear site in Natanz, which were used to test the Stuxnet computer worm. In 2008, the Times reported, German company Siemens cooperated with the Idaho National Laboratory, allowing it to identify problems in the comany's computer controllers, which are...

BP Spokesman Says Company Contracted with Actor-Director's Ocean Therapy Solutions to Separate Oil from Water BP spokesman Bill Salvin told The Associated Press that the company has contracted with Costner and Ocean Therapy Solutions to use 32 of their centrifuge machines that are designed to separate oil from water. "We recognized they had potential and put them through testing, and that testing was done in shallow water and in very deep water and we were very pleased by the results," Salvin said.

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

Iran announced Friday that is had developed a new, faster generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, signaling its determination to press on with its nuclear work despite possible new sanctions being sought by U.S. President Barack Obama. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated earlier in the week that a "momentous" development was in the offing about Iran's nuclear program and Friday's announcement of a new generation of centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility came as little surprise. Both Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iran's atomic energy head Ali Akbar Salehi spoke at a ceremony marking Friday's "Nuclear Energy Day," amid pomp and media...

Iran recently managed to obtain equipment critical to its uranium enrichment efforts, and which is banned by UN sanctions against the country, through a Chinese company, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. According to the report, the hardware – which included valves and vacuum gauges for enrichment centrifuges – was bought by an Iranian research firm which is linked to the country’s atomic energy organization. It was purchased from an intermediary representing a Chinese company - Zheijiang Ouhai Trade Corp. According to the report, news of the purchase reached Western officials after an email detailing the sale was sent to...

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss man suspected of being involved in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In a documentary airing Thursday on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off U.S. intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. The 43-year-old Tinner...

Iranian construction of a previously secret uranium enrichment site is at an advanced stage, with high-tech equipment already in place at the fortified facility ahead of its 2011 startup, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Monday. The revelation of the existence of the underground plant known as Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, has heightened concerns of other possible undeclared Iranian facilities that are not subject to IAEA oversight and therefore could be used for military purposes. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the IAEA report "underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully...

Iran reports having thousands of centrifuges spinning away to make fuel for their upcoming power reactors. Others think that Iran has it in mind to make weapons material using those same centrifuges. In fact, Iran could divert just 1% of its centrifuge production and have enough weapons-grade material to make a few bombs per year. The arithmetic is provided here below. Note: I was with Westinghouse civilian nuclear power for 30 years as a registered professional engineer with nuclear specialization. I hold a doctorate in engineering. All information here is unclassified." Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/uranium_centrifuges_and_uraniu.php

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Defense: As the failure of engagement with Iran grows more apparent, the administration that has talked very softly may be getting the mother of all sticks ready. Guess we need high-tech Cold War weapons after all.Western intelligence sources have told London's Times that Iran has perfected the means to develop and detonate a nuclear bomb and is merely awaiting word from its supreme leader to produce its first one. Should the order be given, it would take just six months to enrich enough uranium and another six months to assemble the warhead. Time's up. Recently, and perhaps not coincidentally, Defense...

Iran plans to install a more advanced type of centrifuge at its newly revealed uranium enrichment site, an Iranian newspaper reported Tuesday, a development certain to add to international concerns about the country's nuclear work. Iranian scientists have carried out research and development in recent months for the new generation of more efficient centrifuges, and most of the machines' components are made domestically, said the head of Iran's nuclear agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, according to the Kayhan daily newspaper.

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/20268.htm Iranian Nuclear Chief: We'll Progress In Nuclear Fusion Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Ali Akbar Salehi has said that Iran is researching nuclear fusion and that it will make great progress in that area. Source: ISNA, Iran, September 22, 2009 Posted at: 2009-09-23 ### ### Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/20234.htm Blog Details Iran: We've Started Producing Improved Centrifuges Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Ali Akbar Salehi says that Iran has begun to produce a new generation of improved centrifuges, and that he assesses that Israel is not...

Special Dispatch - No. 2456 July 22, 2009 Iranian VP Parviz Davoudi: Iran is Operating Over 12,000 Centrifuges; Any Attempt to Destabilize the Iranian Regime Will Undermine the Security of the Middle East and Entire World At a July 12, 2009 conference on promoting the mentality of self-sacrifice among women, convened under the auspices of the Martyrs Foundation in Tehran, Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi stated that Iran was making progress in nuclear technology as well as in the field of ballistic missiles, and that it currently was operating over 12,000 centrifuges. Davoudi stated that the struggle between Iran and...

IAEA: Iran Has Centrifuges for Two Nuclear Weapons Per Year SNIPPET: "This article in the New York Times, Iran Has Centrifuge Capacity for Nuclear Arms, Report Says, should get your attention. Hopefully the report dispels in the eyes of some the incorrect conclusion that those of us who have been warning of the Iranian race for nuclear weapons are fear mongers and over the top. They now have the capability. It is only the desire which can be seen as debatable, even though arguing 'peaceful nuclear power' intentions requires an unhealthy leap of faith and a disconnect from logic, reason...

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has expanded the number of centrifuges enriching uranium to almost 5,000 and this has made it harder for U.N. inspectors to keep track of the disputed nuclear program, according to an IAEA report seen by Reuters. Friday's restricted International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report also said Iran had increased its rate of production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) material, boosting its stockpile by 500 kg to 1,339 kg in the past six months. Iran's improved efficiency in turning out potential nuclear fuel was sure to fan Western fears of the Islamic Republic nearing the ability make nuclear...

Special Dispatch - No. 2349 May 8, 2009 No. 2349 "Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Nuclear Program Chief Aghazadeh Give Details of Nuclear Plan" SNIPPET: "Following are excerpts from a TV program on Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV, on April 9, 2009." SNIPPET: "The third stage of the project is uranium enrichment. This huge and complex project has been fruitful in the Natanz region. By now, approximately 7,000 centrifuges have been installed, and in the course of the five-year plan, this figure will rise to 50,000. Let me use this occasion to inform...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Ahmadinejad: Iran's Entered Final Phase In Nuclear Fuel Production At an inauguration ceremony yesterday for a nuclear fuel production facility in Isfahan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his pride at Iran's entering into the final phase in the nuclear fuel production cycle. He said that despite the threats from the West, "the Iranian train is moving ahead with increasing speed, on the right track." Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said that the speed of the new centrifuges was five to six times greater than that of the...

As a Presidential candidate, Barack Obama called a nuclear Iran "a grave threat" and insisted "the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." But he also called for direct, high-level talks in the hopes that the mullahs could be persuaded to abandon their nuclear dreams. We've never held out much hope for those talks, which would inevitably be complicated and protracted. Now it turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot. That's one conclusion to be drawn from the latest report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. Among...

Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. In a six-page report, the agency charged the Iranians with continuing to stonewall about what some Western governments suspected was Iran's past research on designing a nuclear weapon. The agency acknowledged that it had failed "to make any substantial progress" in its investigation. "We seem to be at a dead end," said a senior official with links to the agency. "We would describe...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran has boosted the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges to up to 6,000, in an expansion of its nuclear drive that defies international calls for a freeze. "Today they (the West) have agreed that the existing 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges do not increase and that there is no problem if this number of centrifuges work," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state radio. Ahmadinejad said in April that Iran was working to install 6,000 more centrifuges at an underground hall in a plant at its nuclear facility in Natanz, where it already had 3,000...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

via translation - ALERT - Nuclear: Iran has 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran had 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment activities, confirming that the Islamic Republic has expanded its controversial nuclear programme, reported state radio.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday his country would not stop enriching uranium and rejected as "illegitimate" a demand by major powers that it do so, the official IRNA news agency reported. Ahmadinejad's comment came as a British newspaper, quoting intelligence reports received by Western diplomats, reported Monday that Iran has resumed work aimed at producing a nuclear bomb.

Pakistan's Military Knew Of Nuclear Technology Transfer To N Korea, Says Scientist 7/4/2008 2:52 PM ET Abdul Qadir Khan, who is considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, said on Friday that the country's former military regime was aware of the transfer of nuclear technology to North Korea. AQ Khan told media on Friday that the Pakistani army, which was headed by President Pervez Musharraf then, was aware of the technology transfer as the uranium enrichment equipment was dispatched onboard a North Korean plane under the supervision of Pakistani army officials in 2000. Khan's statements on Friday contradicts...

The government ordered the destruction of documents on an alleged international nuclear smuggling network involving three Swiss engineers, it has been confirmed. The head of a parliamentary control committee said the material was shredded last November. The father and sons – Friedrich, Marco and Urs Tinner - are suspected of helping to supply parts for Libya's nuclear weapons programme between 2001 and 2003 through a trafficking ring run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atom bomb. Reports say the three worked as undercover agents for the United States intelligence service. There is widespread media speculation that Washington asked...

Iran announced today that it was embarking on a plan to install 6,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at its main nuclear plant, in defiance of United Nations sanctions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his announcement at Natanz, in central Iran, as the country marked a "national day of nuclear technology", which falls on the day in April 2006 when uranium was successfully enriched for the first time. According to the latest report by the UN's nuclear watchdog, Iran has already installed around 3,000 centrifuges at an underground enrichment facility in Natanz. Nuclear experts believe between 20,000 and 30,000 centrifuges would be...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president says Iran has begun installing 6,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the work on state television on Tuesday. Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz. The new announcement is seen as a show of defiance of international demands to halt a nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies say the program is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran denies those allegations.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation's nuclear program. The announcement was the first official confirmation by Tehran after diplomats with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported earlier this month that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges. "We are (now) running a new generation of centrifuges," the official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Vaidi, deputy of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying. No futher details were...

Iran confirms new nuclear centrifuges By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Feb 24, 2008 Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation's nuclear program. The announcement was the first official confirmation by Tehran after diplomats with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported earlier this month that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges. "We are (now) running a new generation of centrifuges," the official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Vaidi, deputy of Iran's...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran's new generation of advanced centrifuges have begun processing small quantities of the gas that can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The diplomats emphasized that the centrifuges were working with minute amounts of the uranium gas. One diplomat said Tehran has set up only 10 of the machines — far too few to make enriched uranium in the quantities needed for an industrial-scale energy or weapons program. The statements shed light on the Islamic Republic's experiments with its domestically developed IR-2 centrifuges, which can churn...

Iran is operating a newer, more advanced centrifuge at the country's Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, a State Department official who works on arms control and WMD issues has confirmed to FOX News. U.S. officials were trying to determine the origin of the new centrifuges. To enrich uranium to the high levels needed for a nuclear weapon, centrifuges are assembled in groups of 164 — known as "cascades." Mastery of a single cascade is an extremely difficult process, but once that is achieved it is fairly easy for an industrialized country to attain a nuclear weapons capability because it...

VIENNA (AFP) - A top US envoy warned Iran Friday that its pursuit of more advanced uranium-enriching technology would intensify the long-running international standoff over its disputed atomic drive. "Any Iranian attempt at a more advanced centrifuge would be an escalation of Iran's ongoing non-compliance with its obligation to suspend all enrichment-related activities," the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, told AFP. It would constitute a "further violation of Iran's international commitments, further reason why we are concerned about the nature of Iran's nuclear programme and the intentions of its leaders, and further reason for the...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear complex, diplomats said on Wednesday, a move that could lead to Tehran enriching uranium much faster and gaining the means to build atom bombs. Iran says it wants nuclear energy only for electricity so it can export more oil. But it is under sanctions for hiding the program until 2003, preventing U.N. inspectors since then from verifying it is wholly peaceful and refusing to suspend it. Tehran's quest to produce usable amounts of nuclear fuel has been hampered by problems getting a 1970s vintage of centrifuge, the...

Iran Produces 300 Tons of UF6 in Isfahan Nuclear Facility January 27, 2008 Xinhua Yan Liang TEHRAN -- Deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Javad Vaeedi said on Sunday that his country has so far produced 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6)gas used for uranium enrichment in the Isfahan nuclear facility. Addressing a congregation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Vaeedi said "The Isfahan uranium conversion facilityis active and it has produced more than 300 tons of UF6," local Fars news agency reported. He said that despite pressures by Western countries which once stressed that Iran should...

U.S. scientists have discovered traces of enriched uranium on smelted aluminum tubing provided by North Korea, apparently contradicting Pyongyang's denial that it had a clandestine nuclear program, according to U.S. and diplomatic sources. The United States has long pointed to North Korea's acquisition of thousands of aluminum tubes as evidence of such a program, saying the tubes could be used as the outer casing for centrifuges needed to spin hot uranium gas into the fuel for nuclear weapons. North Korea has denied that contention and, as part of a declaration on its nuclear programs due by the end of the...

North Korea recently turned over to the United States equipment found to be contaminated with traces of highly enriched uranium — HEU — apparently contradicting the country's stance that it never had such a program, FOX News has confirmed. ... "They got some 'splainin' to do," one U.S. arms control official said when first told of the discovery about a month ago, he recalled to FOX. However, North Korea claims the tubes were intended for use in the development of a conventional "artillery" weapon, sources told FOX News. ... Green told FOX News he believes the data supporting the existence...

Iran claims it has reached the magic number of 3,000 centrifuges, the level often cited in the West as the one at which Teheran's mullahs could enrich enough uranium to produce one or two nuclear weapons a year. "We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Sunday. To some, Teheran's boasts in the face of two UN sanctions resolutions, with a third ostensibly in the works, might seem foolish. Iran's brazenness certainly does reach bizarre extremes, including dancers performing while holding capsules of uranium...

Tehran: Iran`s President claimed Sunday that his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its controversial nuclear program — a long-sought Iranian goal. The claim contradicted a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Thursday that put the number much lower — at close to 2,000. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said enrichment had slowed and Iran was cooperating with its nuclear probe, which could fend off calls for a third round of sanctions. "The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step...

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday Iran had put into operation over 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at a nuclear plant, reaching a key goal of its atomic drive, state broadcasting reported. ADVERTISEMENT Click Here "They (world powers) thought that by issuing any resolution Iran would back down," Ahmadinejad told Islamist students, referring to the two sanctions resolutions imposed against Tehran by the UN Security Council. "But after each resolution the Iranian nation took another step along the path of nuclear development," he said.

IRAN is still seeking to install 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at its nuclear plant in Natanz, the head of the Iranian atomic energy organisation said today. "The objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not just the installation of 3,000 centrifuges at the Natanz plant but we are doing everything to install 50,000 centrifuges,'' Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said, according to the IRNA news agency. Iran said yesterday it could now enrich uranium on an industrial scale but did not disclose how many centrifuges it had now installed at the Natanz plant in central Iran to enrich uranium. Mr Aghazadeh...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce on Monday the installation of 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment in the Natanz nuclear facility, the official Iranian news agency reported.

Report: Swiss Had Role in S. African Nukes Friday October 28, 2005 4:01 AM GENEVA (AP) - Switzerland played a key role in building the nuclear weapons of the former apartheid regime of South Africa, a government-sponsored report said Thursday. More than a decade ago, then-South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that his country had dismantled its nuclear weapons program. Peter Hug, the author of a report in the Swiss National Science Foundation's six-year investigation into Swiss-South African relations, said Switzerland and other countries provided technical support for South Africa's uranium enrichment efforts. Hug, a history professor at the...

ALARM - Iran installs centrifugal machines with Natanz VIENNA - Iran started to install centrifugal machines on its site of Natanz, where it hopes to use 3.000 of them to enrich by uranium in spite of the calls of UNO, declared Thursday of the diplomats.

Iran prevents the work of inspectors of the IAEA VIENNA - Iran prevents inspectors of the IAEA from installing cameras of monitoring in a nuclear installation where Teheran wishes to place 3.000 centrifugal machines to enrich by uranium on industrial scale, diplomats Thursday indicated to AFP. Inspectors of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are currently with the nuclear installation of Natanz (center of Iran) where an underground site is in the process of construction.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian nuclear agency official has denied claims made by a top lawmaker that the Islamic Republic had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges at an uranium enrichment plant, Iran's state-run news agency reported late Saturday. Hossein Simorgh, spokesman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization public relations department, said "no new centrifuges have been installed in Natanz," referring to the nuclear facility in central Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Earlier Saturday, lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran was currently installing the 3,000 centrifuges, underlining that the country would continue to develop its disputed nuclear program despite U.N....

Diplomats say Iran is ready to begin installing 3,000 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium after completing work at an underground facility. Media reports quoting diplomatic sources say preparations are being made to install the centrifuges at Iran's plant in Natanz to produce nuclear fuel. The reports say the revelation is based on findings by U.N. nuclear agency inspectors who visited Natanz this week. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make atomic weapons. The United States and its Western allies believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the...