Free Republic

The West is "disappointed" over Iran's failure to respond positively to a UN-brokered nuclear deal, diplomats said in a statement Friday following a meeting of the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany. However, no new sanctions were discussed during the meeting, according to an EU source. "We urge Iran to reconsider the opportunity offered by this agreement ... and to engage seriously with us in dialogue and negotiations," the statement said, noting that Teheran had not responded positively to the proposal of the International Atomic Energy Agency. An EU official said there was no mention of imposing further...

Nuclear Terror: After years of blindness, the International Atomic Energy Agency warns that Syria is concealing nuclear activity and Iran is hiding atomic facilities. Has the "watchdog" just been polishing its Nobel? The diplomats just love Mohamed ElBaradei, who is about to step down as director general of the United Nations' IAEA. He's the recipient of Georgetown's prestigious Raymond "Jit" Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy. Also on his crammed mantelpiece can be found the Delta Air Lines Prize for Global Understanding, the Golden Dove of Peace award from the president of Italy, the Gandhi Prize for...

United Nations and Iranian officials have been secretly negotiating a deal to persuade world powers to lift sanctions and allow Tehran to retain the bulk of its nuclear program in return for cooperation with U.N. inspectors. According to a draft document seen by The Times of London, the 13-point agreement was drawn up in September by Mohamed ElBaradei, the directorgeneral of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an effort to break the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program before he stands down at the end of this month. The IAEA denied the existence of the document, which was leaked to The...

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...

Vilified as a nuclear bomb-seeking threat to world peace before the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq now wants access to civilian nuclear power for its economic and energy needs. Science and Technology Minister Raed Fahmi, in an interview with AFP, called for the international community to lift the Saddam-era UN resolutions which still stand in its path. "Our nuclear strategy is for civilian application of atomic energy and we believe we have the right and that certain obstacles contained in Resolution 707 should be lifted," he said. "We have a clear and transparent political strategy in close...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has demanded an urgent and immediate visit to suspected nuclear sites in Syria, Channel 10 cited foreign media reports on Monday night. According to the report, IAEA inspectors discovered enriched uranium in three sites besides Dir Azur, where IAF jets destroyed an alleged reactor in September 2007.

Nov 14, 2009 17:25 | Updated Nov 14, 2009 17:29 Iran has completely rejected a UN-brokered nuclear deal, but US President Barack Obama has postponed the official announcement on Teheran's refusal due to internal political reasons, Israel Radio quoted a senior western official as saying Saturday. The deal would see most of the Islamic Republic's uranium shipped to Russia and France for further processing. The official reportedly told journalists in Paris that Iran has also refused to resume nuclear talks with the six world powers.

Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

Exclusive: Watchdog fears Tehran has key component to put bombs in missiles The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned. The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-iran Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release November 03, 2009 Statement by President Barack Obama on Iran Thirty years ago today, the American Embassy in Tehran was seized. The 444 days that began on November 4, 1979 deeply affected the lives of courageous Americans who were unjustly held hostage, and we owe these Americans and their families our gratitude for their extraordinary service and sacrifice. This event helped set the United States and Iran on a path of sustained suspicion,...

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei resigns!

Watching the Obama administration launch its "new era of engagement" over the past 10 months, most seasoned observers have pondered two questions: First, if engagement fails, will the Obama team ever acknowledge that it has failed? And what then? The first question is about to be answered. The main object of the "new era of engagement," Iran, has settled back into its old game-playing. The joint proposal agreed to by the United States, France and Russia, to have Iran ship 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia this year, was a compromise, as administration officials acknowledge. It might theoretically...

Robert Kagan wondered this morning if The One will ever be prepared to play hardball with Iran or if the “plan” is, in fact, eternal negotiation while they perfect their bombmaking technique. We’ll know soon. The proposal would have depleted Iran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel below the threshold necessary for making a single nuclear bomb, possibly creating diplomatic breathing room for a broader agreement between Tehran and those worried about its atomic research program. But according to the diplomat, Iran wants to send its uranium abroad in smaller batches over an undetermined stretch of time rather than the lump transfer...

TEHRAN, Iran — U.N. inspectors entered a once-secret uranium enrichment facility with bunker-like construction and heavy military protection that raised Western suspicions about the extent and intent of Iran's nuclear program. The visit Sunday by the four-member International Atomic Energy Agency team, reported by state media, was the first independent look inside the planned nuclear fuel lab, a former ammunition dump burrowed into the treeless hills south of Tehran and only publicly disclosed last month. The inspectors are expected to study plant blueprints, interview workers and take soil samples before wrapping up the three-day mission. No results from the inspection...

Iran has delayed its response to a United Nations-backed uranium enrichment plan aimed at easing international concerns that Iran's nuclear program is being used to develop weapons. Iranian state television quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh on Friday as saying his country is still considering various aspects of the proposal, under which Iran would ship much of its partially enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment. The uranium would then be used to fuel a research reactor. Soltanieh says Iran is looking at details and will respond to Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the "middle...

A senior Iranian MP rejected on Thursday the idea of sending enriched uranium abroad for further processing, hinting at Tehran's reluctance to embrace a proposal meant to ease international tension over its nuclear ambitions. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has presented a draft deal to Iran and three big powers for approval by Friday. It would cut Iran's quantity of low-enriched uranium (LEU) below the threshold that could yield a nuclear weapon if it were refined to high purity, while providing Iran with fuel for a nuclear medicine facility. Diplomats say the plan would require Iran to send by the end...

Obama's Remarks About Talks With Iran Concerning Nuclear Programs. At about 2:00 into this presser Obama proclaims the Iranians have agreed to "fully and immediately" cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency including IAEA inspections of the facility at Qom. The press heralded this as a masterful breakthrough but today we learn that MAYBE Iran will be okay with a Russian visit at some later date. What gives? Was there an agreement? did Obama make it all up? Or did his team get played (again)?

When in doubt, blame Isreal. That’s right, Israel – which everyone assumes has nuclear weapons – is the threat to be concerned with in the Middle East. At least that is what the IAEA’s Mohamed ElBaradei said during a visit to Iran this past weekend. Never mind that Israel has had plenty of nuclear bombs for about 40 years and has not shown any interest in using them proactively.

The West must press home its advantage after catching Iran red-handed Iran’s agreement to allow a United Nations inspection team to visit its secret nuclear facility in Qom shows, as the White House remarked guardedly, that it is moving “in the right direction”. There is a very long way still to go. This concession, wrung from Iran’s nuclear negotiator at last week’s confrontation with the five Security Council permanent members plus Germany, was a desperate attempt to play for time. Iran had been caught red-handed by Western intelligence, which revealed the Qom plant at a moment calculated to cause maximum...

No sooner than a leaked IAEA report – anemically entitled “Possible Military Dimensions of Iran’s Nuclear Program” – states that Iran has “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” nuclear weapon, does the outgoing head of the IAEA then conversely announce that “Israel is [the] number one threat to [the] Middle East.“ Nothing can be more revealing as to the dysfunction, inadequacy and impotence of the IAEA. The efforts of the international community over the past six years have amounted to precisely nothing. The Bush administration ceded leadership of this issue to the EU3 (France, Germany...

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported. At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30years, the report said. "Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying....

TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.N. experts will inspect Iran's newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant on Oct. 25, the IAEA nuclear agency chief said on Sunday, praising a shift "from conspiracy to cooperation" between Tehran and the West. The underground nuclear fuel facility near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom had been kept secret until Iran disclosed its existence last month, setting off an international furore. Iran agreed with six world powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- in Geneva on Thursday to allow IAEA inspectors unfettered access to the site. "IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's new...

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported. At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30years, the report said. "Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying....

SNIPPET: "Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable" atom bomb. The report by experts in the International Atomic Energy Agency stresses in its introduction that its conclusions are tentative and subject to further confirmation of the evidence, which it says came from intelligence agencies and its own investigations. But the report's conclusions, described by senior European officials, go well beyond the public positions taken by several governments, including the United States."

The new Iranian uranium enrichment site will be inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on October 25, the director-general of the agency, Mohamed ElBarade, said in Tehran. (AFP)

WASHINGTON – A confidential analysis by staff of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has concluded that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce" an atom bomb, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The Times report was posted on its website hours after Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks on a timetable for inspectors to visit a newly disclosed unfinished nuclear enrichment plant. Iran, which rejects Western charges that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, held talks with six world powers in Geneva on Thursday. Western officials...

Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb. (snip) Two years ago, American intelligence agencies published a detailed report concluding that Tehran halted its efforts to design a nuclear weapon in 2003. But in recent months, Britain has joined France, Germany and Israel in disputing that conclusion, saying the work has been resumed. A senior American official said last week that the United States was now re-evaluating its 2007 conclusions. The atomic agency’s report also presents...

WASHINGTON — A two-week deadline set by world powers for Iran to open a newly-revealed nuclear site to inspectors is not "written in stone," the US State Department said on Friday. "I don't think it was a hard deadline. We made clear it was a matter of some urgency," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly at a press briefing. After Thursday talks between Iranian officials and representatives of six world powers, US President Barack Obama called on Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit the newly-revealed nuclear site near the Iranian city of Qom within two...

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian lawmaker on Saturday assured that all activities carried out by his country for constructing a new nuclear enrichment plant are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Esmail Kowsari said in an interview with FNA that Iran's entire nuclear activities are under the surveillance and supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, and added, "Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its nuclear activities." "The agency's experts and teams of inspectors are continuously monitoring the trend of Iran's nuclear program and...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to tell Iran this week that it must open a newly revealed nuclear enrichment site to international inspectors “within weeks,” according to senior administration officials. The administration will also seek full access to the key personnel who put together the clandestine plant. The demands, following the revelation Friday of the secret facility at a military base near the holy city of Qum, set the stage for the next chapter of a diplomatic drama that has toughened the West’s posture and heightened tensions with Iran. The first direct negotiations between the United States and Iran...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to inspect a newly revealed and still unfinished uranium enrichment facility, the country's nuclear chief told state television Saturday. Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi didn't specify when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency could visit the site, but said it has to be worked out with the agency under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty rules.

An aerial image of the suspected nuclear facility in Qom Barack Obama raises spectre of nuclear conflict as Allies find site near Iran holy city Catherine Philp in New York and Francis Elliott in Pittsburgh Britain, France and the United States set the stage for a dramatic confrontation with Iran when they revealed the existence of a secret nuclear site inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom as evidence of Tehran’s efforts to deceive the international community. The coup de théâtre came at the opening of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh after three days of intense diplomacy...

A week ahead of crunch talks on Iran's nuclear program, the leaders of the U.S., France and the U.K. on Friday accused Tehran of building a covert uranium enrichment facility, a development they said directly challenges the world's non-proliferation rules. Later in the day, Iran publicly confirmed and strongly defended the nuclear fuel facility. Speaking at an overflowing news conference in New York Friday afternoon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country has complied with rules of the U.N. nuclear agency that requires Tehran inform it of any new enrichment facility six months before any such facility becomes operational, the...

Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the...

Nuclear Arms: The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency should change its name to the International Atomic Terrorism Agency — that's how poor its oversight of nuclear proliferation has been.It might be appropriate to melt departing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's Nobel Peace Prize medal to help build an interceptor missile to protect against Iranian nukes. The Associated Press reports that ElBaradei's self-styled nuclear "watchdog," the IAEA, has concluded that Iran's Islamofascist regime can now design and produce a nuclear bomb, according to an unpublished section of its analysis of Iran. The IAEA also believes Tehran has "probably tested" a...

The answer seems to be yes, at the moment. News reports out over the last few days — and one in particular that seems to indicate the International Atomic Energy Agency, under head Mohamed ElBaradei, has been withholding concrete evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons development and delivery capabilities – tell a tale of continuing Iranian determination to get a nuclear weapon. Today's reports come on the heels of yesterday's announcement by President Obama that the U.S. was stopping work on developing a land-based missile defense shield aimed at preventing its Eastern European allies (especially Poland and Czechoslovakia) from suffering a...

Strategic Defense: With Iran on the verge of a deliverable nuke, the administration tells our allies in the dead of night that we will scuttle missile defense plans in Eastern Europe to please the Russians.Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after...

(AP) – 18 minutes ago VIENNA — Experts at the world's top atomic watchdog are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report seen by The Associated Press.

The U.S. said on Wednesday that Iran was moving closer to being able to produce a nuclear bomb by stockpiling enriched uranium. "We have serious concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option," U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Glyn Davies, told a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation governing board. "Iran is now either very near or in possession already of sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon if the decision were made to further enrich it to weapons-grade," Davies said. "(This) moves Iran closer to a dangerous...

The United Nations Nuke Watchdog, IAEA director Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei has a history of appeasing terrorist powers looking to become nuclear, for example the Wall Street Journal described El-Baradei this way: The IAEA director seems intent on undercutting Security Council diplomacy. Just weeks after President George Bush toured the Middle East to build Arab support for pressure on Tehran, Mr. El-Baradei appeared on Egyptian television on Feb. 5 to urge Arabs in the opposite direction, insisting Iran was cooperating and should not be pressured. And as he grows more and more isolated from Western powers intent on disarming Iran, Mr....

Despite the publication of a critical report on Iran's nuclear program, senior Israeli diplomatic officials are accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency of "hiding critical information on Iran's nuclear progress," the Foreign Ministry said Saturday. IAEA officials said Iran was stonewalling the agency about "possible military dimensions" to its program. In the report, the IAEA said it has pressed Iran to clarify its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a prepared statement that the latest IAEA report, released Friday, "accuses Iran of defying...

Iran is stonewalling the UN nuclear watchdog agency about "possible military dimensions" to its suspect nuclear program, officials said Friday, urging the regime to clarify the mysterious role of a foreign explosives expert and shed light on other issues. In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has pressed the Islamic Republic to clarify its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.

A new report commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran's nuclear energy program may contain "military dimensions." In other words, the report states that Iran may be working towards acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. The report was issued just prior to the annual meeting of IAEA member states which is scheduled to convene next month in Vienna. A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as "fabrication," insisting his country has gone out of its way to be transparent and cooperative. The report alleges that Iran is refusing the agency's repeated requests for explanations and documentation over...

2. On 12 August 2009, Iran was feeding UF6 into Unit A24, and ten cascades of Unit A26, at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz.1 On that day, the eight other cascades of Unit A26 were under vacuum. Iran has continued with the installation of cascades at Unit A28; fourteen cascades have been installed and the installation of another cascade is continuing.2 All machines installed to date are IR-1 centrifuges. Installation work at Units A25 and A27 is also continuing.3. Iran has estimated that, between 18 November 2008 and 31 July 2009, 7942 kg of UF6 was fed into...

On the eve of the publication of a report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have threatened tough new sanctions if Tehran does not show a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear program. At a news conference in Berlin on Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mrs. Merkel dangled the possibility of new penalties against Iran in the energy and financial sectors. “If there is no positive answer by September we will have to consider further measures,” she said, the Reuters news agency reported. The...

"Former Senior IAEA Official Yousri Abu Shadi: Iran Can Produce a Nuclear Bomb in Less Than Two Years" SNIPPET: "Following is an interview with former senior IAEA official Yousri Abu Shadi, which aired on Egypt's Channel 1 on August 19, 2009. To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2217.htm ." SNIPPET: "Yousri Abu Shadi: "I say that since they have not completed the plant yet, and they are still working on it, it will take them two years maybe, but if Iran withdraws from the inspection, it will be able to produce a nuclear bomb in less than two...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is withholding data on Iran’s attempts to obtain nuclear arms, Western and Israeli diplomats told a Hebrew-language newspaper. The officials said that the U.N. nuclear weapons watchdog hasn’t published evidence that its inspectors obtained over the last several months that Iran was attempting to develop or obtain nuclear weaponry. The sources told Haaretz that the evidence was published in a classified report signed by IAEA heads in Iran. Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Dr. Shaul Horev, director-general of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, are also pressuring the IAEA to release the report.

Mideast: Experts say Iran now has enough fissionable material to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel has operational plans to attack Iran. We may soon have more than the stock market to worry about.The problem with kicking the can down the road is that sometimes you run out of road. The West has been fiddling while Iran pursues a nuclear weapon. Now comes word that we can stop counting centrifuges and whistling past the graveyard. Iran has enough material to build a bomb. According to a routine update issued Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N.'s toothless...

Iran is capable of assembling an atomic bomb within six months, German intelligence analysts told the German weekly newsmagazine Stern. "If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months," an analyst with Germany's intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the magazine. Advertisement German intelligence officials told Stern believe Iran has "mastered" every stage of uranium enrichment and that they have activated enough centrifuges to produce sufficient quantities of weapons-grade uranium for at least one atomic bomb. "Nobody would have thought this possible some years ago," an intelligence official told Stern. The UN Security...

The incoming head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog said on Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Japan's Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's nuclear program since his election to head the International Atomic Energy Agency, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Current IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei told the BBC last month it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was seeking the ability to...