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ON SEPTEMBER 24 the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution that, in part, called on Iran "to observe fully its commitments and to return to the negotiating process that has made good progress in the last two years." The resolution is just the latest chapter in the ongoing dispute over Iran's nuclear programs, but a look at the votes cast by the IAEA's members reveals a great deal about the international landscape: Of the IAEA's 35 board members, 22 voted in favor of the resolution, 12 abstained (including Russia, which is heavily invested in Iran's nuclear programs), and one...

Green activists voiced outrage after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, saying the IAEA had helped military nuclear proliferation by encouraging civilian nuclear power. A French group, Sortir du Nucleaire (Get Out of Nuclear) said the IAEA should be scrapped because, by “promoting” civilian nuclear plants, it had given countries the means to build atomic bombs. “The IAEA is hoodwinking the public by claiming that its inspections are preventing access to nuclear weapons by countries that have signed the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Sortir du Nucleaire said in a press statement. “India, Pakistan...

New Delhi (VNA) - The United States has said the new partnership with India is a reflection of its "growing role, power and influence" in the world and is not directed at any third country, including China. US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has telephoned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to apprise him about the agreement with India. Seeking to allay apprehensions of its allies about the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation, the US has told them that the deal was not meant to betray decades of nuclear-control policies or upset the regional...

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told the U.S. Congress his country and the United States need to work together to confront the threats terrorism poses to democracies. The Indian leader addressed a joint meeting of Congress Tuesday, also touching on the issue of nuclear proliferation. Prime Minister Singh observed that the world's largest democracy, and the world's oldest have much in common. The open society and economy of the United States, he said, have attracted the brightest young minds from India, transcending distance and differences between the two countries. He said India is poised to take advantage of a...

TEHRAN (AFP) - European nations negotiating with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme may be ready to help build nuclear reactors and supply them with fuel, Iranian negotiator Hossein Moussavian said. He told the official IRNA agency that a proposal promised by Britain, France and Germany by August and aimed at resolving the crisis could include such an offer, as well as a several-month delay before Iran's nuclear ambitions are referred to the UN Security Council. The EU proposal could make or break the lengthy diplomatic process aimed at easing widespread fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons technology. In contrast...

WASHINGTON -- Iran is not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, it is already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America's technical infrastructure, effectively neutralizing the world's lone superpower, say U.S. intelligence sources, top scientists and western missile industry experts. The radical Shiite regime has conducted successful tests to determine if its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, can be detonated by a remote-control device while still in high-altitude flight. Scientists, including President Reagan's top science adviser, William R. Graham, say there is no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse...

'Iran: The Nuclear Threat' Thursday, May 05, 2005 Sun., May 8 at 9 p.m. ET Hosted by Chris Wallace Scanning the world horizon, there is no greater potential flashpoint than Iran. President Bush and his foreign policy team believe that Tehran (search) is actively pursuing nuclear weapons. The ayatollahs who run that country flatly deny it. The fate of millions of people and the security of the United States are at stake. How great is the threat and what should the White House do about it? Join host Chris Wallace as FOX News presents a Breaking Point investigation: "Iran: The...

The United States plans to propose banning the peaceful use of nuclear energy if a nation is confirmed to have violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in a bid to prevent nations such as Iran from watering down the NPT regime, it was learned Wednesday. The United States also intends to call for new criteria to control the transfer of technology related to uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, a senior U.S. administration official said, referring to an international NPT review conference in New York from next Monday. The United States wants the proposed ban on the peaceful nuclear use to...

The Iranian government has given approval for the establishment of a secret nuclear research centre to train its scientists in all aspects of atomic technology, The Telegraph can reveal. Recent reports received by Western intelligence show that Teheran has recently approved the establishment of a faculty of applied nuclear engineering that will be attached to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI). The faculty will provide post-graduate courses for Iranian scientists in nuclear engineering and the production of nuclear materials. Intelligence officials believe that the creation of the facility is yet further evidence that Iran is involved in a...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced Pakistani scientist at the centre of a nuclear black market, gave Iran centrifuges, the Pakistani government says. Centrifuges are used to purify uranium for use as fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons. Pakistan has admitted in the past that Khan, dubbed the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, but has not given specifics as to what he supplied. "He has given centrifuges to Iran, but the government was in no way involved in this," Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters on...

The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has called on the US and the EU to do more for the world's long-term collective security. Speaking at a security conference in Munich on Sunday (13 February), the UN chief praised co-operation between American and European allies in post-war Iraq, but suggested that they should "do something more this year: to think ahead, and to help plant the seeds of long term collective security". The request was related to Mr Annan's own blueprint for "the most far-reaching reform of the international security system since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945"....

Diplomats: Iran Doing Last-Minute Nuke Processing Friday, November 19, 2004 PHOTOS Click image to enlarge STORIES BACKGROUND • Bush to Push Nuke Issue at APEC Forum • State, Powell Defend Comments About Iran's Nuke Program • Iranian Leader Urges Protests • U.S. Rules Out Nuke Talks With Iran • Exiles: Iran Has Bomb Blueprints • Iran: Europe Must Support Us • Iraq's Neighbors to Hold Meeting • Euro-Iran Nuke Deal in Jeopardy • Extremists Going From Iran to Iraq • Iran Closer to Finalizing Nuclear Deal • Iran: Deal Reached With Europeans on Nukes • Iran: Nuke Talks in 'Final...

In last Thursday’s debate, the two presidential candidates were asked what represented “the single most serious threat to the national security of the United States.” To most observers, the Democratic and Republican contenders seemed to agree: the spread of nuclear weapons. The seeming agreement on that point masked, however, some fundamental differences between Senator John Kerry and President Bush on the question of nuclear weapons and their proliferation – particularly into the hands of terrorists. If this danger is indeed our most serious threat, the American people had better understand the full significance of the choice for dealing with it...

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTRE: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION RECORD ON NONPROLIFERATION INTRODUCTION Preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) around the world continues to be an urgent priority of President George W. Bush and his Administration. There is no greater danger to our people than the nexus of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The risks posed by this dangerous nexus cannot be contained or deterred by traditional means. From the beginning of his Administration, the President's national security strategy has committed the US to work with its allies to: Ensure that international agreements against the proliferation of...

The Pakistani scientist at the centre of a black market in nuclear weapons is said to have displayed sensitive equipment and brochures for atom bomb technology at a Pakistani arms fair. Pakistan's government has denied any knowledge of the black market activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, and his Khan Research Laboratories. However, Jane's Defence Weekly has reported the laboratories had run a stall at the international arms trade fair in Karachi in November 2000, and displayed components used in the production of weapons-grade uranium. Jane's obtained the brochures for weapons-related technology, and inquired whether all of the listed items were...

ISLAMABAD—A top US intelligence official interrogated Dr A. Q. Khan during his recent visit to Islamabad early this month to verify the authenticity of the information supplied by Pakistan to the US on nuclear proliferation, reliable sources told The Nation Tuesday. The US embassy neither denied nor confirmed the information, but Pakistani officials dismissed it summarily. George Tenet, the CIA chief, had a debriefing session with Dr Khan on February 12 in Islamabad, sources said. The debriefing session was arranged following Bush administration’s assertion to have a direct contact with Dr Khan. Within 48 hours after the debriefing session Dr...

The US, which is within the range of only Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) until now, will soon come under Chinese, North Korean and Iranian ICBMs as well, a senior defence official has said. While Russia's nuclear weapons stockpiles continue to decline, the number of weapons in China, India, Pakistan and North Korea will grow, Vice Admiral Loell E, Jacoby, Director, Defence Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday. "In the next ten years," he said, "we expect other countries to join Russia, China and France as major exporters of cruise missiles. India, in partnership with...

APNewsAlert BEIJING - North Korea will abolish nuclear program "for military purpose," Chinese government quotes Russian negotiator as saying. MORE...

ARIS, Feb. 18 — The Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been demonized in the West for selling atomic secrets and equipment around the world, but the trade began in Europe, not Islamabad, according to court documents and experts who monitor proliferation.The records show that industry scientists and Western intelligence agencies have known for decades that nuclear technology was pouring out of Europe despite national export control efforts to contain it.Many of the names that have turned up among lists of suppliers and middlemen who fed equipment, materials and knowledge to nuclear programs in Pakistan and other aspiring nuclear nations...

VIENNA: Iran failed to declare highly sensitive designs for uranium enrichment centrifuges to the UN nuclear watchdog, calling into question the Islamic republic's cooperation with the agency, diplomats said on Thursday. Several Western diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity that information from Libya and other countries had led to the discovery of the designs, which could be used to develop machines to produce weapons-grade material.