Iran claims nuclear advances

[mawilson 2,133]

Iran's president today claimed his country was capable of 'industrial scale'

enrichment of uranium, expanding a key nuclear process that the United

Nations has demanded it halt.

The announcement by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a ceremony at the enrichment

facility at Natanz came as Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, confirmed

Iran had begun enriching uranium with 3,000 centrifuges.

Until now, Iran was only known to have 328 centrifuges operating. Mr Larijani

did not give further details about the advances at the facility, and it remains

unclear at what stage Iran's programme is at.

Experts say the Natanz plant needs between 50,000 and 60,000 centrifuges to

consistently produce fuel for a reactor or build a warhead. The US and its allies

accuse Iran of intending to produce weapons - a charge Tehran denies. The

Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear

watchdog, had no immediate comment to today's announcement.

Mr Ahmadinejad was at a ceremony to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its

first success in enriching small amounts of uranium. A year ago today Iran

announced it had first enriched uranium using an array of 164 centrifuges.

The unveiling of new centrifuges at Natanz, which is in central Iran, is strong show

of defiance toward the United Nations, which has imposed limited sanctions on

Iran until it suspends enrichment.

The UN security council has vowed to ratchet up sanctions as long as Iran rejects

an enrichment suspension, and has set a new deadline of late May for Tehran to

do so.

Today in his speech, Mr Ahmadinejad said the door to negotiations with the west

remains open, and that Iran "welcomes any suggestion and dialogue to resolve

the issues".

He insisted Iran has been cooperative with the IAEA, allowing it inspections of its

facilities, but he warned: "Don't do something that will make this great nation

reconsider its policies" - a reference to the threat of increased UN sanctions.

"With great honour, I declare that as of today our dear country has joined the

nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale,"

Mr Ahmadinejad said.

Mr Larijani said his country was willing to offer assurances that its programme was

peaceful but he said the west must accept the programme as a fact.

The IAEA says it has gaps in its knowledge about Iran's nuclear plans that must

be filled before it can say they are peaceful.

The watchdog is also pushing Tehran to agree to let it install cameras in the

underground section of Natanz to monitor Iran's work. Iran says such intrusive

surveillance goes beyond its basic safeguards commitment to the IAEA.

Tensions are also high between Iran and the west following the 13-day detention

of 15 British sailors by Iran.

The sailors and marines, who were seized by revolutionary guards off the Iraqi

coast, were released last Wednesday. They say they were put under psychological

pressure by their captors to force them to "confess" to being in Iranian waters

when captured.

In Tehran today, some 200 students formed a human chain at Iran's Atomic Energy

Organisation while chanting "death to America" and "death to Britain." The students

burnt flags of the US and Britain.

Source

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Everyone should visit Israel before it's too late.

[mawilson 2,133]

Everyone should visit Israel before it's too late.

Israel won't go down without a (nuclear) fight.

I hope they are considering a conventional preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

[almaty 19]

Everyone should visit Israel before it's too late.

Israel won't go down without a (nuclear) fight.

I hope they are considering a conventional preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

they did it before with iraq..i would not put it past them or blame them either...elf-preservation

[sereia 0]

Everyone should visit Israel before it's too late.

ugh i can't bear the thought of that happening!!!!!!!!!! glad i've already been though.

[Scott & Lai 12]

...elf-preservation

Definitely must preserve elves...they're an endangered species

[Otto 83]

(Follow up from source article)

Would the US attack to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb?

A number of news reports have claimed the Pentagon is making contingency plans for a military attack. George Bush has dismissed them as "wild speculation" and Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, insisted such suggestions are "completely nuts". In a question and answer session at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Mr Bush said his "doctrine of prevention" did not "mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy."

The most talked of the recent reports was veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh's piece for the New Yorker. Press reports concentrated on the eyecatching claim the US was prepared to fire tactical nuclear missiles at the Natanz plant but, at the very least , Hersh gave a credible account of how seriously the US is taking its concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme. His principal source, a "Pentagon adviser on the war on terror", told him that the view in Washington was that "allowing Iran to have the bomb is not on the table [...] The whole internal debate is on which way to go". The problem, he said, was that while the "bottom line is that Iran cannot become a nuclear-weapons state [...] the Iranians realise that only by becoming a nuclear state can they defend themselves against the US." Another Hersh source, a "government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon", said Mr Bush was determined Iran was not going to get the bomb, and that "saving" the country "was going to be his legacy", an echo of Iraq-style regime change.