AP: Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment – from armor-piercing snipers’ rifles to night-vision goggles – through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. AP: Iran Stockpiling High-Tech Small Arms
AP: Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment – from armor-piercing snipers’ rifles to night-vision goggles – through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. Los Angeles Times interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Los Angeles Times: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel in unusually sharp terms Thursday, warning that its plans to expand an Israeli West Bank settlement was“at odds with American policy” and could threaten progress toward peace with the Palestinians at a critical moment.
Halliburton Won’t Seek Iran Work
Washington Post: Halliburton Co., the world’s largest oil-field services company, has pledged not to seek new work in Iran, a country accused by the State Department of state-sponsored terrorism, said New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, a steward of pension funds holding company stock … Exile Alleges Secret Storage Area in Iran
AP: Iranian engineers have built a secret underground storage area for use as a uranium enrichment facility in a restricted military area of interest to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, an Iranian exile said Thursday. The exile – Alireza Jafarzadeh – said by telephone from Washington that the “camouflaged tunnel-like facility” was completed recently at Parchin, a sprawling Iranian military complex about 20 miles southeast of Tehran. Iranian exile says uranium enriched at secret site
Reuters: An Iranian exile accused Tehran on Thursday of secretly purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons at a recently-constructed underground facility at a military complex called Parchin. “Iran has completed an underground tunnel-like facility in Parchin, which is now engaged in laser enrichment,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian exile who has reported accurately in the past about hidden atomic facilities in Iran. Nuclear Accord Eludes Iran and Europeans
New York Times: Iran and its European negotiating partners struggled without success on Wednesday to break an impasse on reaching a long-term agreement on nuclear, economic and security cooperation. But the Iranian side presented new proposals to provide further assurances to the Europeans that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, and the two sides have agreed to meet again soon, participants said. EU, Iran talks end without deal, new meeting planned
Reuters: Iran and the European Union’s three biggest powers ended talks on Wednesday with no agreement on how to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme, officials at the talks said. Sirus Naseri, a senior Iranian negotiator, told reporters that Iran would not consider terminating sensitive atomic work that could be used in weapons, as demanded by France, Britain and Germany, but said all four parties would meet again soon to continue negotiations. Iran, accused of wanting nukes, locks horns with EU
Reuters: The European Union’s three biggest powers were holding talks with Iran on Wednesday to try to persuade it to abandon nuclear enrichment technology that could be used to make weapons. The meeting was the latest step in a diplomatic initiative that began in October 2003 when Iran first promised to suspend all work linked to the enrichment of uranium, a process of
purifying uranium for use as fuel in power plants or bombs.
Nobody planning to attack Iran, says Blair
AFP: Nobody is planning military action against Iran over its nuclear programme “at the moment,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview with a Muslim magazine, adding “Iran is not Iraq”. “I don’t know of anybody planning military action against Iran,” Blair said in the latest issue of the British monthly Muslim News, due to hit news-stands on Friday. U.S. monitors Iran border for insurgents
AP: Worried about people sneaking in from Iran, U.S. troops and Iraqi border guards are focusing their attention on the “socket” – a remote section of frontier that juts into Iran and is used by smugglers, shepherds and even jobs hunters for illegal crossings. The strongest concern, however, is that the rugged area is being used by those helping Iraq’s insurgency. 