Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 3 – Heavy clashes erupted between Irans State Security Forces (SSF) and students from the University of Qazvin (western Iran), after SSF agents raided university buildings and attempted to bring to an end a hunger strike that had been organized in protest to poor university conditions.
Students clash with State Security Forces in western Iran
U.S., Austrian officers foil plot to aid Iran military
The Washington Times: U.S. and Austrian law-enforcement authorities have disrupted a suspected plot to illegally supply the Iranian military with thousands of advanced military night-vision systems from the United States, arresting two Iranian nationals on charges of attempting to violate Austrian export laws.
Powell: U.S. Can’t Hunt Iran Nukes in ‘Every Cave’
Reuters: Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday Washington had no way to force Iran to allow U.N. inspectors unrestricted access to suspected nuclear sites despite U.S. doubts Tehran would come clean on its own. “I can’t make
sure it is going to happen,” he told Reuters in an interview as he prepares to leave office. “You can’t look in every cave that might be in Iran.”
U.S. suspects Iran is making new missiles
AP: Interception of several technology shipments to Iran has bolstered U.S. suspicions that Iran is secretly developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could threaten Europe
and possibly the United States.
Iran bought metal useable in atomic bombs-diplomats
Reuters: Intelligence reports accuse Iran of buying large amounts of a metal that has many civilian uses but which some U.S. and other countries’ officials believe Tehran
wanted exclusively for an atomic bomb, diplomats say. Washington says that oil-rich Iran is developing nuclear weapons under cover of a nuclear energy programme.
Rafsanjani reasserts Iran nuke right
UPI: A top Iranian cleric said Iran will soon join the international nuclear club, saying the suspension of uranium enrichment will last for four months only. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the powerful Expediency Council, said at Friday sermon Iran “will be member of the club grouping countries that possess nuclear industry very soon,” the Iranian News Agency, IRNA, reported.
Iran Working on New Missile, Exiles Say
Los Angeles Times: An Iranian opposition group asserted Thursday that the Islamic Republic was developing a new series of missiles with the capability to strike Western Europe, and seeking ways to arm them with chemical or nuclear warheads.
Iran said to sharpen nuclear program
Boston Globe: Iran is developing more advanced ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons to targets as far as Berlin and is also shielding from international inspectors two military complexes believed to be part of its clandestine atomic bomb program, American intelligence officials, international diplomats, and an Iranian opposition group claimed yesterday.
Rumsfeld warns Iran making ‘a lot of mistakes’
AFP: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday Iran was “making a lot of mistakes” but said any action to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons was a call for President George W. Bush and other leaders to make. Rumsfeld was asked in an interview with Fox News television whether the United States could allow Iran to become another North Korea, which is believed to have nuclear weapons.
US slams Iran for restricting IAEA access to military sites
AFP: The United States on Thursday denounced Iran for not allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit military sites suspected of housing work on nuclear weapons. The State Department said the denial of access to the two sites, despite Tehran’s repeated insistence that it is not developing nuclear arms and vows to cooperate with the IAEA, was “an anomaly in Iran’s behavior.”
