AFP: Iran is producing the uranium feedstuff that could be used to make nuclear weapons, only days before it is due to introduce a promised ban on all such enrichment activities, diplomats told AFP Friday. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in September that Iran was planning to convert 37 tonnes of uranium yellowcake created an international outcry that led Britain, France and Germany to negotiate a full enrichment suspension with Tehran.
Iran producing uranium feed that can be used to make nuclear weapons
Diplomats: Iran Readies Uranium for Nuke Enrichment
Reuters: Iran is preparing large amounts of uranium for enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons, days before its promise to freeze all such activities takes effect, Western diplomats said on Friday. “The Iranians are producing UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) like hell,” a non-U.S. diplomat on the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters. “The machines are running.”
Iran Using Lasers to Enrich Uranium – Exile Group
Reuters: An Iranian exile group accused Tehran on Friday of using advanced laser technology to secretly enrich uranium and of lying to the United Nations nuclear watchdog body about the covert program. The opposition group, which has given accurate information before and made other accusations on Wednesday, said Iran was making bomb-grade uranium at …
Nuclear accusation puts Iran deal at risk
The Globe and Mail: Top U.S. officials have accused Iran of secretly modifying its new longer-range missiles so they can be fitted with nuclear warheads, a sharp escalation in the war of words that threatens to scuttle a fragile diplomatic deal worked out between Tehran and three leading members of the European Union.
Iran is working on nuclear missile, warns Powell
The Independent: Iran loomed as the second Bush administration’s most urgent foreign policy challenge yesterday, as Colin Powell, the outgoing Secretary of State, warned that the country was working on a missile capable of delivering a nuclear bomb.
Powell accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear missiles
The Guardian: The Bush administration yesterday accused
Iran of attempting to develop missiles with nuclear warheads – a charge that could derail the European arms-control agreement struck earlier this week. The accusation was made by the outgoing secretary of state, Colin Powell, while on an official visit to Chile for an Asia-Pacific economic summit.
U.S.-Iran Talks on Nukes May Be Ruled Out
AP: The Bush administration is not considering talks with Iran on developing nuclear weapons even though Secretary of State Colin Powell will attend a conference next week with diplomats from Iran and other countries. Already suspicious that Iran is developing such weapons, the administration now has intelligence provided by a resistance group that Iran is trying to adapt missiles to deliver the weapons, Powell said Wednesday.
Iran’s nuclear ambition
Daily Telegraph – Leader Article: There has always been something suspect about European mediation over Iran’s nuclear programme. This is not to deny that the EU trio (Britain, France and Germany) is sincere in wishing to prevent Teheran from acquiring nuclear arms. It lies, rather, in its ineffectiveness.
Iranian news website operator gets 15-month suspended jail term
AFP: An Iranian operating a news website from the central clerical city of Qom has received a 15-month suspended jail term amid a jusicial crackdown on Internet writing, the state news agency IRNA reported Thursday. An appeals court in Qom handed Hamed Motaghi the sentence for publishing “false information” and “disturbing public order” with his Naghshineh website, which was also closed down.
Iran denies secret nuclear activities
Reuters: Iran has denied an exiled opposition group’s allegations that it is secretly seeking material to build an atomic bomb, says a senior official. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said on Wednesday Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb.
