Posted on 04/15/2005 9:35:57 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Europe "Rock-Solid" That Iran Cease Enrichment
AFP, Yahoo! News:
European diplomats say the EU is "rock-solid" in its insistence that Iran cease uranium enrichment, ahead of crucial talks next week designed to win guarantees from Tehran that it will not make nuclear weapons.DoctorZin: The EU3 need to be applauded if they stick to this position. We reported back in November that the likely reason Iran wants to maintain a small number of centrifuges to continue to run, was to hide an undeclared enrichment program.
European Union negotiators Britain, France and Germany are studying an Iranian proposal that would allow some enrichment, and there have been hints of a crack in their unity over this issue.
But the European trio is "rock-solid on cessation" by Iran of uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for nuclear reactors but what can also be the explosive core of atom bombs, one European diplomat told AFP on Thursday.
The trio is to meet with Iran starting Tuesday in Geneva in a nuclear issues working group, ahead of a meeting of senior foreign ministry officials from the two sides scheduled for April 29 in London, diplomats said.
Iran proposed at such a senior-level meeting in Paris in March a project to do low-scale enrichment in a pilot project, and the Europeans agreed to consider this.
The European diplomat said however that the EU position remains that "cessation means cessation."
The EU wants so-called "objective guarantees" from Tehran that its nuclear program is a peaceful one.
Iran is trying to soften this demand, and some European diplomats told AFP that French President Jacques Chirac had said in February at a meeting in Paris with Iranian President Mohamad Khatami that France would agree to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determining what these objective guarantees would be.
Other diplomats said this was not the case and that Chirac had only said that the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog would have a role to play.
The IAEA is a verification arm of the United Nations rather than a policy-making body.
A non-European diplomat said Iran felt it could get a better deal from the IAEA than it would get from the Europeans, who agree with the United States that Iran should not be allowed to develop the capacity to make nuclear weapons.
One European diplomat said that the idea of having the IAEA determine the objective
John Loftus (a Fox News intelligence correspondent and director of IntelCon) claimedthat uranium enrichment centrifuges, which run at supersonic speeds, emit a unique “sound” that our intelligence satellites can detect
. He believes that Iran is aware of this capability of US intelligence.
If Iran has an “undeclared” centrifuge program as many claim, then Iran needs a few centrifuges to be permitted to stay in operation to mask this larger program they have in operation. Once Iran declares that all enrichment has ceased US intelligence would be “hear” the undeclared centrifuges and thus be able to prove their deception. This would explain the Iranian insistence on running the empty centrifuges it convinced the EU3 to permit to continue to run.
- The Word Unheard published the following response Mohsen Sazegara's recent article.
- OpenDemocracy.com published the controversial Iranian dissident Mohsen Sazegara article, Iran’s road to democracy.
- The Jerusalem Post reports more than 250 people were arrested Friday in southwestern Iran.
- Amnesty International, Urgent Action: Seventeen-year-old Rasoul Mohammadi is reportedly due to be executed on 16 April.
- WorldTribune.com says when talking about Iran's nuclear program, "Don't expect another Osirak."
- WorldTribune.com reports that Iran wants to join a United Nations satellite network that produces high resolution imagery.
- Washington Times asks can Iran be thwarted?.
- USA Today interviewed former MEK member Arash Sametipour who says his main motivation now is to stop others from joining the group.
- The Christian Science Monitor suggests that social freedoms have long been a barometer of politics in Iran, and once again the hardliners have shifted tactics.
- And finally, SMCCDI reports another public execution lead, today, to sporadic but violent clashes in the City of Najaf-Abad located in Esfahan province.
The LAW? They don't follow laws, nuconvert! They are above the people. They have no set of ethics. How often does your congressman do what you ask him to? In my case, it is rarely, if ever.
Well, they do take an oath to uphold the law. So, Tancredo and the others have explaining to do.
Tancredo is busy going after Delay and promoting the Minuteman project. The terrorism story isn't enough to catch attention.
Being a politician means being a liar!
MEK/MOK has never been popular among Iranians at all.
Why the US government does not support the son of the late Shah of Iran? It is a big question in every Iranians' mind now.
He's on the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, so terrorism should be on his mind a lot.
He has a blog and I asked him why he went to that meeting. I'll let you know if I ever get a response.
YES. That's how they get elected, afterall.
I understand he is on the subcommittee. I also know he wants to run for President. That's why he is going after DeLay. More face time on television.
This thread is now closed.
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