December 4, 2005: Iran uses music to play out nuclear case
Source: IRNA
Iran has taken its nuclear energy campaign to the realm of music this time in an effort to strike a chord with the public about the peaceful nature of this "national" achievement.
The Music and Songs Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has produced two musical pieces "in parallel with supporting the peaceful nuclear technology", the center said in a statement Saturday.
The works named "Indebted to Fire" and "The Burning Lantern" are being produced with a symphonic orchestra trait, it added.
Meanwhile, the press reported Saturday that a plan was being broached for a public offering of Iran's nuclear energy stock.
"According to a plan which has just been forwarded to the Supreme National Security Council and will soon be put on the agenda, the nuclear stock will be offered to the public," the daily Kayhan wrote.
The paper said feasibility studies on the plan would probably commence soon.
"The plan is based on the peacefulness of the nuclear energy according to which, the government can even issue bonds in order to provide finance for building nuclear plants," it added.
Kayhan went on to say that "based on what experts believe, the ceding of nuclear shares to the public beside reasserting the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear technology can strengthen its place as a modern source of energy among the people".
The plan would require the government to find out mechanisms according to which revenues from the sale and exports of nuclear products would be distributed among the shareholders, the paper said.
The government is fresh from its approval of a bill on how to participate foreign companies in Iran's nuclear energy program.
The program is a thorn in Washington's side since the US law bans the country's firms from any engagement in Iran's development projects.
Iran's first nuclear plant is being built by Russia under a one-billion-dollar contract which is scheduled to become operational in mid-2006.
Last week, a key parliament speaker announced that Iran would tender by March 2006 the construction of two more nuclear power plants.
"In the 1384 budget, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has been given license to set up 20 nuclear plants with a capacity to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said.
US authorities claim that the program might be a front to build an atom bomb, a charge Tehran vigorously denies.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) announced last week that the so-called EU3 had accepted Iran's offer to take up nuclear negotiations from where they were left off in August.
In a letter dated November 6, SNSC Secretary Ali Larijani had invited the Europeans to resume the negotiations.
Negotiations broke down in August after Iran rejected an EU proposal of concessions, which the country described as 'a package of lollipops' and resumed uranium conversion work.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi has stressed that the focal point of any future negotiations would have to provide 'concrete guarantees for realizing production of nuclear fuel in Iran'.
Re:
"...Iran's first nuclear plant is being built by Russia ...."
Here's hoping that they use the same blueprints as Chernyobyl - only leave a few nuts and bolts out of the reactor.
"OOps!"