Posted on 04/28/2006 11:16:35 AM PDT by yatros from flatwater
Iran has successfully enriched uranium and continues related activities in defiance of the UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday, the day when UN deadline for Teheran to suspend enrichment expired.
The finding was contained in a report drawn up by IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei that also said Iran continued to rebuff agency efforts to get answers to questions linked to suspicions Iran was attempting to make nuclear arms.
"After more than three years of agency efforts to seek clarity about all aspects of Iran's nuclear program, the existing gaps in knowledge continue to be a matter of concern," said the report. "Any progress in that regard requires full transparency and active cooperation by Iran."
The report, obtained by the Associated Press, formally served notice that Teheran had shrugged off a 30-day deadline to meet council demands to suspend all activities linked to enrichment because it can be used to make the highly enriched uranium used in the core of nuclear warheads. As such it opened the way for further council steps, including the potential threat of sanctions and military action if Iran continues to defy the international community.
On enrichment, the report said that Iran's claim to have enriched small amounts of uranium to a level of 3.6 percent - fuel grade uranium, as opposed to weapons grade material enriched to levels above 90% - appeared to be true according to initial IAEA analysis of samples it took.
In one of the few new developments in the IAEA's investigation of more than three years, the report concluded that Iran used undeclared plutonium in conducting small-scale separation experiments.
"The agency cannot exclude the possibility ... that the plutonium analyzed by the agency was derived from source(s) other than those declared by Iran," the report said. Plutonium separation is one of the suspect "dual use" activities that could be used for a weapons program.
But Iran refused to give further information on other key issues - details of Iran's centrifuge programs that are used to enrich uranium, information on drawings that show how to form fissile uranium into warheads and apparent links between Iran's military establishment and what it says is a civilian nuclear program.
The conclusion on enrichment was not surprising - just hours before it was issued, Iran again defied a formal Security Council request to freeze uranium enrichment and related activities.
Iran's UN ambassador, Javad Zarif, said Tehran would refuse to comply even if the council request would turn into a demand through a resolution because its activities are legal and peaceful. Enrichment can be used to generate fuel or make the fissile core of nuclear weapons.
"If the Security Council decides to take decisions that are not within its competence, then Iran does not feel obliged to obey," he said Thursday in New York.
John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, has already said he plans to introduce a resolution requiring Teheran to comply with the council's demand to stop its enrichment program. The resolution would not call for sanctions now, but could lead to one under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows for sanctions and is militarily enforceable.
"The first resolution would be simple and straightforward, 'making mandatory' last month's council requests on suspension of enrichment and full cooperation with IAEA inspectors," Bolton told The Associated Press in a phone call to Vienna. "We would give Iran a short time to come into compliance.
"If Iran doesn't come into compliance, we would consider what the next steps would be ... likely targeted sanctions," he said.
While Bolton did not elaborate, such sanctions would not likely be directed against Iran's oil industry, which is part of a crucial energy lifeline to the rest of the world. They could include measures such as freezing Teheran's foreign assets and banning oversees travel by top officials.
The timing of any such moves remained unclear however, considering strong opposition to sanctions by China and Russia, both important economic clients of Iran.
As late as Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the primacy of the council, insisting the UN nuclear watchdog should continue to play a central role in the dispute. "It mustn't shrug this role from its shoulders and pass it on to the UN Security Council," Putin said.
But a top French diplomat laid out a starkly contrasting position that also reflects US and British views: The Security Council should not only have the main say in dealing with Iran but also should start considering how to increase the pressure. But, the diplomat said, a UN resolution enforceable by military action would not automatically mean resorting to such action.
Instead of complying with the UN deadline, Iran - which says it seeks the technology only to generate electric power - has upped the ante in recent weeks, announcing it had for the first time successfully enriched uranium and was doing research on advanced centrifuges that would let it produce more of the material in less time.
Western concern has grown in the more than three years since when Iran was found to be working on large-scale plans to enrich uranium.
While the IAEA has found no "smoking gun" proving Iran wants nuclear arms, a series of reports have revealed worrying clandestine activities - like plutonium processing - and documents, including drawings of how to mold weapons-grade uranium metal into the shape of a warhead.
UN: Iran defying Sec. Council, continuing enrichment
Only bombs will save us, not talk.
Apparently, the only proof sufficient would be a nuclear detonation!
"Smoking gun", indeed!
That's why I love John Bolton! He's doing things the right way so the U.N. and the rest of the idiotic world can't say SQUAT if we have to take out Iran's nukes!
And even then it will not be easy to get support for going after them...as effectively as the pacifists have brain-washed the middle.
Folks, some of the captured iraqi documents that have not been released are going to show Saddam trained up to 8,000 foreign terrorists in Iraq before the war! They have group photos of the graduating classes. This will be funny to watch the lousy dems and the msm when they come out. They will try and ignore them initially, yet they will not be able to forever. This will show Saddam had terrorist ties. Read more here: http://strata-sphere.com/blog/
Don't get your hopes up. They will just say Bush did nothing and invading Iraq was a waste of time and just made things worse.
Summer 1939 redux ....
Well, at least the headline wasn't: "Iran Unifying UN".
Oh, I am sure they will but when you have actual photographs, and not just text documents that are translated, it makes it harder to disprove.
Have you heard about the Iranian response in the event of a strike against their interests? Been doing some checking, and operation 'judgement day' is one Hell of a plan. It could, and I say could, crash the world economy. Here are some of the details:
a: Missile strikes against US bases in the Middle East
b: Suicide squads to launch against US and Western interests in the Middle East, namely embassies and financial institutions.
c: Revolutionary Guard to move into Iraq to attack the US and British forces stationed there. First at risk would be the British Army in southern Iraq, focused around Basra.
d: Mobilising the Hezbollah militia to move against Israeli targets.
e: Strikes against all non-Iranian oil installations in the Middle East, driving the global economy into meltdown.
This a serious battle plan yes? The only kind of action to prevent this would be apocalyptic for the Iranian nation. And they were doing so well until some muppets elected Ahmenidijad (ish).
Sorry to be a little cynical but unless someone promotes those photographs and/or documents with private money, the MSM will just try and ignore them the way they ignored the Swiftboat vets until the ads were everywhere.
Oh I agree the MSM and dems will ignore them to the very end but any Repub running for re-election or election will probably use them to slap down their dem opponents. Rush, Hannity, Gibson, et al will show the photos. The word will get out. Like I have heard before, truth floats.
And should that fail to bring them to heel...
The
Comfy
Chair!!!!!
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