Free Republic

World powers are close to overcoming their differences on what message the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send to Iran when its board of governors meets Thursday, diplomats told AFP on Wednesday. According to the reports, diplomats to the IAEA in Vienna were “close, but not there yet” to agreeing on a resolution amenable to all the main powers, including Russia and China. One diplomat told AFP that the resolution “will call on Iran to intensify dialogue with the agency and comply fully with its obligations. It also calls on the director general to report in March on the...

VIENNA — Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose can only be the development of nuclear weapons, the U.N. nuclear atomic energy agency said for the first time in a report released Tuesday. While some of the suspected secret nuclear work can have peaceful purposes, "others are specific to nuclear weapons," according to the report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. A 13-page attachment to the report details intelligence and IAEA research that shows Tehran working on all aspects of research toward making a nuclear weapon, including fitting a warhead onto a missile. "Iran," the report...

According to a RAND report, the United States and the world have blown the chance to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon.  Half a year ago, US air strikes and a no-fly zone might have prevented a nuclear bomb in the hands of the martyrdom ideology of Khomeinist Iran.  That window has now slammed shut.  In about 8 weeks, the RAND report concludes, Iran will have the nuclear material for its first bomb. RAND Corporation's Gregory S. Jones believes that Iran has produced almost 40 kilograms of uranium enriched near 20% percent.  Jones suggests that air strikes can no longer stop Ahmadinejad's...

Any mention of an Iranian nuclear weapon is taboo in the Islamic Republic, which insists that its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful, civil purposes. So it is remarkable, to say the least, that an article has appeared on the Gerdab website, run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, anticipating the day after Iran's first test of a nuclear warhead. Here is a translation of the text: The day after Iran's first nuclear test is a normal day. The day after Islamic Republic of Iran's first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians but in the eyes of some...