Everyone seems ready to demonize Iran. While it is certainly true that Iran supports Hezbollah and Hamas, I doubt very much that Iran can control either entity. Certainly they are arming them and applaud their efforts, but they aren't directing the show.
Concern about the Shia cresent through the Middle East by US Arab allies is pushing for methods to contain Iran. It seems unlikely that Egypt and Saudi Arabia would sanction war with Iran, they would hardly stand in the way.
The Daily Star
Iran played a "big role" in Hamas' seizure of Gaza from Palestinian security forces earlier this month, Palestinian Intelligence Chief Tawfiq al-Tirawi charged on Sunday. Both Iran and Hamas swiftly dismissed the accusation as "lies." "Iran has played a big role in what happened in Gaza. Dozens of members of Hamas have been trained in Iran, and Hamas smuggled in weapons through tunnels not to fight Israel but against the Palestinian Authority," Tirawi said. "The whole plan has been carried out in coordination with Iran, and Iran has been informed of every step."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas previously accused "foreign elements" of orchestrating Hamas' takeover, but it was the first time that a senior official explicitly blamed Iran.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri retorted that "Tirawi's accusations are lies," while acknowledging that Hamas enjoys good relations with the Islamic Republic as well as other Muslim states. "Hamas is proud that it enjoys ... strategic depth in the Arab and Islamic world at a time when Tirawi's friends are vaunting their relations with the [Israeli] occupation and the United States."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas previously accused "foreign elements" of orchestrating Hamas' takeover, but it was the first time that a senior official explicitly blamed Iran.
So is Israel readying it's airforce for a strike at Iran?
The Daily Star
Israel's air force is training for long distance missions, after agreeing to a timetable with the United States for sanctions against Iran's nuclear program to work, a report said on Friday. Israel's Maariv daily, which said the military censor had authorized its report, said the training included long-range strikes as well as in-flight refueling.
The newspaper said Israel and the United States would hold joint assessments at the end of the year on the effectiveness of economic sanctions against Iran.
A new package of tougher sanctions was drawn up in Tuesday's talks between Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush, including pressure on European governments to cancel guarantees worth $22 billion a year to firms trading with Iran, the paper said.
The draft package also includes sanctions against banks working with Iran and measures to stop the OPEC cartel's number-two producer of crude from maintaining its oil infrastructure, the paper added.
After the White House talks, Bush said he hoped to resolve the Iran nuclear dispute diplomatically but insisted that all options, including military action, remained on the table.
So far, this uranium has only been enriched to the level needed to run civilian nuclear power stations. But if Iran chooses to enrich it to 84 per cent purity, the uranium would reach weapons-grade level. Iran would need 50 kg of weapons-grade uranium in to make one atomic weapon of the kind that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. By storing twice this quantity of low-enriched uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is widening its options.
It could keep the stockpiled uranium in reserve and then enrich it to weapons-grade level at an opportune moment - perhaps after formally withdrawing from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). This would involve rejecting all international safeguards and expelling the United Nations inspectors who still monitor Iran's nuclear plants.
British newspapers have had a series of what looks like planted articles about Iran. Who would plant these? Certainly this has Bush written all over it.
Telegraph
Iran moved significantly closer towards acquiring the essential material for a nuclear bomb yesterday when the regime claimed to have stockpiled 100 kg of enriched uranium.
But observers are sceptical about whether this is Iran's plan. Paul Cornish, the head of the international security programme at Chatham House, said: "What's extraordinary is that they're telegraphing to the world that they have decided to make a bomb. It's almost as if they are trying to invite a response. Ahmadinejad seems to be goading outsiders, the West and Israel, to strike Iran perhaps because this would put him in a strong position against the ayatollahs. He would be able to rally the people as the leader of a nation under attack."
Uranium is enriched using centrifuges. These have been installed in Iran's nuclear plant at Natanz. A snap inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency last month found that 1,312 centrifuges were operating. But Mustapha Pourmohammedi, Iran's interior minister, told the official news agency that 3,000 were in action. In theory, these centrifuges could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one bomb in about a year.
ArmsControlWonk seems to doubt the accuracy of the reports.
But I would judge the claim that Iran has stockpiled 100 kilograms of LEU to be plausible, though not likely.
[...]Of course, Iran will eventually have a stockpile of 100 kilograms of LEU, certainly within another month or so.
The real magic number is, or should be, about 550 kilograms of UF6, which the ol’ URENCO SWU calculator reminds me would from the basis of a so-called breakout capability to produce 25 kilograms of HEU from 16 cascades in about two months.
No comments:
Post a Comment