Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that the United States must make its position on Israel’s nuclear strategy clear before talks on Tehran’s atomic program could resume.

Sanctions imposed by “arrogant” Western powers would not slow Iran’s nuclear progress, he said.

	Technicians measuring parts of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in this undated photo.
	Photo by: AP

The United States, Europe and the United Nations have imposed sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Iran says its aim is to generate electricity and rejects Western suspicions it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator suggested in a letter to the European Union’s foreign affairs chief this week that talks could be held as soon as September on issues including Tehran’s atomic program.

Speaking in Nigeria after a summit of the D8 group of developing nations, Ahmadinejad said Iran supported dialogue but blamed the United States for the failure of previous talks.

Asked what conditions must be met for talks to resume, Ahmadinejad said Washington must make its position on Israel’s nuclear strategy clear.

“The first condition is they should express their views about the nuclear weapons of the Zionist regime. Do they agree with that or not. If they agree that these bombs should be available to them, the course of the dialogue would be different,” he said.

Israel is widely assumed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the region but it refuses to confirm or deny having such weapons. It has usually been spared scrutiny by its guardian ally but the Obama administration alarmed Israel in May by backing an Egyptian initiative for talks in 2012 on a Middle East free of weapons of mass-destruction.

However, hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama echoed Israel’s veiled justifications for having the bomb and said Israel had “unique security requirements”.

The White House said Obama had further pledged to keep Israel, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, from being “singled out” at a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna in September as well as at the Egyptian-proposed regional conference.

Ahmadinejad, speaking to reporters through an interpreter, said the United States must also clarify its own commitment to non-proliferation and its position on its readiness to “resort to force”.

Iran is seeking closer trade ties with Africa and Ahmadinejad laced a speech to Nigerian academic, civil society and religious groups with parallels between African relations with ex-colonial powers and Iran’s own standoff with the West.

“The wealth they stockpiled came from the pockets of others. They have plundered and looted all the mines in Africa. They have plundered the labor force for hundreds of years,” he said.

It was a message that resonated with some of the audience at the gathering in Africa’s most populous nation of 140 million people, roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims.

“They call the leaders of America leaders of the free world. We call you the leader of nations struggling for freedom,” said Shehu Sani, president of Nigeria’s Civil Rights Congress.

“Dr, Ahmadinejad is a role model, he is an inspiration.”

But Sani also tackled the Iranian leader about his public statements questioning whether the Nazi Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed across Europe had indeed occurred, comments which stirred tensions with Israel.

Ahmadinejad replied: “Why should they occupy the land of the Palestinian people. The people of Palestine committed no crime during World War Two.”

a haaretz.com article

ISLAMABAD: Renowned Atomic Scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Friday said Pakistan’s nuclear assets are completely secure and that ‘even a group of a thousand terrorists together won’t be able to gain access to its atomic technology.’

Talking to journalists here, Dr. Abudul Qadeer Khan rubbished the impression that Pakistan’s atomic programme is not safe.

“The atomic technology is not a rudimentary thing and it is impossible for anyone, including terrorists, to gain access to it,” Dr. Qadeer ruled out in an unequivocal tone.

He said no one can steal the nuclear technology because its assembling and use requires highest level of sophisticated expertise. “Even a thousand terrorists together can’t gain access to it,” he added.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan said cooperation in the field of nuclear science can be enhanced with trustworthy friends like China.

The Region: Why sanction Iran, you ask?
By BARRY RUBIN

More sanctions won’t stop the Islamic Republic’s quest for nuclear power, but there are other reasons for imposing them.

Since the Middle East is so important nowadays, it’s a pity that a lot of people – including policy-makers and opinion-makers – don’t understand some basic concepts about the region. So let’s try to explain these things to them.

What is the use, at least potentially, of sanctions on Iran? We all know that any sanctions the US government, or even the world, is likely to apply won’t stop Iran’s nuclear program. But there are many other potential goals for imposing sanctions. These include: making it harder for Iran to build these weapons and the missiles to carry them, slowing down the program, reducing Iran’s economic assets which can be used for military spending, denying Iran other weapons, intimidating Iran into greater caution in its actual behavior and encouraging factions (both within the establishment and in the opposition) to conclude that the current regime is leading them to disaster and must be displaced.

Of these six goals, the current sanctions plan largely accomplishes one of them – barring the sale of most conventional weapons (but not anti-aircraft missiles) – and does a small amount toward reducing Iran’s assets and slowing down the project. In general, though, it is a question of too little too late.

Again, the problem is not that the sanctions proposed (and which might still be watered down further) aren’t so huge as to make Iran stop but that they will not make Iran more cautious, promote internal conflict due to their high cost or really increase economic pressure to reduce military spending.

SHOULD THE world stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons? In principle, the answer is yes, but we now know that this will not happen. The task, then, is to prepare for a strong containment strategy, which is also not happening.

The US government seems to believe that “declaring” containment – saying for example, “if Teheran gives nuclear weapons to terrorists, we will do something,” “if it attacks a neighbor, we will do something” – is sufficient at a time when US credibility and deterrence is at an all-time low.

Why did Russia and China agree to the sanctions plan? Because it doesn’t stop them from doing everything they want, with the exception of selling conventional weapons to Iran (which they might smuggle into the country anyway).

How do we know that US credibility and deterrence power is at an all-time low due to the current policy of “proud weakness” by the Obama administration? Take a look at Lebanon, for example. Former champions of Lebanese sovereignty against Hizbullah, Iran and Syria, now rush to Damascus to pledge allegiance to the Syrian dictatorship. US leaders also don’t notice the defection of the Turkish regime to the other side. Even with Brazil, despite Obama’s lavish praise for that country’s radical president, Teheran’s view counted more than that of Washington.

There are many articles in Arabic-language newspapers and other sources about how they feel the US is too weak and undependable as a protector. Simultaneously, there are growing moves to appease Syria and Iran.

Is the concept of Iran using nuclear weapons as a “defensive umbrella” for aggression a viable one? Absolutely. Having nuclear weapons will make Iran “untouchable” in terms of retaliation. We already see this on a smaller scale with North Korea and Pakistan. North Korea is so confident that it torpedoed and sank a South Korean ship, knowing that its adversary can do nothing about it. That regime also ignores all the requests, demands and pressures on it to change its behavior even though its people are on the edge of starvation.

Pakistan is a stronger case. It has in the recent past seized Indian territory and continues to sponsor a full-scale terrorist war on India, knowing New Delhi has no military option. Since the bloody assault on Mumbai, Pakistan has done nothing and India is helpless to do anything.

This is all on a small scale compared to Iran’s capabilities, assets and ambitions. The strategic idea is that Iran will not actually fire nuclear weapons but having them gives it huge prestige that will help recruit thousands of Muslims in other countries into its client organizations, and intimidate the West and Arabic-speaking states into passivity or active appeasement.

SHOULD ISRAEL attack Iranian nuclear installations? I lean toward a no on this question for a number of reasons. We know that such an operation would not destroy Iran’s ability to rebuild its capability, or might not even damage it significantly. Too much can go wrong with the attack itself.

Moreover, Israel lacks the minimal international support for such an attack. I don’t mean Israel cannot do it, but on a cost-benefit basis – and in military operations one cannot assume everything will go right – the strategy doesn’t seem a good bet. All that is only true, of course, if Israeli assessments are that Iran is not going to attack Israel. And if those assessments ever change, then such an operation should be launched.

No one should underestimate the value of Israel’s own defensive system, which can be especially effective against the very small number of missiles Iran could launch even if it did decide to attack.

This analysis does not assume a nuclear Iran will not pose a huge and actual threat, but that the main problem is for Arabic-speaking states having to protect themselves from Iranian intimidation and subversion. It is also for the US having to create a credible system of containment. But the real burden for meeting this challenge is not for Israel.

The other countries of the world are going to have to learn for themselves the enormous mistake of failing to stop Iran and cheering the weakening of the United States. At that point, they are more likely to listen to reason. They are more likely to do this if they cannot depend on Israel to “save” them.

a jpost.com article

Iran, Turkey and Brazil have reached an agreement Monday night on an uranium exchange deal, intended to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is only used for civilian purposes and remove the need for additional Western sanctions on Iran, Israel Radio Reported.

According to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the compromise was reached after 18 hours of continuous negotiations, and a formal press announcement might be made on Tuesday Morning, when all details are finalized by leaders of the three countries.

In a related development, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva met with Iranian leaders on Sunday, and called the relationship between the two countries “strategic.”

Speaking in defense of Iran’s right to “independently navigate its course” to seek development and improvement, Silva stressed that a peaceful nuclear research program was within Iran’s sovereign rights.

Silva, who is in Iran for the Summit of the Group of 15 developing nations, spoke following meetings with Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Brazilian president went on to say that there were those who hoped his visit would fail.

Ahead of the visit, sources in the US State Department called Silva’s visit the last chance for Iran to prevent the next round of sanctions against it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted that Silva’s mediation effort would not succeed, saying new sanctions are the only way to bring Iran around to cooperation.

Brazil hopes to enrich nuclear material for Iran

The reported agreement is the result of Brazilian efforts to revive a previous UN-backed proposal, in which Iran would ship its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad to be processed further and returned as fuel rods that could not be processed beyond its lower, safer levels, which are suitable for use in the Teheran research reactor.

Iran initially accepted the original UN deal but then balked and proposed changes rejected by the world powers negotiating with Teheran.

Brazil may be hoping to supplant Russia in the original UN proposal as the state that processes the nuclear material for Iran.

File photo of the Dimona facility, which is closed to any monitoring

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will discuss Israel – the owner of Middle East’s sole atomic arsenal — and its nuclear activities.

The IAEA is allowed to refer nuclear proliferation concerns to the UN Security Council.

The issue, which has always eluded IAEA’s agenda with the help of the United States, has been included in the list of items to be brought up at the agency’s gathering on June 7, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The matter is to be discussed under the subject of Israel’s “nuclear capabilities” at the request of the body’s 18 Arab members.

The organization has avoided the issue since its inception and for more than half a century amid Israel’s insistence on maintaining a policy of nuclear “ambiguity,” under which the regime neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons.

Tel Aviv has repeatedly brushed aside international calls for joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Since 1958, when Israel began building the Dimona plutonium and uranium processing facility, it has allegedly manufactured scores of nuclear warheads, earning reputation as the sole owner of such weapons in the Middle East.

Former US President Jimmy Carter has attested to the existence of the arsenal, which he said includes between 200 to 300 warheads.

Source: presstv

As Tehran hosts an international denuclearization conference, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman slams the West for pursuing dual policies on the use of nuclear energy.

“The world is currently witnessing discrimination. On one hand, using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is limited while at the same time, countries which possess nuclear weapons do not allow nations to access nuclear energy,” Ramin Mehmanparast told Press TV in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the international conference on nuclear disarmament on Saturday.

“These countries allow themselves to use nuclear weapons and announce that they will not hesitate to use these arms against other nations,” he added.

“This can lead to a collective effort. The international community would like to set in motion a real move to enjoy nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and for national development,” he said.

He stressed the importance of holding of the denuclearization conference in Tehran, saying, “We are witnessing big threats by possessors of nuclear weapons. They are boldly threatening to use nukes.”

“Any use of nuclear weapons to harm humanity is condemned,” Mehmanparast reiterated.

He noted that the conference seeks to work out a real solution to achieve its goal on establishing a world free from nuclear weapons in line with the guidelines of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and lectures delivered by different representatives attending the forum.

The spokesman said the conference’s goals was to build trust on Iran’s nuclear program and added that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have conducted numerous inspections of Tehran’s nuclear facilities and have repeatedly announced that there is no evidence showing any deviation in Iran’s nuclear program.

He dismissed accusations by the US and its allies against Iran’s nuclear program, saying, “We believe that the US and some Western countries are in no position to deprive other nations of nuclear energy.”

“How is it possible that a country is beating the drum for nuclear non-proliferation while it has used nuclear weapons itself and killed hundreds of thousands of people in Japan?” he asked.

“It has stockpiled hundreds of thousands of nuclear weapons and is threatening to use nukes against other nations,” Mehmanparast said. “The international community is concerned mostly about certain Western states including the US and the Zionist regime [of Israel].”

He said that the US and certain Western countries intend to “pretend that whatever they say is what the international community wants but this is their big lie.”

Mehmanparast criticized super powers for failing to implement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) properly over the past 40 years since its foundation.

“The number of nuclear arsenals has been ironically increased rather than decreased,” he said.

Referring to the lack of guarantees that nuclear weapons will be reduced, he asked, “Will [super powers] allow independent nations to form a block and inspect whether or not these powers have really decreased their weapons? So there is no guarantee and we cannot trust their words.”

“Over the past 40 years, they have been claiming that they have worked towards nuclear non-proliferation, but we can see their arsenals have been increased and they are bold enough to threaten us with using nuclear weapons.”

The Iranian spokesman noted that the NPT Review Conference provides a good opportunity to prevent discriminatory issues and called on the IAEA member states to make some changes to exercise their rights.

“There should be some changes so that the political will of certain countries will not be able to prevent the main aims of the NPT. We should not allow the IAEA to deviate from its legal framework and work towards the interests of certain countries,” he said.

“On the other hand, there should be a mechanism so that nuclear weapon states should be held accountable and they should take practical steps to dismantle their arsenals.”

.Source: Presstv.com

Iran has tested advanced third-generation centrifuges, Press TV reported on Friday as the Islamic republic marked a day officially dedicated to celebrating its goal of producing nuclear energy.

Citing a statement by Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, Press TV reported that the centrifuges are 200 millimeters in diameter, domestically built and twice as powerful as those currently in operation at the Natanz nuclear facility.

The international community does not have guarantees that sanctions could serve to change Iran’s behavior, but must continue to exert pressure on Teheran in hopes that the Islamic republic might reconsider the pros and cons of pursuing nuclear weapons, US President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Friday morning and communicated by the Reuters news agency.

Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America, Obama reportedly said the “the history of the Iranian regime, like the North Korean regime, is that … you apply international pressure on these countries; sometimes they choose to change behavior, sometimes they don’t.”

The US president was quoted as saying that “consistent” international pressure would get through to a regime “which is not a stupid regime, which is very attentive.”

Meanwhile on Friday, North Korea denounced Obama’s nuclear policy as “hostile” and vowed to keep building and expanding its arsenal of atomic weapons.

The blistering criticism from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry was carried Friday by the official Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said in an interview aired on Friday that there is no guarantee sanctions will change Iran’s behavior but he believes steady international pressure could alter Tehran’s nuclear calculations over time.

“If the question is, do we have a guarantee as to the sanctions we are able to institute at this stage are automatically going to change Iranian behavior, of course we don’t,” Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“The history of the Iranian regime, like the North Korean regime is that you know, you apply international pressure on these countries, sometimes they choose to change behavior, sometimes they don’t.”

Obama spoke to ABC on Thursday after signing a landmark nuclear treaty with Russia that provided the U.S. administration with a much-needed diplomatic achievement and a step toward better ties with Moscow.

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also pledged greater cooperation to persuade Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program, which the United States views as a covert effort to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation and says its nuclear activity is an energy program aimed at generating electric power.

“I think it’s an enormous shift and a signal that Russia, like the United States, recognizes that unless we can get all countries to start abiding by certain rules of the road, and right now, our biggest concerns are obviously Iran and North Korea,” the U.S. president said.

“If we are consistent and steady in applying international pressure … over time, Iran, which is not a stupid regime, which is very attentive and watching what’s happening in the international community, will start making a different set of cost-benefit analyses about whether or not pursuing nuclear weapons makes sense for them,” he said.
Source: Yahoo buzz

Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi has warned the US against making any military moves on the Islamic Republic.

Firouzabadi said that if the United States attacks Iran, none of the American troops in the region will go back home alive.

“If the US seriously threatens Iran and takes an action against Iran, none of the US soldiers in the region will return to America alive,” Fars news agency quoted him as saying on Thursday.

Firouzabadi made the remarks in reaction to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said on Tuesday that Washington was keeping “all options” on the table for dealing with Iran and North Korea.

“If there is a message for Iran and North Korea here, it is that if you’re going to play by the rules, if you’re going to join the international community, then we will undertake certain obligations to you,” AFP quoted Gates as saying.

Firouzabadi also said if the US takes action against Iran, the threats it would face increase exponentially and its economic problems skyrocket.

“If the US seriously threatens Iran and takes an action against Iran, the threats against it will become a thousand times more, its economic problems will increase and it will lose more markets,” he said.

Firouzabadi’s speech comes a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned Washington’s latest nuclear policy.

The policy authorizes the use of nuclear arms against nations which violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Obama’s mention of Iran is despite the fact that there is no credible evidence indicating Iran is violating the NPT.

In response to the new nuclear strategy, Ahmadinejad lambasted the plan and advised his US counterpart not to repeat the “past mistakes” of the previous US governments.

“I advise Mr Obama to be careful. If he tries to follow in the footsteps of Mr [George W.] Bush, the response of the [Iranian] nation will be the same crushing response they gave to Bush,” President Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northwestern city of Orumiyeh.

The 50-page “Nuclear Posture Review” (NPR) issued by the US administration was released on Tuesday. It purportedly restricts the use of US nuclear arms against some non-nuclear countries.

The new NPR by the Obama Administration restricts the use of US nuclear arms against some non-nuclear countries. Countries that “from the US perspective” do not comply with the NPT will be at risk of a possible nuclear attack.

The US has repeatedly accused Iran of failing to meet its obligations defined in the NPT — an allegation categorically denied by Tehran.

Iran was among the original countries that signed the NPT, a global pact aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons across the globe.

Tehran says its nuclear work is monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog and is conducted in accordance with the NPT.

Source:pressTV