09-12-2004, 05:03 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Junkie
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Now this is scary...
Quote:
Fears Tehran could build five nuclear bombs
By Con Coughlin in London
September 13, 2004
Iran's decision to begin processing 37 tonnes of uranium yellowcake this month will enable it to acquire enough weapons-grade uranium to build up to five nuclear bombs, Western intelligence officials warn.
The Iranians announced their intention to process the material last week in a submission to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, whose 35-member board of governors is due to meet today to discuss whether the Iranians are being truthful about their nuclear program.
Although the Iranians insist that they will process uranium solely to provide fuel for the country's new nuclear power plants, Western scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about glaring discrepancies in Tehran's official submission on its nuclear program to the international nuclear watchdog.
The agency has asked to visit one of Iran's main military sites, Parchin, near Tehran, but the Iranians have not agreed to the visit, diplomats said.
Parchin, 30 kilometres south-west of Tehran, is a site for a variety of defence projects, including chemical explosives, but the IAEA is wondering if Tehran is possibly doing nuclear weapons work there.
Europe's main powers have agreed to set a November deadline for Iran to meet demands meant to banish concerns that it is secretly trying to make nuclear weapons, a confidential document made available to the Associated Press said.
A draft resolution, prepared for today's IAEA meeting, contains a so-called "trigger mechanism", warning of possible "further steps" - which diplomats defined as shorthand for referral of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council.
While the draft is likely to undergo changes, it puts European countries the closest they have formally been to the US position on what to do about Iran.
Suspicions about the true extent of Iran's nuclear program have intensified since it was revealed last year that traces of enriched uranium had been found at a secret processing plant at Natanz in central Iran.
The Iranians said a consignment of research equipment delivered from Pakistan had been contaminated before it was brought into the country.
Since then IAEA inspectors, with the full support of European and American leaders, have been pressing Tehran to provide a comprehensive account of its nuclear activities.
In an attempt to counter the mounting hostility of the Bush Administration, which branded Tehran part of an "axis of evil", the Iranians last October reached an agreement with Britain, France and Germany to suspend all uranium enrichment activity.
Following gains made by conservatives in the Iranian parliamentary elections this year, in June Tehran reneged on the agreement, saying it was fully entitled to conduct uranium enrichment under the terms of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, so long as it was undertaken for peaceful purposes.
Iran's insistence, however, that its nuclear program is aimed solely at developing its power industry is now being called into question by Western intelligence officials and nuclear experts. They argue that recent discoveries by IAEA inspectors indicate that Iran is maintaining a clandestine nuclear weapons program. [emphasis added by poster]
The first serious discrepancy in Iran's official stand was uncovered this year when agency inspectors - many of whom helped to uncover Saddam Hussein's secret nuclear weapons program in the early 1990s - discovered that Tehran had failed to declare that it had imported the design for an advanced centrifuge [emphasis added by poster], which could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium.
Inspectors were also alarmed to find an ultra-sensitive radiation detection device at the site of Iran's Physics Research Centre in Tehran, where the Government said it had been researching the impact of a nuclear attack on Iran. When inspectors made a pre-arranged visit to the centre, they found that the Iranians had razed the complex and removed topsoil from the surrounding area. [emphasis added by poster]
The Telegraph, London; Associated Press
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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...927439313.html
Worrying, eh?
Oh, and I wish they wouldn't use the term "triggering mechanism" when referring to the measures the IAEA would take. 
Mr Mephisto |
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