Russia plans nuke fuel shipments to Iran mid-2005

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=e125f570eb602466&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Reuters

SOFIA - The Russian nuclear fuel trader TVEL should start fuel shipments for a Moscow-built nuclear reactor in Iran six months before the unit becomes operational in early 2006, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Russia is building a 1,000-megawatt nuclear plant in Iran despite strong opposition from the United States, which believes Iran could use Russian know-how to make nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies wanting a bomb and says its atomic ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.

"The construction of the Bushehr's plant is progressing and as part of the technology process, half a year before launching the unit, the fuel should be supplied," Anton Badenkov, vice president of TVEL, who is on a visit to Sofia, told reporters.

"The unit should become operational in the beginning of 2006," said Budenkov, who also chairs the board of directors of Atomstroiexport, the company building the Bushehr's plant.
more...
I will remind everybody Ritter says June is when we attack!!!

[lovuian]

1. Ship en route to Iran tests WMD proliferation deal

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=74be867391fd8995&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Reuters

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

BERLIN - A German crane on a ship to Iran is testing a U.S.-led global agreement to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Three weeks after the ship left Hamburg and a day before it was due in Iran, it appeared unlikely that Germany or the U.S. navy could stop the crane being delivered to what Berlin has belatedly identified as a blacklisted Iranian company suspected of making ballistic missiles.

A Western diplomat said Washington was closely following the case as a test for its Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).

That accord was unveiled by President George W. Bush in 2003 as a collective global effort to stop "shipments of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, and related materials worldwide."

"The Americans are monitoring (this situation) closely at a very high level in Washington. They see it as a test case for the PSI," the diplomat said on Thursday.
more...

We are getting closer to the June date by Ritter!!!

[lovuian]

2. Iran Hints Talks on Ending Its Nuclear Program Are Near Collapse

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=013fab7471cdef13&cat=c08dd24cec417021

New York Times

By NAZILA FATHI

TEHRAN - A day before major negotiations were to resume in London over Iran's nuclear program, the foreign minister increased the pressure for a quick deal, warning that his country would resume uranium enrichment if there was no progress Friday in the discussions.

"If talks with European Union are not successful tomorrow, negotiations will collapse and we will have no choice but to restart the uranium enrichment program," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, after a meeting with his Dutch counterpart in The Hague.

He said Iran was not willing to accept what he called "delay tactics" by the Europeans, and he reiterated Iran's position that his country had a right to nuclear technology.

Iran has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows nations to produce nuclear fuel for energy production but not for weapons, which require a much higher level of enrichment. Iran has said its nuclear intentions are peaceful, but it has admitted that it hid major elements of its nuclear program. As a result, the United States and Europe want it to renounce all uranium enrichment, in order to guarantee that it is not secretly preparing to make weapons-grade fuel.
more...
tick tick tick!!! :nuke:

[lovuian]

3. Bush questions Iran’s nuclear ambitions

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=2e5b1f289901e972&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Iran Focus

Washington, Apr. 29 – United States President George W. Bush said during a press conference yesterday that Iran could no be trusted with enriching uranium as part of its nuclear program, after he was questioned on Russia’s decision to sell nuclear fuel for Iranian reactors.

“See, what they (Russia) recognize is that -- what America recognizes, and what Great Britain, France, and Germany recognize, is that we can't trust the Iranians when it comes to enriching uranium”, Bush said, adding, “they should not be allowed to enrich uranium”.
Bush said that he “wondered why they need one (a nuclear power industry) since they've got all the oil”.

more...
They should understand America is boss here!!!

[lovuian]

4. US consults Germans on reported Iranian shipment

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=2c1e4770fa71f342&cat=c08dd24cec417021

AFP

WASHINGTON - The United States has sought clarification from Germany on the reported shipment of a German crane for possible use in Iran's missile program, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

"It's something we're following, something we're talking about," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We're in contact with the Germans abut it."

The weekly Der Spiegel magazine reported this week that Mizan Machine, a company blacklisted by the German authorities, bought a crane to help in the manufacture of Iran's Shahab missile.

It said customs authorities were not told about the deal until the freighter transporting the equipment left Germany. The ship was reported over the weekend to be at the entrance to the Suez Canal.

The US official said Washington was consulting with the Germans as part of the US-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative, a global effort that aims to intercept shipments of weapons of mass destruction.
more...

[leveymg]

5. Israeli AF May Attack Iran Without 3rd Country Overflight Problems

Israeli can attack Iran without overflying any third country. Look at a map of the region. Here's how:

IAF F-15 and F-16 fighter-bombers fly south from bases near Elat Airport in Southern-most Israel out the Gulf of Aqaba and straight down the middle of Red Sea (1100 nm.) The Red Sea exits at the Gulf of Aden into the Arabian Sea where, over international waters, these planes are refueled by IAF tanker aircraft (yes, they have them), and then proceed northeast another 900 nm until they turn 90 degrees left, flying into Iran near the entrance to the Persian Gulf at the Straights of Hormuz. From there, it's a straight line to the nuclear reactor at Bushehr 300 nm northwest up the Iranian coast and on to other targets in Iran.

Approached from the Arabian Sea, IAF F-15s can strike anywhere within Iran, while the shorter-range F-16s can hit targets in the southern half of the country before they have to turn around and fly back out to meet circling Israeli Air Force air tankers, fill up again, before returning to bases in Israel.

Not an easy mission, but not outside the technical abilities of the Israelis. Everyone will feign surprise, particularly in Washington. Aside from Iran, no one can complain about encroachment into their airspace, and Iran will have a hard time justifying to the world any decision to attack U.S. or third country installations in the region on the basis that Israel received de facto overflight rights.

This makes it almost too tempting for Sharon to resist. Because we armed Israel with 600 bunker busters and a whole lot of other guided munitions (not to mention the aircraft to deliver them to targets in Iran), of course, Iran would blame the U.S. for all the Iranian citizens who are going to be killed by such an attack. Therefore, Iran may decide to launch its missiles and chemical and biological weapons at US targets in the region anyway.

Such an eventuality would likely signal a wider war with massive casualties.


:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[Frederik]

6. The Red Sea

isn't Israeli terroritory (most of it), is it? Wouldn't they neeed Saudi or Egyptian approval, technically?

[leveymg]

7. Int'l waterway down the middle. That's how El Al airliners headed south

exit the region.

[Frederik]

9. Thanks

I thought the "Osirak option" was really unrealistic with Iran, but this made it a little more probable for me, sadly. :nuke:

[Megahurtz]

8. Now we have some confirmation that

Putin is really pissed off about the confrontation from Condi.:nuke: