Nuclear plans in chaos as Iran leader flounders (The Observer)

[Eugene]

Nuclear plans in chaos as Iran leader flounders

Boasts of a nuclear programme are just
propaganda, say insiders, but the PR could be
enough to provoke Israel into war

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday January 28, 2007
The Observer

Iran's efforts to produce highly enriched uranium, the material used to make
nuclear bombs, are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the
required technology.

Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been plagued by constant technical
problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure
to master the complex production-engineering processes involved. The country
denies developing weapons, saying its pursuit of uranium enrichment is for
energy purposes.

Despite Iran being presented as an urgent threat to nuclear non-proliferation
and regional and world peace - in particular by an increasingly bellicose Israel
and its closest ally, the US - a number of Western diplomats and technical
experts close to the Iranian programme have told The Observer it is archaic,
prone to breakdown and lacks the materials for industrial-scale production.

The disclosures come as Iran has told the UN nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency , that it plans to install a new 'cascade' of 3,000 high-
speed centrifuges at its controversial underground facility at Natanz in central
Iran next month.

-snip-

Full article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2000303,00.html

Also: Iran nuclear installation denied - BBC

[lyonn]

1. Well, just in case this info is wrong we must go ahead with

bombing plans. We don't need no intel. Chalibi has told us all we need to know. Of course sarcasm.