IRAN: Did IAEA Revive Uranium Paper Issue Under Pressure from AIPAC/US?

[leftchick]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43117



Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Jul 8 (IPS) - A 15-page paper on the process requirements for casting and machining of uranium metal into hemispherical forms -- said to be useful only for making the core of a nuclear weapon -- has been raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in recent months as evidence of an alleged Iranian intention to built nuclear weapons.

The agency's May 26, 2008 report said that the IAEA's "overall assessment of the nature of Iran's nuclear programme...requires, inter alia, an understanding of the role of the uranium metal document."

Two days later, the deputy director and head of the Safeguards Department of the IAEA, Olli Heinonen, was quoted by an anonymous diplomatic source in an AFP story as telling a closed door briefing of IAEA member states in Vienna that Iran's possession of the document was "alarming".

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) then referred in its draft Congressional resolution calling for a blockade of Iran to Tehran's alleged "importation of designs to convert highly enriched uranium gas into metal and shape into the core of a nuclear weapon."

But the IAEA has long had information supporting the Iranian claim it never asked for the document and has never used it since Pakistan's A. Q. Khan network added it to a centrifuge purchase without any prior discussion. In fact, an IAEA report last November appeared to clear Iran from suspicion on the issue.

The revival of that issue in 2008 appears to reflect political pressure on the IAEA from the United States and its allies.

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Would not surprise me in the least. K&R

Sounds like standard AIPAC/US operating procedure to me. "All warfare is based on deception" Sun Tzu

[spanone]

2. whatever it takes to gin up a war