Iran FM express hopes on deal

By Raul Colon
From AP

Iran's foreign minister said Monday he is optimistic for international approval on a deal to swap nuclear fuel with Turkey, and that Tehran hopes to restore diplomatic relations with Washington in the future.

Iran last week submitted the deal for approval to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It involves exchanging enriched uranium for fuel rods that can be used in nuclear reactors but not in nuclear weapons.

The agreement does not keep Iran from continuing to enrich more high-grade uranium on its own, leading to criticism from the U.S. and other countries, which are pushing for fresh sanctions against the country.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday called it an opportunity to finally make progress on the issue.

"In terms of realizing this agreement, it is my belief that all countries involved are searching for a way out of the current circumstances," he said.

Mottaki spoke to business leaders, scholars and reporters at a luncheon in a Tokyo hotel.

The fuel-exchange deal was brokered by Brazil and Turkey, whose leaders say it is a starting point for negotiations and have defended it from U.S. criticism.

It comes as the U.N. Security Council considers a new set of sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to halt high-level uranium enrichment. Iran originally said it needed the material to fuel its research reactor, after an earlier deal to secure such fuel from abroad fell apart.

Washington and Tehran broke off direct diplomatic relations following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Switzerland handles U.S. interests inside Iran. Mottaki said a restoration of official ties was a possibility, without setting a timeline.

"It is not our intention to permanently have no diplomatic relations with America," he said.

Mottaki repeatedly referred to Iran's close ties with Japan in his comments. He said he had held numerous long discussions on the telephone with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada about an agreement similar to the one submitted to the IAEA last week, and that Tokyo could help the current deal go through.

"I believe strongly that Japan can have a beneficial and constructive role in realizing the terms of the agreement," Mottaki said.

A US source: Afghan rebels are trained in Iran

By Raul Colon
From Yahoo News Service

Afghan insurgents are being trained inside Iran and given weapons to fight security forces, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said on Sunday, joining a rising drumbeat of criticism of Iran's role in the country.

General Stanley McChrystal said coalition forces were working to stop Iran from giving material help to the Taliban who have stepped up the campaign to force foreign forces out of Afghanistan in a nine-year conflict.

"The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," he said at a news conference in response to a question on Iran's influence. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan."

The United States, battling a Taliban insurgency at its worst, has frequently accused Iran of providing some assistance to insurgents in Afghanistan, although Washington says it has not been nearly as important a factor as in Iraq, Iran's other neighbor, where U.S. troops are waging war.

In March, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said there had been a significant shipment of Iranian arms to fighters in the southern province of Kandahar.

U.S. forces are preparing for an offensive in Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, this summer in what is seen a turning point in the war to force the insurgents to the negotiating table for a settlement of the conflict.

Iran denies supporting militant groups opposed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, and says it has a stake in the security of the neighboring state.

Tehran's economic influence in Afghanistan has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in the West, where cross-border trade is brisk. A dialect of Iran's Farsi language is one of two state languages in Afghanistan, and Iran hosted millions of Afghan refugees during decades of conflict.

McChrystal said Iran, as a neighbor, had natural interests in Afghanistan and to a certain extent the assistance and interaction it provided was healthy. "There is however clear evidence of Iranian activity, in some cases of providing weapons and training to the Taliban that is inappropriate," he said.

Iran backed the Northern Alliance in the war against the Sunni Muslim Taliban in the 1990s, but security analysts said Tehran's intelligence services could be helping elements in the Taliban as a tool against the United States.

Ahmadinejad urges Obama to accept nuke swap deal

By Raul Colon
From AP

Iran's president warned the United States on Wednesday that it will miss a historic opportunity for cooperation if it turns down a nuclear fuel swap deal that Washington has dismissed as a ploy.

Differences over the deal — and the U.S. push for new sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear program — have threatened to close the door on President Barack Obama's already fading policy of outreach to Tehran.

"There are people in the world who want to pit Mr. Obama against the Iranian nation and bring him to the point of no return, where the path to his friendship with Iran will be blocked forever," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a rally in the southern town of Kerman.

The swap offer was negotiated last week by Brazil and Turkey, which are opposed to new U.N. sanctions on Iran. The United States quickly announced that it had won agreement from the permanent members of the Security Council — Russia, China, Britain and France and Germany — on a draft resolution that would hit Iran with a fourth round of penalties for refusing to completely halt uranium enrichment.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday rejected the Iranian plan to swap some of its enriched uranium for reactor fuel as a "transparent ploy" to try to avoid new sanctions.

The U.S. and its allies worry that Iran is seeking to develop atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program only seeks energy-producing reactors.

The hardening of positions reflects a shift in tone by Obama, who came to office promising a policy of dialogue with Iran. The effort has made little headway, with the United Nations demanding Iran halt uranium enrichment and Tehran refusing and expanding its enrichment program. The dialogue policy has also been complicated by the Iranian leadership's heavy crackdown on the opposition following June 12 presidential elections that Ahmadinejad is accused of winning by fraud.

The fuel swap deal was touted as a rare opportunity to promote cooperation. A U.N.-drafted plan put forward in October called for Iran to send the majority of its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing into fuel rods to be returned to it for use in a research reactor. The U.S. sought the plan as a way to ensure Iran, at least temporarily, did not have enough low-enriched uranium to be further processed into a nuclear warhead.

But Tehran balked for months over the terms of the plan. The deal it finally reached with Turkey and Brazil contains many similar provisions. However, since October, Iran has accumulated enough low-enriched uranium to still build a warhead even if send the amount under the deal abroad, making the deal less attractive to the West. Washington has accused Iran of trying to stall.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad said Washington and its allies should take the deal if they want to show they are open to dialogue.

"If they (U.S. and its allies) are truthful when they say they seek cooperation ... they should accept this offer," Ahmadinejad said. "But if they seek excuses, they should know that the path to any interaction will be closed."

He also had unusually harsh words for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, accusing him of caving in to U.S. pressure for new sanctions.

"Justifying the behavior of Mr. Medvedev today has become very difficult," he said. "The Iranian nation doesn't know whether (Russians) ultimately are friends, whether they stand by us or are after other things. This is not acceptable."

Moscow is a longtime trade partner of Iran with more leverage over it than Western nations.

"I hope Russian leaders and officials pay attention to these sincere words and correct themselves, and not let the Iranian nation consider them among its enemies," he said.

Russia issued a swift rebuke, saying its position was guided by longterm state interests and was "neither pro-American, nor pro-Iranian."

Russia rejects "all manifestations of unpredictability, political extremism, non-transparency and inconsistency in making decisions on issues of global importance," top presidential foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said. "No one has ever managed to save his authority by making use of political demagoguery."

Like the U.N.-backed plan, Tehran's proposal would commit Iran to shipping 2,640 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium for storage abroad — in this case to Turkey. In exchange, Iran would get the fuel rods made from 20-percent enriched uranium within one year.

While in October that amount would have been around 70 percent of Iran's low-enriched uranium, its stockpiles now are beleived to have grown to around 5,500 pounds (2,500 kilograms), meaning it would still have enough to produce a warhead after the shipment abroad.

Also, Iran's insistence that even with the deal it will continue to enrich uranium to 20 percent on its own — from which it can produce weapons-grade material much more quickly than from lower levels — is an even greater problem for the West.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent letters to Obama, Medvedev and presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Felipe Calderon of Mexico, urging them to support the fuel swap deal.

"Brazil will continue promoting dialogue and prevent the closing of the door that was opened" by the swap agreement, Silva's spokesman told reporters.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said acceptance would create "a virtuous circle for new talks."

"The objective (of the agreement) is to create a climate of international trust, that may not resolve all of Iran's nuclear energy problems, but does open opportunities for talks," Amorim told the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency.

Iran says uranium enrichment is meant exclusively for power generation. Tehran needs the fuel rods to power the research reactor, which produces medical isotopes to treat cancer patients.

Iran's nuclear reactor goes on-line in August

By Raul Colon
From AP Wire Services

This morning, Russia's top nuclear official officially stated that work on Iran's first nuclear plant is on schedule and that the reactor will go on-line by early August.

Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said Thursday that possible international sanctions being drawn up against Iran will not impede the launching of the reactor in Bushehr. Work on the plant began over 35 years ago by a German company that eventually abandoned the project after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Russia agreed to complete the project in the 1990s but has delayed the launching due to numerous problems

Defiant Iran against new round of sanctions

A defiant Iran shrugged off Wednesday the threat of new sanctions as Brazil and Turkey urged the United Nations to wait and see how a nuclear swap deal plays out before caving in to US pressure.

US President Barack Obama said he was "pleased" by developments after usual standouts Russia and China gave their backing to a tough new draft sanctions resolution circulated Tuesday to the full UN Security Council.

"We agreed on the need for Iran to uphold its international obligations or face increased sanctions and pressure, including UN sanctions," Obama said after talks with visiting Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon.

"And I'm pleased that we've reached an agreement with our P5 plus-1 partners on a strong resolution that we now have shared with our Security Council partners."

But Security Council members Turkey and Brazil urged the world body not to impose new sanctions until Iran had been given time to honour a deal they brokered to swap about half its low enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear fuel.

"Brazil and Turkey are convinced that it is time to give a chance for negotiations and to avoid measures that are detrimental to a peaceful solution," read a letter signed by their foreign ministers.

The two countries forged a deal Monday they hailed as a step toward ending Iran's years-old standoff with the West, but which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton framed as an attempt by Tehran to avoid further punishment.

Under the deal, the Islamic republic agreed to ship out much of its stockpile of low enriched uranium to neighbouring Turkey in exchange for fuel for a research reactor for medical isotopes.

"This agreement is a new fact that has to be evaluated," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who led the Iran-Brazil-Turkey negotiations, insisted in Brasilia.

Iran, which maintains that its nuclear enrichment activities are purely for civilian energy purposes and not aimed at building an atomic weapon as the West fears, suggested that the international desire for new sanctions was wilting.

"(Talk of) imposing sanctions has faded and this resolution is the last effort by the West," the Fars news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads Iran's atomic energy organisation, as saying.

The new draft being considered by the Security Council foresees cargo ship inspections and new banking controls.

It would also expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran's banking sector as well as ban sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining and developing ballistic missiles.

The draft has the blessing of all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany -- a significant boon to the US after months spent trying to persuade Moscow and particularly Beijing to come on board.

China's backing of a fourth round of sanctions against Iran came despite its earlier support for the fuel swap deal.

"We attach importance to and support this agreement," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said after Monday's accord was struck.

Given the Brazil-Turkey letter, China's apparent reluctance to comment on new sanctions and Russia speaking only of its "understanding in principle... on the draft resolution," Salehi expressed doubts there was an emerging international consensus against his country.

"We should be patient because they won't prevail and by pursuing the passing of a new resolution they are discrediting themselves in public opinion," he said.

"I think there are some rational people among them who will stop them from making this irrational move."

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed similar scepticism about the chances of new sanctions being passed.

"There is no chance the resolution is going to be passed," he told state-run Al-Alam television from the Tajik capital Dushanbe. "The nations who are seeking to impose sanctions are in the minority."

Already under three sets of UN sanctions over its defiance of repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, Iran touted its agreement with Brazil and Turkey as a goodwill gesture that paves the way for a resumption of talks with the major powers.

The deal is similar to one suggested last year by the P5 plus 1, who had been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme until their patience ran out at the end of last year.

The US says its main objection to the new deal is that there is no commitment from Iran to suspend its enrichment activities.

Iran rejects new sanctions

Iran on Wednesday dismissed as "illegitimate" a draft U.N. Security Council resolution seeking to impose harsher sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the draft proposed by the U.S. was a reactionary response to a deal in which Iran agreed to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey.

The surprise deal, brokered by Turkey and Brazil Monday, didn't ease concerns in the West that Iran's nuclear program has military dimensions primarily because Tehran has said it will continue to enrich uranium to higher levels.

Uranium enriched to a low level is used for nuclear fuel, but if processed to much higher levels it can be fashioned into a weapon.

"The draft resolution being discussed at Security Council has no legitimacy at all," the official IRNA news agency quoted Samareh as saying Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting.

The deal would deprive Iran — at least temporarily — of some of the stocks of enriched uranium that it would need to process further to create a weapon, if that were its intention. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

But — because seven months have elapsed since the agreement was originally floated and Iran continues to enrich — it would still have enough material to make such a weapon even if Tehran shipped out the original amount stipulated by the U.N.

The material would be returned to Iran in the form of fuel rods, which cannot be processed further. Iran needs the fuel rods to power an aging medical research reactor in Tehran that produces isotopes for cancer treatment.

But to the U.S. and its allies the deal is to little now too late.

The United States and its Western allies won crucial support from Russia and China for new sanctions against Iran Tuesday but face tough opposition from non-permanent U.N. Security Council members Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said world powers would discredit themselves if they passed new sanctions.

"By issuing resolution, they would further discredit themselves in the public opinion," he said on state TV. "Discussions of imposing sanctions has faded away and this is a last effort by the Western countries."

New sanctions against Iran

AP-The United States , the European allies, Russia and China have agreed on a new package of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran in response to its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday.

"I am pleased to say we have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of Russia and China ," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee . "We plan to circulate the draft resolution to the entire Security Council today."

Clinton didn't reveal details of the measures, which were formulated during weeks of negotiations among diplomats from the United States , Russia , China , Britain , France and Germany , a group known as the P5+1. There was no immediate confirmation from other P5+1 members.

Clinton's announcement appeared to rebuff an agreement announced Monday by Iran , Turkey and Brazil that was seen as an attempt to head off a fourth round of U.N. sanctions.

Western officials allege that Iran's nuclear program — which was concealed for 18 years from U.N. inspectors and was based on knowhow purchased from a Pakistani-run smuggling ring — is part of a secret nuclear-weapons development effort.

Iran rejects the charge and says it needs low-enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power plants that it plans to build. It also says it has the right to peaceful nuclear technology as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international system to prevent the spread of nuclear arms.

The process that's used to manufacture low-enriched uranium fuel for nuclear reactors also produces highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

Under the agreement announced Monday in Tehran, Iran would send 2,640 pounds, just over half of its stock of 3.5 percent low-enriched uranium, for storage in Turkey within a month. At the end of a year, it would receive 20 percent low-enriched uranium for fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that's used to produce medical isotopes.

Iran said, however that the agreement didn't prevent it from continuing to enrich uranium. Moreover, it would have retained enough low-enriched uranium to produce highly enriched fuel for a single weapon, according to experts.

The United States , the European Union and Russia have expressed skepticism over the deal.

"There are a number of unanswered questions regarding the announcement

Brazil talks nuclear with Iran

By Raul Colon
Source: AP

Today, the AP reported that the Brazilian president met with Iranian leaders Sunday to try to broker a compromise in the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, even as the U.S. says new sanctions are the only way to force Iran's cooperation.

Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to use Brazil's friendly relations with Iran to show it can be a fair, neutral broker in the escalating dispute. Since evidence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear program first emerged in 2003, negotiations with world powers and visits by U.N. inspectors have failed to persuade the U.S. and its allies that Iran is not pursuing a weapons capability.

"It's more difficult for someone who has nuclear weapons to ask someone not to develop nuclear weapons," Silva said in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV on Saturday. "It's easier for someone who does not carry nuclear weapons, like myself, to ask for that."

The Brazilian president is reportedly trying to revive a U.N.-backed proposal in which Iran would ship its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad to be processed further and returned as fuel rods for a medical research reactor.

Silva began his visit by meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the afternoon, he was to meet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran maintains its nuclear work is only for peaceful purposes, like energy production. But the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency says Iran has not fully cooperated with its investigation to determine whether it has a military dimension.

The U.N. plan, first proposed in October, would deprive Iran of stocks of enriched uranium that it could process to the higher levels of enrichment needed in weapons production. The material returned to Iran in the form of fuel rods could not be processed beyond its lower, safer levels, which are suitable for use in the Tehran research reactor.

Iran initially accepted the deal but then balked and proposed changes rejected by the world powers negotiating with Tehran: Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, which are the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Iran will continue to defy demands to prove its nuclear program is peaceful unless it is hit with a new round of U.N. sanctions.

"Every step along the way has demonstrated clearly to the world that Iran is not participating in the international arena in the way that we had asked them to do and that they continued to pursue their nuclear program," Clinton told reporters.

She also predicted that Silva's mediation effort would not succeed.

Silva met in Moscow on Friday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who said the Brazilian leader's efforts might be "the last chance before the adopting of known decisions in the Security Council."

Iranian threat help House to increase missile defense funds

On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee voted to increase missile defense spending. The subcommittee, which is in charge of oversight for missile defense programs, added $361.6 million to the FY 2011 missile defense budget. This additional funding, combined with President Obama's budget request of $9.9 billion, would bring total spending on missile defense for 2011 to $10.3 billion. Below is a list of the programs that will receive additional funding:


- Airborne Laser: $50 million

- PAC-3: $133.6 million

- AN/TPY-2: $65 million

- Aegis SM-3s: $50 million

- U.S. Israeli Program: $88 million


Further amendments increasing missile defense funding are likely when the full Armed Services Committee meets for markup of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act on May 19.

The subcommittee also addressed two legislative provisions that affect missile defense:


1. Consistent with previous defense authorizations, limited the availability of funds for deployment of medium- or long-range missile defense until any host country has signed and ratified the necessary agreements authorizing deployment; and until 45 days after the committee receives the independent assessment required by the defense bill last year. It would also limit deployment until the Secretary of Defense certifies that the proposed system is operationally effective based on realistic flight testing.



2. At the request of the Administration, the mark would repeal the ban on contracting directly with a foreign government for missile defense activities, to allow for more direct collaboration with our friends and allies on missile defense.


Missile defense programs and funding received bi-partisan support as was stated in a press release from Strategic Forces Ranking Member Michael Turner (OH-3):

Iran expand enriching assets

VIENNA – Diplomats say that Iran has set up new equipment aimed at improving its ability to enrich uranium to higher levels.

They say that the equipment — an extra set of uranium enriching centrifuges — is not yet on line. But the diplomats add that if the centrifuges become operational they will allow Iran to turn out higher enriched uranium with less waste.

The diplomats asked for anonymity Friday in exchange for divulging confidential information.

Iran has been enriching uranium up to near 20 percent since February. While Tehran denies interest in nuclear weapons, that has put it further on the path of being able to produce warhead material.

Courtesy of AP