Vital Perspective

Iran Offers to Share Nuclear Expertise with Algeria; Possible Weapons Program

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered to share nuclear expertise with Algeria following a meeting with Algerian energy minister Shakib Khalil. Algeria is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which supports Iran's nuclear activities.

Concerns that Algeria might be developing a nuclear weapons program erupted after an American surveillance satellite photographed a large nuclear reactor under construction in the desert in 1991. The Algerian government succumbed to international pressure and agreed to sign an inspection protocol with the IAEA in 1992, a pact that was further strengthened in a 1996 deal. Algeria also signed the NPT in 1995. Despite these safeguards and the presence of inspectors, intelligence agencies in the West continue to express concern.

"The Algerian nuclear program, originally conceived with a clear military purpose, continues to equip itself with the installations necessary to carry out all the activities linked to the complete cycle for obtaining military grade plutonium, a key element in a nuclear arms program," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists quoted a 1998 report from Cesid, the Spanish intelligence agency, as saying.

Tehran to Host Summit with Leaders of Syria, Iraq; IAEA to Deny Arak Request

Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hash out ways to cooperate in curbing the sectarian violence in Iraq. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has accepted the invitation and will fly to Tehran on Saturday, a close parliamentary associate said.

The Iranian diplomatic gambit appeared designed to upstage expected moves from Washington to include Syria and Iran in a wider regional effort to clamp off violence in Iraq. The Iranian move was also a display of its increasingly muscular role in the Middle East, where it already has established deep influence over Syria and Lebanon.

Both Iran and Syria are key players in Iraq. Syria is widely believed to have done little to stop foreign fighters and al-Qaeda in Iraq recruits from crossing its border to join Sunni insurgents in Iraq. It also has provided refuge for many top members of Saddam Hussein's former leadership and political corps, which is thought to have organized arms and funding for the insurgents.

Iran is deeply involved in training, funding and arming the two major Shiite militias in Iraq, where Tehran has deep historic ties to the current Shiite political leadership. Many Iraqi Shiites spent years in Iranian exile during Saddam's decades in power. One militia, the Badr Brigade, was trained in Iran by the Revolutionary Guard.

Meanwhile, as the Shiite crescent grows, 35 nations met in Vienna to find common ground on what to do about Iran's requests to the IAEA for help on projects including building a plutonium-producing reactor. Diplomats said there was general agreement to deny Tehran's request for aid in finishing its Arak reactor but lack of consensus about seven other projects. However, the IAEA ruled that the reactor, as well the as seven other projects did not pose a proliferation threat.

"All projects are in conformity with the relevant Security Council resolution and specifically these projects do not contribute to enrichment related or reprocessing activities in Iran," Anna Maria Cetto, an agency deputy director general, told an IAEA committee meeting reviewing technical aid requests from Iran and other countries.

The Arak heavy water reactor is a proliferation concern because once it is completed it will produce plutonium. This, like highly enriched uranium, can be used for the fissile core of nuclear warheads through reprocessing.

IAEA: Traces or Plutonium and Enriched Uranium at Iranian Nuclear Waste Site

Experts from the IAEA have found unexplained plutonium and enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program. As well, the four-page report confirmed that Iran continues uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the Security Council.

UPDATE 11/14 @ 15:04: Read the entire IAEA report here.

Iran Declares Intent to Build 60,000 Centrifuges; Message to U.S. on Horizon

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defiantly announced the ultimate aim of Iran's atomic drive was to install 60,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. Iran has said it is looking to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007, in itself a massive step from the two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece it has currently at its Natanz plant to enrich uranium on a research scale.

Experts say that 50,000 centrifuges would normally be sufficient to produce 20 kilos (44 pounds) of weapons grade uranium in under a month. Enrichment is carried out in lines of centrifuges called cascades and is used to make the fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. But in highly enriched form, the uranium can be used to make a nuclear bomb. Building tens of thousands of centrifuges would take Iran's enrichment program to a level where it could produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.

Ahmadinejad has also pledged that he would soon send "a message to the American nation." He did not say when and through which channel he would send the message but claimed that the people of the U.S. had asked him to explain the Iranian standpoints to them.

Ahmadinejad's predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, had also sent a message in 1998 to the American people onn CNN which, however, did not lead to any improvement of bilateral ties. Ahmadinejad sent a letter to President Bush which however - like his letter to German Chancellor Angel Merkel - remained unanswered.

Iran Asks IAEA for Help on Heavy-Water Reactor; Talks on Sanctions Continue

Iran has asked the IAEA for technical aid in constructing and applying a heavy-water nuclear research reactor, the Austria News Agency (APA) reported on Monday, quoting diplomats in Vienna. The heavy-water reactor would be built at Arak, about 200 km south of Tehran. The reactor could provide 12 kg of plutonium annually after its completion in 2009. The diplomats said Iran's application would be first discussed by the IAEA's technical assistance committee next week.

According to the Charter of the IAEA, Iran's application would need to be finally ratified by the IAEA's governing board in Vienna. The diplomats said the IAEA would not be likely to provide Iran with technical support in constructing the reactor at present. However, it could be in a position to offer some assistance to help ensure the project goes ahead safely.

Meanwhile, back in reality, the P-5 + 1 is about to take up another exploratory meeting on proposed sanctions against Tehran. They'll be meeting on Wednesday. The draft they'll be discussing urges nuclear and ballistic missile-related sanctions against Iran. It also includes travel bans and financial restrictions on Iranian scientists working on the nuclear and missile programs. Russia and China view the draft as as too tough and counter-productive.

Hans Blix: Growth of Nuclear Proliferation Tied to Bush Administration Policies

Former IAEA Director-General Hans Blix says that President Bush's nuclear policies are responsible for worldwide nuclear proliferation. In an interview in the German daily Die Welt, Blix said that "The U.S. has sent a signal of arrogance, a signal that the rest of the world should do what the U.S. demands but the U.S. is above it all and can do what they like."

Blix stressed that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was not falling apart. "The death of NPT is highly exaggerated. Both the problems of Libya and Iraq have been solved. North Korea and Iran are countries open to negotiations," Blix said. "The real threat to the NPT comes from the failure of the large nuclear states to live up to their obligation under the treaty to disarm. There is an unease by the non-nuclear states that they are being cheated by the nuclear states."

Energy Secretary Outlines Plan for Nuclear Energy Security to IAEA Diplomats

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is in Vienna today where he just wrapped up remarks to the IAEA on the U.S. vision for creating a world where nuclear technology is used safely and peacefully. This vision is embodied in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, announced by President Bush earlier this year.

SEC. BODMAN: Thank you Director-General ElBaradei. Congratulations to Mr. Abdul Samad Minty on your election as President of this, the 50th IAEA General Conference. President George W. Bush sends a letter wishing us a productive conference.

Let me draw from his message:

"My Administration has announced a bold new proposal called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. We will work with countries to meet their growing energy needs, dispose of waste safely, advance nonproliferation, and keep nuclear technology out of the hands of terrorist networks and terrorist states.

"We will encourage reliable access to nuclear fuel for countries that agree to forego uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. Together, we can ensure that cheap, safe, and clean nuclear energy and its benefits are enjoyed by all who are in compliance with their nonproliferation obligations."

Let me take this opportunity to highlight some of our recent nonproliferation successes.

Through close cooperation between Russia and the U.S., we have strengthened the security for hundreds of metric tons of weapons- usable materials in Russia and we are on track to finish that work by the end of 2008. We have down-blended more than 250 metric tons of Russian highly enriched uranium and sold it as commercial fuel. And we continue with plans to eliminate surplus U.S. and Russian plutonium.

To build on these efforts, the United States and Russia recently announced a new Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. This initiative provides the means to prevent terrorists and their sponsors from acquiring nuclear weapons, the most serious threat facing the world today.

Ahmadinejad Calls U.S. the 'Real' Nuke Threat; Calls for Removal from UNSC

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed the U.S. was the real nuclear threat and reiterated his insistence Tehran's nuclear atomic program had peaceful aims. "Why should people live under the nuclear threat of the United States?" he asked at a summit of the 118-strong Non-Aligned Movement in Havana. "What is the UN Security Council waiting for to react to those threats?"

He urged his counterparts to help "counter attempts to prevent Iran from developing its peaceful nuclear activity." Ahmedinejad said Iran had clearly demonstrated U.S. accusations were unfounded and insisted that the U.S., "knows our country has fully collaborated with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which declared we were not in violation of its norms."

He also called for a thorough reform of the Security Council and suggested the U.S. and Britain had no place on the Council. "The United States, with their arrogance and power, and Britain, how can those countries be represented and have a veto right?" he asked in his address to the more than 55 heads of state and government gathered for two days of talks in Havana.

IAEA Protests Assertions in House Select Intelligence Report on Iranian Nukes

The IAEA is protesting to the U.S. government and the House Select Committee on Intelligence about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest." A copy was hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA.

A letter from Vienna noted five major errors in the committee's 29-page report, which said Iran's nuclear capabilities are more advanced than either the IAEA or U.S. intelligence has shown. Privately, several intelligence officials said the report included at least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible to substantiate.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: "We felt obliged to put the record straight with regard to the facts on what we have reported on Iran. It's a matter of the integrity of the IAEA."

EU Going Wobbly on Pursuit of Sanctions, Agrees to Hold More Talks With Iran

EU nations are doing their best to undermine Security Council Resolution 1696 by stalling on the intention to implement robust sanctions against a defiant Iran. Today the EU agreed to hold additional talks with Iran to try to clarify their nuclear stance within two weeks. During a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iranian FM Manouchehr Mottaki and nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said it wanted fresh negotiations on the issue.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Larijani next week to try to clear up 'ambiguities' in Tehran's reply to the incentive package. "If the meeting goes well and Iran accepts the philosophy of the cooperation project we presented to it in June, I think we will be able to start a more formal negotiation," French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche quoted Solana as saying. It was widely reported that when Solana presented Iran the incentive package back in June, he withheld the presentation of the disincentives for noncompliance.

Slovenian FM Dimitrij Rupel said after the 25 EU ministers discussed the Iranian issue in Finland on Saturday: "We give Solana two weeks for his clarification talks." But Solana told reporters: "There's no deadline, whenever we finish ... We are going to start in the coming days and I hope that it will be very short. We don't need many meetings."

The dangerous foot dragging by the EU in the face of the legally binding Chapter VII Security Council resolution is exceptionally troubling. UNSCR 1696 says that the Security Council: "Expresses its intention, in the event that Iran has not by that date complied with this resolution, then to adopt appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to persuade Iran to comply with this resolution and the requirements of the IAEA, and underlines that further decisions will be required should such additional measures be necessary;"

Article 41 of Chapter VII says: "The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations."

Clearly, Iran is in violation of UNSCR 1696 and the IAEA report confirms that. When the Resolution was adopted, the P-5 expressed its intention to do so in the event that Iran was not in compliance. With the condition precedent met, the Security Council is required to pursue the condition subsequent -- sanctions -- against Iran. The P-5 + 1 will meet in Berlin on September 7 to discuss the way forward, and the U.S. will be represented by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. We hope that Britain and France will continue to fulfill their obligations as permanent members of the Security Council.