Diplomats say Iran nuclear facility was built 7 years ago | Iranian – Iran News | Jerusalem Post.

Iran’s recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that appears too small to house a civilian nuclear program, but large enough to serve for military activities, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.

This satellite image shows a suspected nuclear facility under construction inside a mountain northeast of Qom, Iran.
Photo: AP

Iran began building the facility near the holy city of Qom seven years ago, and after bouts of fitful construction could finish the project in a year, the diplomats said.

Both the construction timeline and the size of the facility – inspected last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency – are significant in helping shed light on Teheran’s true nuclear intentions.

Iran says it wants to enrich only to make atomic fuel for energy production, but the West fears it could retool its program to churn out fissile warhead material.

One of the diplomats – a senior official from a European nation – said Thursday that the enrichment hall is too small to house the tens of thousands of centrifuges needed for peaceful industrial nuclear enrichment, but is the right size to contain the few thousand advanced machines that could generate the amount of weapons-grade uranium needed to make nuclear warheads.

The pauses in construction may reflect Teheran’s determination to keep its activities secret as far back as 2002, when Iran’s clandestine nuclear program was revealed.

Citing satellite imagery, the diplomats said Iran started building the plant in 2002, paused for two years in 2004 – the same year it suspended enrichment on an international demand – and resumed construction in 2006, when enrichment was also restarted.

Since then, Iran has defied three sets of UN Security Council sanctions aimed at forcing it to again freeze uranium enrichment.

All of the diplomats have access to information compiled by the IAEA, and demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential matters with the AP.

Iran informed the IAEA only in September that it was building the facility near Qom, leading the US, British and French leaders to denounce Teheran for keeping its existence secret. IAEA inspectors visited the plant last month.

Iran says it fulfilled its legal obligations over when it revealed the plant’s construction, though IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said Teheran was “outside the law” and should have informed his agency when the decision to construct was made.

Western officials suspicious of Teheran’s nuclear program believe the Islamic Republic only decided to inform the IAEA after it became convinced that the plant’s existence had been noted by foreign intelligence services.

The Qom facility is the second known Iranian plant designed for enrichment. The first facility at Natanz, revealed by Iranian dissidents in 2002, has since grown to house around 9,000 centrifuges and has churned enough low-enriched uranium to turn into material for one or two nuclear warheads.

Low-enriched material is suitable for what Iran says will be a nationwide nuclear power grid. But that stockpile can be enriched further to weapons grade warhead material.

After years of expansion, the Natanz program, which relies on antiquated centrifuges based on black market imports, appears to be running into problems associated with increasing the number of operating centrifuges.

The senior diplomat said Iran was only using about 5,000 of the centrifuges set up at Natanz which were turning out about 80 kilograms – less than 200 pounds – of low-enriched uranium a month. That, he said, amounted to roughly the same output using the same number of machines as in September, when the IAEA last reported on Iran to its 35 board member nations.

He said breakdowns and maintenance of the old centrifuges appeared to account for the stagnation. In contrast, the facility near Qom appears designed to shelter fewer but more modern models configured to churn out more enriched material faster.

International hopes that Iran was ready for at least a partial concession on enrichment were raised after Teheran signaled in early October it was ready to send most of its enriched Natanz stockpile abroad to be turned into metal fuel for its small research reactor. Teheran would have needed at least a year to produce enough new material to replace what it shipped out, thereby delaying its ability to produce weapons-grade uranium should it have chosen to do so.

Since then, however, Iranian officials have overwhelmingly – if unofficially – rejected exporting most of their enriched uranium.

The senior diplomat said nuclear negotiators from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – the six nations trying to entice Teheran into enrichment concessions – planned to meet next week to discuss further strategy, including the possible threat of new UN sanctions on Teheran for its nuclear defiance.

US moves to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran | International News | Jerusalem Post.

Federal prosecutors have taken steps to seize four US mosques and a Manhattan skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

 

US Marshals post copy of federal government’s complaint on door of Razi School in Queens.
Photo: AP

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in US history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint Thursday in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres (40 hectares) in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the US government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran’s UN Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered.

John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation’s lawyer, said it intends to litigate the case and prevail.

He said the foundation has been cooperating with the government’s investigation for the better part of a year.

“Obviously the foundation is disappointed that the government has decided to bring this action,” Winter told The Associated Press.

It is extremely rare for US law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shi’ite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the US government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week’s Fort Hood military base shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

“Whatever the details of the government’s case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

“No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties,” US attorney’s office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said. “The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today’s filing. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants.”

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a US Treasury official of providing support for Iran’s nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The US has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

“For two decades, the Alavi Foundation’s affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques’ leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Maryland. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in the city’s Queens borough, two US marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, California.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s on posh Fifth Avenue under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the US The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in US-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran’s nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

Assad: Peace talks with Israel hindered by Obama inaction – Haaretz – Israel News.

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel news, Bashar Assad

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will deliver a message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Syrian leader Bashar Assad during the latter’s visit to Paris on Friday, relaying Israel’s desires to renew peace negotiations immediately without preconditions.The French newspaper La Figaro on Friday quoted Assad as saying that U.S. President Barack Obama represented a weak point in the efforts to renew negotiations. “The American godfather needs to draw up a plan of action and take his own initiative, not wait for others,” said the Syrian President.   According to the pan-Arab satellite television station Al Arabiya, Netanyahu has expressed willingness to withdraw from the Golan to the borders of June 4, 1967. Netanyahu also reportedly stressed that he is interested in a meeting with Assad, without preconditions. The Prime Minister’s Bureau on Thursday denied reports that Netanyahu had relayed a message to Assad. However, political sources in Jerusalem said that Netanyahu is also examining the possibility that France will replace Turkey as a mediator between Israel and Syria. In recent days the Syrian president has made a number of declarations on peace with Israel. Earlier this week he warned that if negotiations fail this would lead to “resistance” as an alternative. Speaking at the forum of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Istanbul, Assad explained that “resistance to occupation is a national obligation,” calling it “a moral obligation and legitimate, and something to be proud of.” However, Assad also said that resistance “does not contradict his permanent wish to achieve a just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the return of occupied territory.” On Wednesday, Assad said he does not propose any preconditions for negotiations with Israel. “Resistance is the reality of our policy in the past and in the future. We have no preconditions for peace, but we cannot ignore our rights,” he said. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi reiterated in recent weeks his support for the resumption of peace talks with Syria. “We should not be disheartened by Assad,” he said during private conversations. The defense establishment has been steadily in favor of resuming talks with Syria. A source present in meetings where Ashkenazi spoke said that the chief of staff explained that “Israel has a strategic interest in disassociating Syria from the extremist axis that Iran is leading.” “Syria is not lost,” Ashkenazi declared. “Assad is western educated and is not a religious man. He can still join a moderate grouping.” The issue of talks with Syria is one of the few things on which Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak see eye to eye. Barak recently said in Tel Aviv that “we should not belittle the signals of peace coming from Syria.

Hamas tells Red Cross: Israel planning another war in Gaza – Haaretz – Israel News.

By Haaretz Service

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has warned that Israel is planning another offensive on the Gaza Strip, Iran’s Press TV reported on Friday. The Israel Defense Forces has not yet responded to the report.   According to Haniyeh, it is Israel and not Hamas that is intent on keeping the conflict going between the two sides. Hamas is “not looking for more violence,” Haniyeh told a group of Red Cross delegates visiting the Gaza Strip earlier this week.   The Hamas leader, who was elected to head the movement’s cabinet and took over leadership of Gaza after a bloody 2007 coup deposed Palestinian Authority in the coastal territory, told the delegates that he hoped his prediction of war would not come into fruition. Haniyeh said that should such an offensive occur, Hamas would be prepared to retaliate. “Our people will not surrender; they will fight back,” Prime Minister Haniyah’s office said, in a statement. He also said he hoped that “the world will stop Israel from killing more children,” according to the Iranian network. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi this week told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hezbollah is in possession of missiles with a range of 300-325 kilometers. At the same meeting, Ashkenazi said that the army was carrying out numerous investigations into its soldiers’ conduct during the war in Gaza earlier this year and was willing to look into any complaint of misconduct. His comments came amid an international frenzy over a UN-commissioned report accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the January conflict. Israel has denounced the Goldstone report as one-sided and biased. “The [Goldstone] report and the claims that came out of it necessitate some sort of response,” said IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, of a UN-commissioned report that accuses both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year

Middle East News | Syria’s Assad in Paris for talks with Sarkozy.

Meeting likely to focus on Israeli-Syrian peace talks

Syria’s Assad in Paris for talks with Sarkozy

Assad’s visit comes at the heels of Netanyahu’s talks with Sarkozy

PARIS (Al Arabiya, AFP)

Syrian President Bashar al-Asad hailed a “climate of trust” with France ahead of a visit Friday for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on prospects for Israeli-Syrian talks.

“A year and a half after the resumption of good relations between France and Syria, we have first of all built a climate of trust and we can, now, elaborate a clearer vision for the future,” he told the paper.

Assad’s visit comes at the heels of talks between Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu asked Sarkozy to pass a letter to Syria calling for the resumption of peace negotiations between the two countries, Al Arabiya TV reported citing a French source.

Relations between France and Syria have been warming since Assad paid a landmark visit to Paris last year for Bastille Day celebrations and Sarkozy visited Damascus two months later in Sept. 2008.

But the Syrian leader said that “we haven’t yet reached a revival of trust between Syria and the United States,” and called on Obama to do more for the stalled Middle East peace process.

“What President Obama said about peace was a good thing. We agree with him on the principles, but… what is the plan of action? The (peace process) sponsor must come up with a plan of action,” he said.

Assad also repeated his position that Damascus must review a partnership agreement with the European Union, which had been due to be signed in October, calling on the bloc to have “more political independence.”

“The Europeans have turned completely towards the United States, to Syria’s detriment. A partner must be a friend and we haven’t noticed that from Europe these last years,” he said.

Damascus and the EU first drew up the draft partnership pact in 2004 but it was never signed by European countries, amid concerns by some nations of rights abuse in Syria.

DEBKAfile – Extraordinary US-Israel-Egyptian-Jordanian intelligence summit held in early November.

November 12, 2009, 11:34 PM (GMT+02:00)

Mossad chief Meir Dagan

The crisis over Iran’s nuclear program and possible outbreak of a regional war occasioned an extraordinary secret conclave of the intelligence chiefs of four nations in Amman in the first week of November, DEBKAfile‘s military and intelligence sources disclose. Hosted by the chief of Jordan’s General Intelligence Service, Gen. Muhammad Raqed, it was attended by senior officials of the American CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, Israel’s Mossad chief, Meir Dagan and military intelligence head Brig. Amos Yadlin and Egypt’s intelligence minister, Gen. Omar Suleiman. As soon as the meeting ended, Suleiman set out for Riyadh to brief the head of Saudi general intelligence Prince Moqrin bin Abdul Aziz.

Our sources add that the unpublicized get-together took place just a few days before Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US president Barack Obama conversed at the White House Monday, Nov. 9. They therefore had its conclusions before them when they talked. Two days later, Netanyahu passed input from the intelligence summit to French president Nicolas Sarkozy when he stopped over in Paris.

It was the first time Israel had taken part in a secret meeting of Middle East intelligence chiefs whose purpose was to coordinate their steps.

DEBKAfile – Iran was the only subject on the Obama-Netanyahu, Gates-Barak agendas.

November 12, 2009, 11:15 AM (GMT+02:00)

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrives at White House

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama focused on the single subject of Iran when they met in Washington Monday, Nov. 9 – as did Netanyahu and French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 11. Iran also occupied the meeting between defense minster Ehud Barak and US defense secretary Robert Gates Monday. DEBKAfile‘s Washington sources disclose that briefings to the media and joint communiqués were disallowed for the sake of blacking out the content of the conversations Israeli leaders held in Washington and Paris.

Leaked reports that the Palestinian issue and Mahmoud Abbas’ future were discussed in Washington and peace talks with Syria in Paris were window-dressing, as were the power games widely reported as leading up to the Netanyahu’s reception at the White House.

The conversation in Sarkozy’s private apartment at the Elysee was a continuation of Netanyahu’s talks with Obama two days earlier and marked their coalescence around the next steps on Iran.

Back home, the defense minister stressed the importance of “not discounting the peace signals coming of late from Syria” and said that “many barriers fell” at the Netanyahu-Obama meeting “recreating a good foundation for renewing the peace process and reaching accord with our Palestinian neighbors.”

This statement was part of the smoke screen set up by mutual consent to conceal the content of Barak and the prime minister’s overseas meetings. It was necessary to addressing the minister’s need to bolster his shaky position as leader of the left-leaning Labor party and lift Israel’s image in Europe which is fixated on the Palestinian issue.

At the same time, a very senior American official told DEBKAfile that his description of falling barriers between President Obama and prime minister was spot on and deserved a full stop. The rest of his comment applied to Israeli politics.