Report: UN, Iran working on secret deal to end nuclear sanctions – Haaretz – Israel News.

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Tags: Iran nuclear program

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has been holding secret negotiations with Iranian officials to draft a deal to persuade world powers to lift sanctions against Tehran, The Times reported on Tuesday.   According to the report, International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei drew up a 13-point agreement in September aimed at convincing world powers to allow Iran to continue its contentious nuclear program under close UN inspection. ElBaradei has apparently been trying to resolve this issue before he leaves office at the end of November, according to The Times. The newspaper said it had received the report from a concerned party privy to the issue.   The IAEA has denied that the document exists, said The Times. The Times exclusive comes hours after the IAEA released a report western official say proves Iran is still not meeting its obligations to the international community over its nuclear program. “[The] IAEA’s latest report on Iran underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully with its international nuclear obligations,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Monday. A copy of the IAEA report obtained by Reuters on Monday noted that Iran’s belated revelation of a second uranium enrichment site raised concern about possible further secret nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic. Kelly further said that Iran’s failure to disclose the Qom enrichment facility to the International Atomic Energy Agency was the most recent example of continued noncompliance. “Now is the time for Iran to signal that it wants to be a responsible member of the international community,” he added. “We will continue to press Iran in ways consistent with the dual-track approach to meet its international nuclear obligations.” The report further said Iran had told the IAEA that it had begun building the bunkered site near Qom in 2007, but the IAEA had evidence the project began in 2002, paused in 2004 and resumed in 2006. Iran reported the site’s existence to the IAEA in September. IAEA inspectors also found that Iran had reduced since August the number of centrifuges enriching Uranium at its main Natanz site by 650 to 3,936, while slightly raising the total number of machines installed to 8,692. Western diplomats and analysts said the slowdown was probably caused by technical glitches. A senior official, meanwhile, said Monday that the nuclear agency believes Iran plans to start enriching uranium at the previously secret facility in 2011. The official said the IAEA also believes that the site near Qom will be able to house 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges. A senior international official familiar with a new IAEA report said Monday that number could allow Iran to enrich enough material to be able to arm one nuclear warhead a year. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the restricted nature of the information.

Chris Selley: The mind of the ex-jihadi – Full Comment.

Canada certainly is seeing an upswing in anti-arab / anti-islam propaganda.

Much of it is justified but nevertheless I expect that the surge in propaganda is in preparation for the War on Iran.

According to an unconfirmed report in the French Le Canard Enchaine of Wednesday, Oct. 14, Israel is preparing to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and pro-Iranian targets across the Middle East after December 2009. The prestigious satirical weekly reports that the IDF has notified special forces reservists abroad to get ready to return home in November for immediate drafting to the military operation against Iranian nuclear facilities. The weekly further reports Israel has ordered combat rations from a French firm for these reservists to stay on long-term missions far from home.

Le Canard Enchaine is not alone in predicting an Israeli attack on Iran after December. A former Israeli deputy defense minister, Efraim Sneh, commented to US and British media several times in the past week that if the US fails to rally fellow powers’ support for toughened sanctions against Iran by Christmas, Israel will have to attack its nuclear installations. It may be assumed that Sneh was not just guessing on his own initiative.

Chris Selley: The mind of the ex-jihadi – Full Comment.

Canada certainly is seeing an upswing in anti-arab / anti-islam propaganda.

Much of it is justified but nevertheless I expect that the surge in propaganda is in preparation for the War on Iran.

According to an unconfirmed report in the French Le Canard Enchaine of Wednesday, Oct. 14, Israel is preparing to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and pro-Iranian targets across the Middle East after December 2009. The prestigious satirical weekly reports that the IDF has notified special forces reservists abroad to get ready to return home in November for immediate drafting to the military operation against Iranian nuclear facilities. The weekly further reports Israel has ordered combat rations from a French firm for these reservists to stay on long-term missions far from home.

Le Canard Enchaine is not alone in predicting an Israeli attack on Iran after December. A former Israeli deputy defense minister, Efraim Sneh, commented to US and British media several times in the past week that if the US fails to rally fellow powers’ support for toughened sanctions against Iran by Christmas, Israel will have to attack its nuclear installations. It may be assumed that Sneh was not just guessing on his own initiative.

Nuclear Agency Warns of More Iran Plants – WSJ.com.

Tehran Could Be Building Added Covert Installations, IAEA Says, Urging Government to Show More Transparency

By JAY SOLOMON and DAVID CRAWFORD

WASHINGTON — The United Nations atomic watchdog said Iran could be constructing a number of covert nuclear installations in addition to a secret uranium-enrichment facility the Obama administration disclosed in late September.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also said in a quarterly report released Monday that Iranian officials have told the U.N. that Tehran plans to begin operating the previously unknown nuclear-fuel facility outside the holy city of Qom by 2011.

The IAEA report is the last to be released under departing Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. U.S. officials have long criticized the Egyptian for deflecting Washington’s criticism of Iran in official reports. Diplomats said Monday that the latest report was notable for its sharp tone.

U.S. and European officials believe the Qom site is designed to process Iran’s low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material. The IAEA said in its new report that Tehran has produced 1.76 tons of low-enriched uranium, enough to produce one or two atomic devices if enriched further.

In the report, the IAEA urged Iran to provide more information on the Qom plant, as well as greater access to Iranian scientists and documents. Without that access, the agency added, the international community can’t be certain Tehran isn’t developing a much larger clandestine nuclear infrastructure for military applications.

“The agency has indicated [to Iran] that its declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other facilities,” the IAEA report said. “[It] gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities not declared.”

Iran told U.N. investigators who visited the Qom facility last month that it began construction in 2007. But the IAEA said in its report that technical analysis and satellite imagery suggested Tehran actually started working on the plant in 2002.

The IAEA’s disclosure Monday places added pressure on the Obama administration’s efforts to use diplomacy to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. President Barack Obama has given Iran until year-end to show a commitment to negotiations or face expansive new economic sanctions.

Last month, the U.S. and other global powers presented Iran an offer to better manage Tehran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel. The deal calls for Iran to ship roughly 70% of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for reprocessing into fuel rods for Tehran’s medical-research reactor. The White House believes the transfer of the nuclear fuel to international custody would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons in the near term, while buying time for diplomacy.

In recent weeks, however, Iran has started to step back from its initial commitment to the nuclear-fuel deal. Tehran has said it won’t agree to shipping out its low-enriched uranium in one batch. U.S. officials said that without a single-batch transfer of Iran’s fuel, the deal loses its merits, and they stressed that Washington won’t renegotiate its offer.

“Now is the time for Iran to signal that it wants to be a responsible member of the international community,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday. “We will continue to press Iran…to meet its international nuclear obligations.”

Iran has said its nuclear program is focused wholly on peaceful ends. On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Western pressure only makes Iran more determined to advance its nuclear capabilities.

“Cooperation with Iran in the nuclear field is in the interests of Westerners. Their opposition will make Iran more powerful and advanced,” he said in a statement posted late Sunday on the presidential Web site.

Mr. Obama is using his first trip to Asia as president to try to gain Russian and Chinese support for new financial sanctions against Iran in case diplomacy fails. Both Moscow and Beijing have voiced reluctance to back new coercive measures against Tehran. Both nations have deep energy and security ties to Iran.

On Monday, however, Moscow suggested that it might be more supportive of U.S. policy.

Russia’s energy minister told state media that a Russian-designed nuclear reactor being constructed in Iran wouldn’t be operational this year. Russian officials cited technical issues, but U.S. officials say they believe the announcement may be an effort to pressure Iran because Russia built the reactor and has committed to supply fuel.

The IAEA’s Mr. ElBaradei leaves his post at the end of the month and will be succeeded by Japan’s Yukiya Amano, who has suggested he will play a less political role than his predecessor and focus more on technical aspects of preventing nuclear proliferation. Some U.S. officials say the IAEA could take a harder line on Iran and Syria in coming years under Mr. Amano’s stewardship.

The IAEA on Monday also said Syria continues to defy U.N. requests for greater cooperation into a probe of Damascus’s alleged nuclear activities. The U.S. charges Syria with secretly building a nuclear reactor with the support of North Korea. The Israeli air force destroyed the site in late 2007.

The IAEA has specifically been seeking President Bashar Assad’s help in tracing uranium particles that U.N. investigators found last year at the bombed site. Syria denies it was secretly building the reactor. But IAEA officials said the uranium isn’t from Syria’s declared stock, nor is it likely to have come from Israeli munitions, as Damascus claims.

The IAEA also is seeking clarity from Syria on traces of fissile material that agency investigators found during an inspection of Damascus’s research reactor. “Essentially, no progress has been made since the last report to clarify any of the outstanding issues,” said the IAEA’s report.

The U.S. and some Western governments have discussed in recent months the merits of pushing the IAEA to conduct a “special inspection” of Damascus’s alleged nuclear infrastructure. If such an inspection was approved by the IAEA’s board, Syria would either have to comply or potentially face U.N. sanctions.

Syria is Iran’s closest strategic ally and the two nations cooperate closely in arming and funding militant groups fighting Israel, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Some Western diplomats said there have been concerns that Tehran was aiding Damascus’s nuclear pursuits, though the IAEA hasn’t disclosed any evidence of this.

Report: IAEA demandsvisit to Syrian nuclear sites | Middle East Conflict.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has demanded an urgent and immediate visit to suspected nuclear sites in Syria, Channel 10 cited foreign media reports on Monday night.

A satellite photo from Sept. 16, 2003, shows a large structure being built near the bombed site in Dir Azur, Syria.
Photo: GeoEye/SIME/ NY Times

SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region |  World

According to the report, IAEA inspectors discovered enriched uranium in three sites besides Dir Azur, where IAF jets destroyed an alleged reactor in September 2007.

These findings have led that UN nuclear watchdog to suspect that Syria has uranium stockpiles.

The main cause for suspicion was the discovery of nuclear material traces near a small research nuclear reactor outside Damascus, the TV channel reported.

When the evidence was presented to the Syrians, they failed to provide convincing explanations, senior IAEA officials were quoted as saying.

Agency inspectors who visited the Dir Azur site after the 2007 bombing found highly processed plutonium, so the uranium traces may indicate Syria’s nuclear program was more advanced than was previously assessed.

It was not yet clear whether authorities in Damascus would allow the inspectors into the alleged nuclear sites.

DEBKAfile – IAEA wants to inspect three secret Syrian nuclear sites.

November 16, 2009, 10:53 PM (GMT+02:00)

The new IAEA report on Iran’s formerly secret uranium enrichment site at Fordo near Qom also includes a section on Syria and a demand to inspect suspicious sites there too. The inspectors clearly suspect Both Tehran and Damascus of concealing from the UN nuclear watchdog secret facilities related to nuclear weapons production. Monday, Nov. 16, the seven-page IAEA inspectors’ report on their October visit to Fordo stated clearly that Tehran’s belated declaration of its uranium enrichment site suggested that more secret sites remained to be discovered in Iran.

With regard to Syria, IAEA inspectors are to visit Damascus on Tuesday, Nov. 17, for clarifications of the conflicting explanations Syria has offered for uranium traces. They will also insist on making return visits to three military sites which Damascus has so far refused, following information received by the agency of clandestine “nuclear activity” there. DEBKAfile‘s intelligence sources reveal that Israel hit one of three at the same time as its air force bombed the unfinished plutonium plant at Dair Alzour in 2007, although this was never admitted by Israel or Syria.

The nuclear watchdog wants a close survey of this site because it is certain the ground would yield up important clues to Syria covert nuclear weapons program. Permission has been denied for a visit there as well as a request to visit to the Euphrates River’s west bank opposite the bombed plant.

The Assad regime has claimed the uranium particles discovered near Damascus could have come from domestically produced “yellow cake” or imports of commercial uranyl nitrate undeclared to the IAEA. The Syrians also said they could have come from reference materials or from a transport container.

The report pointed out that the uranium traces found did not fit these explanations; nor could they be traced to Syria’s declared inventory.

DEBKAfile – Top US intelligence teams in Israel to discuss Iran.

November 16, 2009, 6:02 PM (GMT+02:00)

Gates and Barak get together

Two high-ranking teams of American CIA and DIA intelligence officials are conferring with their opposite numbers in Israel, in line with President Barack Obama’s strategy for applying military heat to Iran as well as diplomatic pressure for an accommodation on its nuclear program, DEBKAfile‘s military and intelligence sources report. The US teams arrived shortly after they attended a four-nation intelligence summit in Amman earlier this month together with the heads of Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian clandestine services (first revealed by DEBKA Friday, Nov. 13) For item, click HERE.

Our intelligence sources report that frequent Middle East visits by high-ranking American intelligence teams are rare occurrences. Worthy of note is they are immersed in a second round of talks with their Israeli colleagues in the first half of November, in between two other related events: the joint US-Israel Juniper Cobra 10 ballistic defense exercise which ended last Tuesday and the publication of the much-awaited UN nuclear watchdog’s next report due out Monday, Nov. 16. This report should lay out the findings of the IAEA inspectors at Iran’s uranium enrichment plant near Qom.

DEBKAfile‘s sources say that the US-Israel intelligence conferences ongoing at present are the final touches to the process the Obama administration has instituted of strategic give-and-take with Israel ahead of a possible outbreak of war with Iran. The alignment has been going forward on four levels:

1. Communications between the White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office, which are handled at the Washington end by Dep. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, who enjoys ready access to the president.

2. An open line to defense secretary Robert Gates which defense minister Ehud Barak set up when he visited the Pentagon last week.

3. Direct interchanges between the two army chiefs, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.

4. Frequent conferences between US and Israeli intelligence heads.

Political, military and intelligence integration between the US and Israel on this comprehensive scale has been practically unknown in recent years. It serves the dual purpose of a demonstration of close American-Israel military cooperation while at the same time safeguarding the Obama administration against Israeli surprise moves in relation to Iran.

Sunday, Nov. 15, President Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in Singapore that time was running out for diplomacy to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program. Medvedev added that if discussions failed to yield results, “other means” could be used.

Tehran delivered its comeback the same day: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared grandiloquently: “Iran is a great world power whose strength is unlimited and on whom no other state would dare impose sanctions,” while parliament speaker Ali Larijani blasted America whom he accused of backing the Saudi bombardments killing Muslims (Shiites in Yemen). Obama is worse than George Bush, said Larijani: “His promise to change US policy toward Tehran amounts to nothing.” He flatly rejected the latest Western proposal to resolve questions about Iran’s nuclear program (overseas processing of enriched uranium) as “unimportant” and “irrational.”

Iran could have more secret nuclear sites, warns UN nuclear watchdog | World news | The Guardian.

Facility built in mountain at Qom raises suspicions
• Other construction could be in progress, report says

Satellite view of what is believed to be a uranium-enrichment facility near Qom, Iran. Photograph: DigitalGlobe/Reuters

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has expressed fears that Iran may have other secret nuclear sites following the discovery of the facility hidden in a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report published today, said the previously secret site at Fordo was in “an advanced state of construction” and was scheduled to start up in 2011.

The IAEA reprimanded Iran for failing to inform it until September about the site, even though construction had begun at least two years ago.

In a more pointed criticism of Iran than usual, the IAEA says the delay “reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities not declared to the agency”.

The expression of concern comes at a sensitive moment, with no sign of a peace deal between Iran and the US, backed by Britain, France and Germany. Iran has not yet formally replied to a compromise offered by Barack Obama, who said at the weekend that time was running out.

The IAEA sent inspectors to the Fordo site late last month but today indicated it is to seek clarification on several issues, in particular how long the Fordo site had been planned.

The report said that technicians had moved sophisticated technical equipment into the uranium enrichment facility situated deep inside the mountain. An IAEA official said the facility was designed to produce about a ton of enriched uranium a year, enough for a small warhead.

The report quotes Iran insisting it “did not have any other nuclear facilities that were currently under construction or in operation that had not yet been declared to the agency”.

Iran claims it is only intent on using nuclear energy to help meet its electricity needs.

The report is the last by the controversial head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, who has been accused by the US of being too soft on Iran. In contrast with the concern expressed in the report, ElBaradei only last week, in an interview with the New York Times, played down the significance of the previously undisclosed site, saying it was “nothing to worry about”.

The report may reflect the thinking of the IAEA’s inspectors and ElBaradei’s political staff, who have tended to be more sceptical about Iran’s intentions than their chief.

The US, along with Britain, France and Germany, claims that discovery of the Fordo site puts Iran in breach of its international treaty obligations. Although Iran reported its existence to the IAEA in September, the US said this was to pre-empt an announcement exposing the site.

Iran said work on the site only began in 2007 but the US said it started in 2002-04 and, after a pause, resumed in 2006.

The IAEA reprimanded Iran, saying its “failure to notify the agency of the new facility until September 2009 was inconsistent with its obligations”.

Israel has threatened military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent it acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

The report said it was concern about just such an attack that prompted Iran to build the facility inside the mountain, according to a letter from Iran to the IAEA on 28 October. “As a result of the augmentation of the threats of military attacks against Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to establish contingency centres for various organisations and activities,” the report said.

The Federation of American Scientists, which tracks nuclear proliferation, said today: “Of course, there is the question of whether Fordo is simply the only ‘secret’ facility that we know about. The danger is that there are other facilities that can escape safeguards because the IAEA does not know about them.”

It added: “The good news in this story is that the facility is now known and the IAEA kicked in exactly as it should.”

Russia today dashed Iranian hopes that a Russian-built nuclear reactor at Iran’s southern port Bushehr will be switched on this year, providing Iran with its first operating nuclear power plant.

Iranian parliamentarians reacted angrily to the Russian announcement.

Russia has long backed Iran in the nuclear stand-off, blocking tough UN security council sanctions, but Obama has been pressing Russian leaders to join the US, Britain, France and Germany in a show of solidarity on the nuclear issue.

Iran is tightening the battle lines.

November 12, 9:24 PMDefense Dept. ExaminerBruce Clarke

Recent reports of fighting, in Yemen, political activities in Vienna, Baghdad and Lebanon, weapons smuggling into Lebanon for Hezbollah and Yemen suggest that Iran is reacting to the “go slow” approach of the administration and increasing its regional power reach and thus positioning itself for what may be a major full scale conflict in the future. The clear message from Iran is that the US must cease its support for Israel.
Speaking in Istanbul the Iranian president said that it was up to US President Barack Obama to illustrate his motto of “Change.” “The support of both Israel and Iran can’t go hand in hand,” he was quoted as saying:”No change is made unless great choices are made.”

The Iranian approach seems to be to say that it will possibly stop stirring up trouble in the region and maybe do something about its nuclear weapons program in exchange for a US renunciation of Israel. The last few days have fully illustrated Iran’s reach.

Yemen
In Yemen Al-Huthi rebels allegedly sustained a high number of casualties and at least 200 were captured by Saudi troops before the Saudis scaled back attacks along the border with Yemen. Conversely the Yemeni rebels said they had taken control of more territory on the border with Saudi Arabia, The rebels said that they had taken full control over Qatabar Directorate and control of all supplies and ammunition as well as buildings and other military sites.

The Saudi Navy is now blockading Yemen’s Red Sea Coast to prevent further weapons smuggling.

Iran’s Foreign Minister said Yemen’s troubles center on separatism and it s treatment of the al Huthi tribe, a Shia separatist movement along the Yemen – Saudi border. He called for Yemen to rebuild trust with the population, particularly the Shia, adding that he respects the nation’s territorial integrity. With this declaration Iran has staked its interest in the Yemeni ethnic insurgency, on the side of the al Huthi tribe. That pits Iran as the protector of Shiites against the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia in an ethnic squabble.

In response the Saudi message is that Iran must stop its meddling or its proxies will suffer. Saudi Arabia received messages of support from Kuwait and Morocco.

Political Activities
In Vienna the US agreed to a delay by Iran on its response to the nuclear material offer that we reported on some time ago.

Meanwhile in Baghdad the pro – Iranian Sunni faction of the government of Prime Minister Malitk is preparing to consolidate power in the upcoming election.

After five months of political deadlock, the Lebanese political parties agreed on a cabinet to govern the country. with the big winner being Lebanese Hezbollah, the anti-Israel, Iranian proxy that controls southern Lebanon.

Finally, a leader of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, said Iran and Shiite militants are a greater threat to Islam and its people than are Jews and Christians, He said the Yemeni Shiite al-Huthi militants were against Sunnis. He also said Shiite militants “are being driven by a greed to take over Muslim countries, and they are full of a wish to annihilate Sunnis.” This statement is tantamount a call to internecine warfare within Islam.

Weapons smuggling
Israel released documents and pictures earlier which provided proof that a massive arms shipment seized at sea last week came from Iran and were headed for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israeli commandos intercepted a ship near the coast of Cyprus, which was taking weapons to Syria with their ultimate destination being the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Israel accused Iran of sending the disguised cargo and presented picture evidence to back up the charges and detail the extent of the huge cache. Many of the crates were mislabeled to conceal their real contents. The photos showed the ship’s manifest, containers bearing the logo of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and cargo with Iranian armed forces customs labels.

These series of events, most with Iranian fingerprints all over them certainly suggest the possibility of strange bedfellows emerging–the Sunnis and Israel against Iran and Iraq. It will be hard to achieve such a sleeping arrangement given the Muslim man on the street’s dislike of anything Israeli.

Does this Iranian strategy of trying to force the US to renounce Israel have a chance of working? What are your thoughts?

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