WarSclerotic

Below is a timeline on Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s negotiations with Western powers over the last year:

Oct. 1, 2009 – Iran meets six world powers in Geneva and approves in principle a plan to send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France, where it would be made into special fuel for a Tehran reactor making medical materials.

	The reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is seen, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010
	Photo by: AP

Oct. 25 – U.N. nuclear experts inspect a newly disclosed enrichment plant being built near the Shi’ite holy city of Qom.

Oct. 30 – Iran tells the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it wants fresh nuclear fuel for a reactor in Tehran before it will agree to ship some enriched uranium stocks to Russia and France, according to UN officials.

Nov. 18 – Iran says Tehran will not send enriched uranium abroad for further processing but would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel within its borders.

Nov. 19 – U.S. President Obama warns Iran of the consequences of its failure to respond to the nuclear deal.

Nov. 26 – Outgoing U.N. nuclear watchdog chief ElBaradei says Iran’s blockage of the proposal to divest it of possible nuclear bomb material is “disappointing”.

Nov. 27 – The IAEA’s 35-nation governing board censures Iran for developing the plant near Qom in secret and demands Iran freeze the project. Iran rejects the demand.

Nov. 29 – Iran says it plans to build 10 more enrichment sites.

Jan. 19, 2010 – Iran rejects key parts of the deal to send abroad for processing most of its enrichment material.

Feb. 2 – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran is ready to send enriched uranium abroad, apparently easing his position.

Feb. 9 – Iran begins making higher-grade nuclear fuel, enriched to a higher level of 20 percent, at Natanz facility.

Feb. 18 – An IAEA report suggests, bluntly and for the first time that Iran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons capability.

April 19 – Iran says it will start work on a new uranium enrichment plant, in addition to the Natanz and Qom sites.

April 27 – Brazil offers to mediate to help end the West’s diplomatic standoff with Iran over nuclear issues.

May 12 – UN resolutions aimed at increasing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program “are not worth a penny” and Tehran will give no ground to pressure, Ahmadinejad says.

May 17 – Iran, Brazil and Turkey sign a nuclear fuel swap deal. Iran says it has agreed to transfer 1.2 tons (2,646 lb) of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey within a month in return for higher-enriched nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor.

May 31 – An IAEA report shows Iran’s low-enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile is up to 2.4 tons. So, even if the proposed 1.2 tons were shipped out now it would still leave Iran enough material for a nuclear weapon if enriched to higher levels.
June 9 – The U.N. Security Council votes to expand sanctions against Iran to hit its banking and other industries.

June 24 – The U.S. Congress approves tough new unilateral sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran’s energy and banking sectors, which could also hurt foreign companies doing business with Tehran. They are signed into law on July 1.

July 26 – The EU imposes tighter sanctions on Iran, aiming to block oil and gas investment and curtail its refining.

Iran says it is ready to hold talks on a nuclear fuel swap without conditions.

July 30 – Iran says it will never give up its right to refine uranium, but could suspend higher-level enrichment if a fuel swap can be agreed with foreign powers.

Aug. 6 – The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) says Iran is now using extra equipment to enrich uranium more efficiently at its Natanz pilot plant, stepping up its nuclear work despite sanctions.

Aug. 21 – Iran begins setting up fuel assemblies at Bushehr plant.

Aug. 30 – Iran announces it will produce in a year the nuclear fuel needed for the medical isotope reactor in Tehran.

Sept. 6 – An IAEA report says Iran has told inspectors that it had accumulated around 2.8 tons of LEU, about 370 kg (816 lb) more than in May.

Sept. 29 – Bushehr will begin supplying energy in early 2011, a senior official says, signaling a delay of several months after the spread of Stuxnet, a global computer virus believed to have affected mainly Iran.

Oct. 18 – Iran is ready to return to nuclear talks “as soon as tomorrow” but only if the subject of the negotiations is made clear in advance, says Abolfazl Zohrevan, deputy secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

Oct. 26 – Iran says it has begun loading fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Iran prefers defiance and secrecy to transparency and peace, United States President’s special assistant Dennis Ross said on Monday.

Ross, who served as a special Middle East coordinator under former U.S. President Bill Clinton, spoke to attendees of the AIPAC National Summit in Hollywood, Florida.

“The U.S. government is building leverage through creative and persistent diplomacy to change the behavior of a government insistent on threatening its neighbors, supporting terrorism, and pursuing a nuclear program in violation of its international obligations,” said Ross.

	An Iranian man shouts anti-U.S. and anti-Israel slogans during Friday prayers in Tehran on October 22, 2010.
	Photo by: Reuters

Ross said that over the past two years Iran has preferred “defiance and secrecy to transparency and peace.” Ross referred to Iran’s lack of cooperation with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In June, Iran barred two IAEA experts from entering the country, accusing them of giving “false information” about its nuclear program. The decision was criticized by IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, who urged Iran to stop obstructing UN investigation of the country’s nuclear plan.

Ross said that Iran has been surprised by the magnitude of U.S. sanctions and the depth of support for them in the international community. “They can no longer rely on those in the international community they thought would block such measures on their behalf.”

Ross expressed hope that the international pressure will lead to a change in the behavior of Iran’s regime. “The door for diplomacy is still open and we certainly seek a peaceful resolution to our conflict with Iran.”

Ross spoke a day before Iran began loading fuel into the core of its Bushehr nuclear reactor, moving closer to the start-up of its first atomic plant.

He warned the U.S. would not tolerate further Iranian defiance and encouraged Iran’s leaders to “listen carefully to President Obama who has said many times, ‘we are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.'”

Hezbolah, Lebanon’s Iran- and Syria-backed guerilla organization that became a key player in the Beirut govermnent, has amassed some 40,000 missiles, the French daily Le Figaro reported Monday, saying that Damascus had a major role in replenishing the group’s arsenal after its 2006 war with Israel.

The report also shed new light on the structure of Hezbollah’s military wing.

	Young Hezbollah supporters holding mock ups of Katyusha rockets in front of a portrait of group leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
	Photo by: AP

Le Figaro cited the United States as having observed that alliance in January, when its radar spotted 26 missiles M-6002 in the area between Damascus and Syria’s border with Lebanon.

According to Le Figaro, Hezbollah has to date more than 10,000 fighters, and that its weapons transport system is divided into three units: Unit 108 is responsible for transferring weapons and ammunition from Damascus to Hezbollah bases on the Lebanon border and near the Syrian airport; next comes Unit 112, which transports the weapons from those bases into Lebanon; third is Unit 100, which deals with deployment and training.

Satellite photos taken in March of last year and caught earlier this month show that the Syrian army has a Scud missile base near Damascus. While the images also suggest that Hezbollah activists are being trained in the Scuds’ use at the base, Syria denies reports that it has supplied the militant group with those weapons.

The photos can be seen by any web surfer on Google Earth. They show extensive construction at several military bases throughout Syria, including at one of the country’s three largest missile bases, located 25 kilometers northeast of Damascus, near the city of Adra.

The base is in a deep valley surrounded by 400-meter-high mountains. Concrete tunnels lead from the base into the mountains, where the Scuds are apparently stored.

The photos show five 11-meter-long missiles (the length of both the Scud B and the Scud C ) at the Adra base. Three are on trucks in a parking lot. Two others are in a training area where 20 to 25 people can be made out along with about 20 vehicles. One of the two missiles appears to be mounted on a mobile launcher; another is on the ground.