WarSclerotic

Israel Hayom | After rejecting US demands, Iran proposes nuclear compromise.

Iran’s nuclear chief on Sunday signaled that Tehran’s envoys may bring a compromise offer to talks this week with world powers: Promising to eventually stop producing its most highly enriched uranium, while not totally abandoning its ability to make nuclear fuel.

The proposal outlined late Sunday seeks to directly address one of the main issues in the talks scheduled to begin Friday between Iran and the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany. The U.S. and others have raised serious concerns about Iran’s production and stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent, which could be turned into weapons-grade strength in a matter of months. Uranium has to be enriched to more than 90% to be used for a nuclear weapon.

Israel and other Western countries fear Tehran is seeking to develop an atomic weapon, a charge Iran denies.

Fereidoun Abbasi, Iran’s nuclear chief, said Tehran could stop its production of 20% enriched uranium needed for a research reactor, but continue enriching uranium to lower levels for power generation. Abassi told Iranian state television late Sunday that this could take place once Iran has stockpiled enough of the 20% enriched uranium.

His comments came a day after Iran rejected calls by the U.S. to curtail its nuclear program, declaring that it will dictate terms to the West and not the other way around.

Meanwhile, in Israel, officials believe Iran’s newfound willingness to reengage in negotiations is merely a stalling tactic.

“Israel’s policy on Iran has not changed nor has Israel’s policy on what needs to happen in the talks between Iran and the P-5+1,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. “We have seen in the past how Iran uses the talks in order to try and delay and deceive the West.

“Therefore, the demands need to be clear,” Netanyahu stressed. “One, stop all enrichment of uranium, both 20% and 3%. Two, move all enriched material out of Iran’s territory; it is possible to give them alternative material for peaceful purposes. Three, dismantle the illegal facility in Qom.

“Naturally, we will monitor the talks to see that Iran does not use them in order to deceive the world and continue with its nuclear program,” the prime minister said.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who is in Israel on an official visit and met with Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Sunday, also expressed concern that Iran was biding for time to develop its nuclear program.

Steinitz told Monti, who also serves as Italy’s finance minister, that Iran’s economy is on the verge of collapse. “Now is the time to continue and tighten sanctions further, and not let up,” Steinitz said.

However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday continued to stress the importance of the country’s nuclear industry, saying it “is like a locomotive that can push ahead other industries such as the space industry, which brings up tens of other industries as well.”

“This is the same clear path we must continue,” Ahmadinejad said according to the official IRNA news agency.

The latest round of expected talks comes after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a rare nod of approval last month to U.S. President Barack Obama’s assertion that there was still room for diplomacy. Washington has said it wants to hear further details regarding Khamenei’s pledge that Iran would never seek nuclear armament.

According to a report by The New York Times on Sunday, the U.S. has demanded that Iran shut down its underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, agree to enrich uranium only up to the level of 3.5%, and transfer all the uranium it had already enriched to the level of 20% to a third party. However, Iran rejected the West’s demands, saying it will not close its Fordo underground facility nor forego higher-level uranium enrichment.

The demands, which were identical to those first outlined by Netanyahu last month during his visit to Canada, were said to be part of a plan that would enable the U.S. to accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program.

Abbasi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, rejected the demands outright. Speaking on Sunday, he said, “The demands are irrational. The Fordo facility was built underground due to sanctions and threats of attack. If they didn’t threaten us and promised not to resort to military action, there would be no need to build underground facilities. They need to change their behavior and language.”

Iran announced in a statement that its nuclear reactor in Bushehr, one of the main nuclear installations in the country, will achieve 100% electricity production this summer, Army Radio reported.

Israeli officials, meanwhile, do not believe the planned talks in Istanbul will yield positive results. They believe the U.S. aims to pressure the Iranians to end the military dimensions of their nuclear program, while the Iranians view the talks as a way to get the West to accept their nuclear program.

Israeli officials have avoided issuing any negative responses to the scheduled talks because they know the U.S. and Europe consider them a “last-ditch effort” to solve the crisis.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterated the terms that would constitute a successful end to the crisis. In an interview with CNN to be aired on Monday, parts of which were previously released, Barak said: “We do not oppose negotiations, but the negotiations must have clear aims that will prove Iran has stopped its enrichment activity. It is clear that the latest sanctions have upped the stakes a notch. Expelling Iran from the SWIFT international transaction system and sanctions related to the importing of Iranian crude oil were significant measures, but I don’t believe sanctions and pressure will cause the Iranian leadership to conclude that they need to abandon their military nuclear program.”

Israel has said that it does not oppose Iran having a nuclear reactor for research purposes as long as it is under international supervision, like its own reactor at the Soreq facility.

Meanwhile, Iran continued to warn Israel against attacking its nuclear facilities. State-controlled Fars news agency reported on Monday that Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said Tehran would “demolish the illegal Zionist nest” if attacked.

Firouzabadi reportedly threatened to “flatten” strategic sites throughout Israel if his country were attacked and said he was confident that Iran’s deterrence has reduced the threat of military action.

Fire Continues: Terror Rocket hits Sderot – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Qassam rocket (archive)

Flash 90

Gaza terrorists launched a rocket at the town of Sderot on Sunday evening. The rocket hit an unpopulated area and did not cause injury.

Earlier in the day terrorists fired two rockets at the city of Netivot. Those rockets hit unpopulated areas as well.

The attacks come as Israelis celebrate the week-long Passover holiday.

Gaza’s many terror organizations have been relatively inactive in recent weeks, but have launched occasional attacks, demonstrating that they do not consider themselves bound by the “calm” Hamas declared after Israel’s last counter-terror activities in the area.

Sunday’s attacks are thought to be linked to an incident Saturday night in which a group of terrorists attempting to fire a rocket were fired on by IDF soldiers. Two of the terrorists were wounded.

Patriot Battery Deployed Near Haifa – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Patriot Missile Battery

IDF/Flash 90

Barak: Sanctions Won’t Halt Iran’s Nuclear Bid – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Ehud Barak

Flash 90

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday expressed deep misgivings about upcoming talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1, and the efficacy of sanctions on Tehran.

“It is clear that the depths of the sanctions is different for what we had in the past, and it has its impact both the closing of the swift clearing system as well as the sanctions on the oil export and, of course, the coming negotiations that will probably encourage them to move,” Barak told CNNs Fareed Zakaria during a lengthy interview.

“But to tell the truth, we hope for the better, but I don’t believe that this amount of sanctions and pressure will bring the Iranian leadership to the conclusion that they have to stop their nuclear military program,” he added.

During the interview Barak told Zakaria in no uncertain terms what Iran would have to agree to in order to avert an Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities.

“We are not against any kind of effective and urgent sanctions, not even against negotiations. But we told our American friends as well as the Europeans that we would have expected the threshold for successful negotiation to be clear, namely that the P5+1 will demand clearly that, number one, no more enrichment to 20 percent,” Barak said.

“All the already enriched 20 percent material out of the country to a neighboring trusted country. Then all the material enriched to 3.5 percent, probably except for a few hundred kilograms, should be taken out of the country, once again, into a neighboring trusted country.

“Number three, the installation in Fordo near Qom under the ground should be decommissioned in order not to enable them to resume enrichment to 20 percent, and tight inspection by the IAEA, according to protocol 3.1, should be imposed.

“If all these are met, even if they get in exchange fuel rods for their TLR, their research reactor and so on, that could be OK. It would be a different regime,” Barak explained.

However, Barak was also clear that Iran’s current proposal of merely halting the enrichment of uranium to 20% would be unacceptable to Israel.

“But if the P5+1 will settle for a much lower threshold, like just stop enriching 20 percent, it means that basically the Iranians, at a very cheap cost, bought their way into continuing their military program, slightly slower, but without sanctions. That will be a total change of direction for the world.

“I really see it as a major change for the whole world. I really see it as a critical time for the rest of the world as well. And I really think that the tightest possible sanctions and steps against Iran should be ratcheting in a way that will effectively corner it,” Barak said.

Later, Barak concluded the interview saying Israel was in a unique and dangerous position on the world stage, and stood with a sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other.

“We realize we are living in a tough neighborhood, no mercy for the weak and no second opportunity for those who cannot defend themselves. We want to be strong, ready to protect ourselves, under whatever kind of threat, but at the same time, stretching out our hand to make peace with any neighbor who is ready for it,” Barak said.

US: Iran must halt nuclear program – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Days before six powers, Tehran embark on atom talks, Washington says Iran must abide by Security Council resolutions, bring uranium enrichment to complete stop

Yizhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON – After Iran rejected calls to reduce Uranium enrichment to a level of 20%, Washington on Monday put its foot down, saying that Tehran must bring uranium enrichment to a complete stop in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

Five days before the six powers and Iran are set to resume talks in Istanbul, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the US’ stance has been made clear. Carney expressed hope that Iran realizes the whole world is in agreement that it must give up its nuclear program.

Related stories:

• Iran lawmaker: Country can produce nuclear weapon
• US, Europe to ‘demand’ Iran close nuclear facility
• Iran rejects West’s ‘demands’ before talks 

“Our position is clear…that Iran must live up to its international obligations, including the full suspension of uranium enrichment as required by multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” he said, adding: “Our bottom line is the cessation of uranium enrichment and the verifiable decision by the regime in Tehran to forgo pursuit of a nuclear weapon.”

On Sunday, Iran rejected Western demands to close its Fordo nuclear bunker and give up higher-level uranium enrichment.

Map of Iranian nuclear facilities  

These two demands, outlined by European and US diplomats to The New York Times newspaper, were “irrational,” the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, told ISNA news agency in a lengthy interview.

“We do not see any rationale for such a request from the P5+1,” he said.

But, he added, “We will not produce 20% enrichment fuel more than what we need, because it is not in our benefit to produce and keep it.”

During a press briefing at the White House, Carney noted that President Obama made it clear that the window for a diplomatic solution is closing, and that “time is not infinite here.”

However, Carney added, “There is enough time and enough space at this moment to pursue a diplomatic solution – that’s why the resumption of these talks is important.”

Meanwhile, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday that the United States does not intend to hold public negotiations with Tehran, adding that they will react to what is said behind closed doors during talks in Istanbul.

Iran Ahead of Upcoming Nuclear Talks: Majlis Member: We Can Manufacture Bomb, But We Won’t; ‘Kayhan’: The U.S. Has Capitulated.

Herman Wouk to publish new book with Simon & Schuster – latimes.com.

Herman Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Caine Mutiny,” will publish a new novel, “The Lawgiver,” with Simon & Schuster, the publisher announced Monday. Wouk, who was given the Library of Congress’ first Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Writing of Fiction in 2008, will celebrate his 97th birthday in May.

Wouk’s long and successful publishing record also includes “Marjorie Morningstar,” “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance.” His most recent book, “The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion,” published in 2010, discussed science and faith. In a release, Simon & Schuster described the upcoming “The Lawgiver”:

Mr. Wouk’s new book is an epistolary novel about a group of people making a movie about Moses in the present day.  The story emerges from letters, memos, emails, journals, news articles, recorded talk, tweets, Skype transcripts, and text messages.  “I loved reading The Lawgiver,” said [Simon & Schuster Publisher Jonathan] Karp.  “Within just a few pages I was captivated, once again in the thrall of Wouk’s sharply conceived characters, amusing narration, irresistible command of story, and the wisdom of a lifetime.  I found myself marveling at the verve and wit of this great American storyteller, now 96.  The insights into Moses have remarkable vitality and depth.  His heroine, Margo (‘Mashie’) is a twenty-first century incarnation of one of my favorite literary characters of all time, Marjorie Morningstar.”

Karp must have been impressed by the manuscript. When he reviewed Wouk’s “An Ache in the Heart” for The Times in 1993, he found something missing. Wouk, he wrote, “is still a master of the historical novel, and — at nearly 700 pages — ‘The Hope’ is a surprisingly fast read. And yet, perhaps it is a bit too fast.”

Perhaps Wouk sees that slightly negative review as being in the past — or perhaps he’s looking even further back. “I knew Dick Simon and Max Schuster well,” he said in the release. Yes, he means, that Simon and that Schuster. “Few of my contemporaries can make that statement!  They brought out my first novel, Aurora Dawn, in 1947, and returning to their imprint after 64 years is an uncommon pleasure.”

Simon & Schuster will publish Wouk’s “The Lawgiver” this fall.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 9, 2012, 7:37 AM (GMT+02:00)

Ahmadinejad celebrates Nuclear Day

debkafile’s Washington sources disclose exclusively that the Obama administration and Netanyahu government have secretly agreed on “Formula of 1,000” as their final concession at the end of the forthcoming Six Power nuclear talks with Iran which starts Saturday, April 14. In substance, this formula would let Iran keep 1,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium up to 3.5 percent and stock 1,000 kilograms of the same grade uranium while, aside from a small amount for medical research, giving up its store of 20-percent grade uranium which can be jumped quickly to weapon quality.
US sources told debkafile that Russia and China have accepted the deal.
According to our Iranian sources, Tehran was informed of this formula through its back-channel contacts with Washington (which debkafile has been tracking since mid-February).  That is why in Iranian public statements in the last couple of days have harped on the issue of uranium enriched to 20 percent. US-Israeli permission to keep 3.5 percent grade is in the bag before the talks begin, so Iran is treating it as the starting-point for bargaining, not the end result, and concentrating on raising the ante through the negotiating process to come.
The concession Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made to the Obama administration, to let Iran to continue to enrich uranium, has not been brought before any Israeli government or military forum.  Their remarks Sunday, April 8, conveyed the mistaken impression that there were at odds on the nuclear issue in the run-up to international talks.
Netanyahu said Israel would satisfied with nothing less than the total discontinuance of uranium enrichment and the removal of all quantities out of Iran, while Barak’s words came closer to the secret deal with Washington when he spoke of consenting to Iran continuing to produce low-enriched uranium and holding on to a few hundred kilos.
At his meeting with the new Italian prime minister Mario Monti in Jerusalem, Netanyahu repeated that Israel had not changed its position and that the Six Powers must make Iran stop enrichment entirely.
But in fact, as debkafile reveals here, Israel’s position has undergone a dramatic transformation and given in to Iran except for medical research on a major point of principle, i.e. enrichment.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad walked through the door this opened for him Sunday night and slapped down three fresh demands which Tehran would put before the Six Power negotiators in Istanbul Saturday:

1.  Clearance for the new system about to be activated for converting 3.5 enriched uranium to nuclear fuel rods in the first stage and nuclear plates in the second.

Producing 20 percent uranium from nuclear plates is relatively fast, efficient and cheap.
2.  Permission for homemade production of nuclear fuel rods for the heavy water plant under construction at Arak.
This would provide Tehran with the option of plutonium in addition to enriched uranium for making weapons.
3.  Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr is now operating at 75 percent capacity under the management of the Russian engineers who built it. Tehran wants Iranian engineers to take over the reactor’s management in full in seven months.
Iran is putting those three demands on the table to counter the US-Israeli insistence on shutting down the underground nuclear plant at Fordow, near Qom.
debkafile’s sources add that the Israeli prime minister, by giving crucial ground on the major sticking point of uranium enrichment, appears to have calculated that after going the extra mile, Obama will not be able to block Israeli military action against Iran’s nuclear sites if Tehran continues nonetheless to play games and cheat the International Atomic Energy Agency and its inspectors.
Netanyahu may have miscalculated the odds. His concession gave Obama enough rope to pull the Iranians to the negotiating table through his back channel to Tehran. That channel will remain open and the US is more likely to be induced by Iranian wiles to make more concessions than it is to give Israel the nod for military action.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 9, 2012, 11:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

Saudi Air Force warplanes

At least 200 American and Arab Gulf fighter-bombers thundered overhead Sunday, April 8 at the outset of the biggest air force exercise ever conducted in the Gulf region. They are simulating war with Iran and an operation for reopening the strategic Straits of Hormuz if it is closed by Tehran. debkafile’s military sources report that 100 of the warplanes took off from the USS Enterprise and USS Abraham Lincoln which are cruising with their strike groups opposite Iranian shores. The Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti and Bahraini air forces contributed the other 100.
In an unprecedented show of military solidarity with the US, Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet High Command, was also chosen by Gulf Cooperation Council – GCC – members for their unified exercise headquarters to be located at the Shaikh Isa Air Base.

Tehran was being told that neither the Obama administration nor the Gulf Arab governments were deterred by its threats of retaliation against emirates placing bases at the disposal of foreign forces for an attack on Iran.

However, shortly after the exercise began, Iranian ambassador to Kuwait Rouhullah Qahremani called urgently on Kuwait Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Khalid Al-Sabah with a warning that the Iranian air and navy would attack the Gulf nations taking part in the exercise unless they withdrew at once.

The Kuwaiti army chief then too the warning to the GCC Secretary General for Military Affairs Maj. Gen. Khalifa Humaid Al-Kaabi, with several high-ranking Kuwait officers in attendance. Kuwait and Riyadh also briefed the Americans. warning.
The exercise is due to end on April 15, the day after the six world powers launch resumed nuclear negotiations with Iran in Istanbul. However some Iranian sources were hinting Monday that they would not come to the talks under military threat.
Although the participants are keeping the exercise’s scenario under wraps, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources are able to outline its five segments:
1. A practice operation to pry open the Strait of Hormuz should Iran try to block the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil is exported – whether by deploying warships, scuttling old vessels, strewing sea mines or firing shore-to-ship missiles from the Iranian-controlled islands of Abu Musa, Great Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Sirri Island.
The combined US-Gulf force is practicing air and naval assaults against those Iranian island bases and the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ mainland facilities facing them from Bandar-e-Abbas, Bandar-e-Lengeh and Qeshm island. They plan to  cut off Iranian reinforcements en route to Hormuz.
2.   They also aim to prevent Iranian air or sea assaults on the Persian Gulf emirates’ oil facilities and export terminals, focusing mainly on Saudi, Bahraini and Kuwaiti oil facilities and fields.
3.  Air strikes are conducted against Iranian naval vessels, including speedboats, in a simulated exercise to head them off before they strike American aircraft carriers and warships or Gulf fleet vessels.
4.  Testing the degree of coordination between US air, sea and marine forces and their Persian Gulf counterparts.

5.  The Gulf exercise is in fact the sequel of Noble Dina 12, the US-Israeli-Greek war game conducted earlier this month in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. That war game practiced runs by Israeli fighter-bomber from their home bases to the big American facility on Crete, fueled in flight by American and Israeli tanker planes. The distance between the two points is roughly equivalent to the 1,200 kilometers between Israel and Iran.
In a furious response to that maneuver, the Iranian Chief of Staff Gen. Seyed Hassan Firouzabadi, declared Saturday April 7: “Iran will bulldoze and destroy the illegal Zionist nest.”