U.N. nuclear watchdog backs Iran’s denial of Fordow blast | Reuters
U.N. nuclear watchdog backs Iran’s denial of Fordow blast | Reuters.
( Not in UN’s interest to force Iran to retaliate either. – JW )
(Reuters) – The U.N. atomic watchdog made clear on Tuesday it had seen no sign of any explosion at one of Iran’s most sensitive nuclear plants, backing up Tehran’s denial of media reports that such an incident had taken place last week.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an unusual move, made a brief statement after some Israeli and Western media at the weekend reported there had been significant damage at the underground Fordow uranium enrichment facility.
The site is at the centre of Israeli and Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear program as the Islamic state refines uranium there to a fissile concentration that takes it closer to potential atom bomb material. Iran denies any such aim.
IAEA inspectors regularly visit Iranian nuclear sites, including the one at Fordow, and the U.N. agency suggested in its comment thatthey had been at the facility after the reports of an explosion there.
“We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations,” IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an emailed statement in response to a question.
The United States said on Monday it did not believe the reports of an explosion at Fordow, which is buried deep underground to protect it against any enemy attacks.
Iran described the news stories as Western propaganda designed to influence upcoming nuclear negotiations.
Wrangling over dates and location have delayed resumption of talks between global powers and Iran aimed at reaching a diplomatic settlement to the decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program and avert the threat of a Middle East war.
SABOTAGE ALLEGATIONS
In late 2011, the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level needed for nuclear energy plants.
This higher level of enrichment represents a significant step towards the fissile concentration that would be needed in any attempt to build atomic bombs.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and aimed at producing electricity. It says it needs 20 percent uranium to fuel a medical research reactor in Tehran.
Several U.N. Security Council resolutions have ordered Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment. The Islamic Republic says it is its “right” under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to refine uranium to produce reactor fuel.
Iran has accused Israel and the United States of trying to sabotage its nuclear program through cyber attacks and the assassination of its nuclear scientists. Washington has denied any role in the killings, while Israel has declined to comment.
No government has taken responsibility for the Stuxnet computer virus that destroyed centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2010, but it has been widely reported to have been a U.S.-Israeli project.
Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, has hinted at possible military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to resolve the nuclear stand-off.
(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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WarSclerotic 
January 30, 2013 at 9:09 AM
Does not make much sense that Israel would invent this. One can argue that it is psychological warfare, but I do not trust the IAEA since the Iranians managed to fool them too many times. Relying on my own experience about publicizing Bernard Lewis’s stance on MAD I can just say that everything is done to kill any discussion on the religious/ideological aspect of Iran’s quest for the bomb and the fact the they cannot be deterred. It has become absurd. Rabbi Golub interviews Bernard Lewis for 50 minutes and discusses his book but skips Lewis’s view on MAD http://www.shalomtv.com/box%201.html
You can find the paragraphs that were ignored here:
Why are Bernard Lewis’s views on MAD ignored?
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2012/05/why-are-bernard-lewiss-views-on-mad.html
Reza Kahlili spent years risking his life as a CIA agent among the Revolutionary Guards so I trust him more than others, and the ex CIA director James Woolsey was on a panel with him so he would not have done that if Kahlili weresuspicious . Everyone just tries to discredit anything he says by saying that writes for right-wing sites … as if that were sufficient proof to make his statement false.
The worst was Ha’aretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/who-spread-reports-of-an-explosion-at-iran-s-fordow-nuclear-plant-and-why.premium-1.496726
“He published the report of the explosion, which apparently took place on Monday, the eve of the Israeli elections, on World News Daily, a veteran website with close contacts to the far- right in the United States. Kahlili himself is a frequent speaker organized by right wing organizations and those who support the right in Israel. It’s not hard to guess why.
In an interview he gave Ha’aetz two years ago ,upon the publication of his book “A Time To Betray”, Kahlili set out a worldview on Iran that wassurprisingly similar to that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also compared the regime in Tehran to that of the Nazis, and called upon Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear installations”
January 30, 2013 at 6:47 PM
I wondered what the IAEA means by ‘our observations’?
Are these the funny light reflexions you see when you look at your office desk?
According to an update of the WND-article the editor notes:
“However, no official statement by the IAEA has taken place since officials’ last unsuccessful trip to Tehran weeks ago when they requested to visit the suspected Parchin site. The last time IAEA inspectors were at Fordow was late last year. It also has not been allowed to install cameras at Fordow by the Islamic regime in Iran.”
http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/new-details-surface-on-iran-nuclear-explosion/
I also find the following observation suspicious.
In all previous incidents when the west made statements that condradicted Iranian statements like the US-denial of the captured drone the Iranians were eager to quickly show photos or videos that proved that the western statement were false thus exposing the west as liars and hypocrites and also scoring major propaganda points.
One wonders why they are not showing us live TV-footage about Ahmadinemonkey visiting Qom and the centrifuges.