WarSclerotic

American Chronicle | 2010 will witness the most destructive wars in modern history.

2010 will witness the most destructive wars in modern history

2010 will determine the fate of Iran and Lebanon for many years

2010 will observe a bitter end of Hezbollah and the destruction of Syria´s missile and chemical programs

Middle East journalist and analyst, Hamid Ghoriafi, wrote this analysis in Arabic especially for the Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC http://www.10452lccc.com)

Translated by LCCC Chairman, Elias Bejjani*

Middle East analysts predict that the year 2010 could make the past nine years look laughable considering the kinds and ferocity of tragedies that might hit the region that has been a violent battlefield for four crushing wars.

The first two are the Taliban regime of Afghanistan and that of Baathist Saddam Hussein in Iraq which were toppled by force in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida group that targeted New York´s twin towers and the Pentagon in Washington.

As a result of this deadly attack, Lebanon’s political and military map was changed in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. By the end of this devastating war, an Israeli security belt was established inside the entire southern Lebanese territory as far as 20 miles to the south of the Litani area.

In 2000 Israel withdrew its troops from a previous security belt in southern Lebanon, to a distance not exceeding four kilometers. This new wide Israeli belt on her borders inside Lebanon is maintained by a force from 34 countries under the UN flag, and not by her own troops as was the situation before 2000.

Meanwhile, Lebanon, Syria and Iran were forced to approve the redeployment of the Lebanese army in the entire southern region, including the Lebanese –Israeli borders after it was driven away by the Syrian occupation all through its 30-year occupation of Lebanon.

At the same time, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon was knocked out in a successful political war in 2005 in which the Lebanese “David” defeated the Syrian “Juliet” and the Syrian army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon with accordance with UN Resolution 1559 after 30 years of brutal and savage occupation of the country.

Still in the Middle East, last year the creeping Iranian military invasion has viciously reached Saudi Arabia´s southern borders with Yemen, where a fierce war is waging,  probably in its last stages, in which the Iranians and their Yemeni Al-Howthy proxy are heading to a significant defeat.

In 2010, weapons of mass destruction that were developed after the unprecedented Iraq war, will probably determine the fate of at least two Middle East countries and that of a mini-state: Iran and its nuclear program, Lebanon and Hezbollah, and the Gaza Palestinian Strip mini-state. It is expected that events will unfold in a dramatic way that could be much more catastrophic and destructive than all the previous wars that hit the region throughout the past 50 years. Analysts assume that these coming wars will remove all obstacles that US President Barack Obama is presently facing in his endeavor to solve the Arab – Israeli conflict which has been raging for the last 61 years. In the midst of all these dramatic foreseen events, Syria and Lebanon will have no other option but to the sign a peace treaty in compliance with Israel’s terms.

After containing the major Middle East conflicts, it is expected that the mighty Western countries will seriously focus their military interventions to resolve and end conflicts in three fragile countries, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia, in a bid to put an end to the problems that these three unstable countries are inflicting on their neighboring countries and on global peace and order.

Meanwhile, Syria and Lebanon might encounter a serious internal crisis as a result of the indictments and arrest warrants the Special International Tribunal for Lebanon is scheduled to issue. Hezbollah is expected to use its weapons internally to deter the Lebanese government from extraditing the witnesses and the accused that could include its elite leadership. This Iranian armed militia will replicate its May, 2008 military invasion of Sunni western Beirut and the Druze Mount Lebanon that was waged to stop by force and terrorism the Lebanese government from dismantling its illegal telecommunication network and to transfer the head of security at Beirut airport who happens to be a Hezbollah loyalist.

Lebanon and Hezbollah

Israeli experts at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Universities strongly believe that the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad regime in Tehran could pre-empt any international military attack against its nuclear program and start a war against Israel from south Lebanon through Hezbollah and several Palestinian armed militias allied with Syria that are stationed in Lebanon.

These experts say that such an Iranian act will give Israel´s Netanyahu government the needed justifications to go ahead and wage an unprecedented destructive war against both Hezbollah and Lebanon and totally cripple their capabilities for many years to come.

These same experts predict that Israel will need from five to six weeks to totally liquidate and eliminate Hezbollah’s leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah, his deputy, Naim Qassem, all the military and political teams working with them, and to dismantle the Lebanese army structure and all its security apparatus that is still following the Syrian doctrine that Syria enforced during 30 years of her tutelage of Lebanon. The Israeli forces will target the Lebanese army leadership, weapons’ caches, barracks, facilities, and members throughout Lebanon.

Syria

Despite the fact that the Syrian Baathist regime has been avoiding during the last three decades any direct military confrontation or even friction with the Israeli army, the Israeli analysts  are under the impression that their country will widen its hit on Syrian targets to include sites in the capital Damascus and in the northern Syrian regions up to the Turkish border in a bid to once and forever eliminate Syria’s chemical and missile programs in addition to the nuclear sites that were built with North Korean and Iranian experts. Syria would be hit more massively if it turns out to the Israelis that Hezbollah’s long-range missiles that could target Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities were Syrian-made (an argument Israel’s generals have been contemplating for a while).

Experts estimate the number of Israeli casualties as a result of the Iranian and Syrian missiles that Hezbollah would launch on Israeli cities and towns in this coming war between 1,000 and 2,000, with a twofold number of injured. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah and Lebanese losses will be four to five times greater than their casualties of the 2006 war. These losses will be around 8,000 dead and twice as many wounded. Many Shiite border villages as well towns and cities in the Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs will be totally destroyed and cease to exist.

Experts estimate the number of the Lebanese that would be displaced from their homes, mainly from south Lebanon, the Bekaa valley and southern Beirut suburbs would be more than a million citizens, with most of them taking refuge in Syria at this time. The same scenario indicates that the Lebanese economic infrastructure will be destroyed and transformed into mere ruins, while all international and Arabic efforts through the convening of aid conferences (e.g. Paris 2 and Paris 3 were special international economic conferences held in Paris to aid Lebanon in reconstruction) in order to raise funds for reconstruction will take for many years to be productive.

British defense officials have affirmed that this grim, intimidating and scary picture predicted by the Israeli experts for the coming year seems to be very close to the actual devastating reality that will hit Lebanon in the next war. The Israelis,  as they are advocating worldwide, are solidly determined to close the Hezbollah case once and or all, due to the fact that wish to eliminate the possibility of any future wars and finally achieve security on their northern border.

Click Here to read the Arabic version of this analysis

http://www.10452lccc.com/elias.arabic09/hamied01.01.10.htm

Elias Bejjani

Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator

Email phoenicia@hotmail.com

Israel backs Obama’s push for sanctions on Iran – washingtonpost.com.

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 1, 2010

JERSUSALEM — Israeli officials say they will support President Obama’s move to impose sanctions on Iran as a next step in the standoff over the country’s nuclear program, though the narrower measures being considered by the White House may fall short of the “crippling” restrictions advocated here.

With the expiration of the United States’ year-end deadline for Iran to resolve the issue, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “focused on working with the international community to upgrade the pressure on Iran in a way that makes the Iranian regime know that its nuclear program is unacceptable, that they are going to pay a price that will make them rethink,” said spokesman Mark Regev. Obama “has been successful in galvanizing an international coalition that many people were cynical about. We are on the same page.”

The endorsement is significant because it comes from a country that is considered the most likely to launch a military strike to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust and his anti-Israel rhetoric have led Netanyahu to draw parallels to the years preceding World War II, and Israeli officials have said that all options are open in preparing for what some here regard as an “existential” threat.

Israelis were initially skeptical of Obama’s decision to engage Iran diplomatically, worried it would lead to the same end as previous diplomatic overtures — years of talks and ineffective resolutions while Iran continued its nuclear development.

The events of the last few months, however, helped curb the doubts. Ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran have created the sense of a regime vulnerable to pressure, while revelations about the extent and nature of the country’s nuclear program have broadened international support for action.

Israeli officials and analysts say they understand the limits Obama faces in pushing more stringent measures through the U.N. Security Council, where China holds a veto and remains hesitant to act against the Islamic republic. But they also say Obama now shares their sense of urgency and will soon propose a meaningful set of restrictions on the Iranian leadership — sticking to a rough deadline he mentioned in a meeting with Netanyahu in May.

With European nations and, more importantly, Russia looking poised to go along, “Israel is a spectator, like most other countries in the international community,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon. “We trust that Obama and the U.S. will lead.”

Along with the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Iran has been at the core of U.S.-Israeli discussions since Obama and Netanyahu took office in early 2009. They began with an overlapping set of priorities — Obama viewing establishment of a Palestinian state as key to curbing Iran’s influence over Islamist radicals in the region, and Netanyahu viewing Iranian influence as a security threat that needed to be addressed for the conflict with the Palestinians to be resolved.

Beyond the risk of an Iranian nuclear strike on Israel — considered unlikely because of Israel’s nuclear deterrent capacity and the possible U.S. response — Netanyahu has argued that a nuclear Iran would destabilize moderate Arab states in the region and embolden Iran-supported groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that sit on Israel’s borders.

Obama and Netanyahu seem to have reached an understanding, with some of Netanyahu’s overtures to the Palestinians winning U.S. support and Obama’s policy toward Iran gaining Israeli trust.

Meanwhile, talk of an Israeli strike has been tempered by discussion of the complexity of such an operation and the likelihood that it would do little other than delay Iran’s progress.

“As long as Obama is engaged in some kind of diplomatic effort, Israel is going to wait and see how it plays out,” said Emily Landau, director of the arms control program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It is in Israel’s interest for it to be dealt with diplomatically. The military option is only getting more and more difficult.”

Other options are being discussed. At a Jerusalem news conference this week, Canadian lawmaker and former justice minister Irwin Cotler announced an effort to try Iran on grounds that its actions and the statements of its leaders put it in violation of international treaties on genocide prevention.

Cotler, who has close ties to Israel, has been discussing the initiative with Israeli leaders as a way to further pressure Iran using international law — a sensitive topic here because of similar efforts to target Israeli leaders and military officials for their country’s recent war in the Gaza Strip. The initiative could also help lay the groundwork under international law for military action, if all diplomatic efforts are exhausted.

“A nuclear, genocidal, rights-violating Iran is a clear and present danger to international peace and security,” Cotler said. “There have been deadlines before. We should not wait for atrocities.”

Israelis ponder the perils of hitting Iran – UPI.com.

Iran: The last resort | Columnists | Jerusalem Post.

As 2009 draws to a close and the second decade of the 21st century looms before us, there is no greater danger facing the world than the prospect of a nuclear Iran.

As the events of recent weeks have made abundantly clear, sanctions and diplomacy have utterly failed to stop Teheran’s march down the road to an atomic arsenal. The ayatollahs have gleefully ignored repeated warnings from the West, and stubbornly insisted on proceeding apace toward nuclear proficiency.

We can no longer continue to ignore this reality. Our future and everything we hold dear is at stake. The danger is simply too great, and the threat is too real. As frightening as it sounds, Israel must give serious consideration to bombing Iran before it is too late.

MAKE NO mistake. If a halt is not put to Iran’s efforts, we will soon wake up to discover the would-be Hitler of Persia with his finger on the button, threatening Israel and the world with nuclear blackmail and destruction.

What the Nazi leader could only dream of accomplishing more than half a century ago, will soon be within reach of his Iranian disciple. Indeed, the clock is already winding down and we are nearing the end of the game, as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scientists prepare to cross the threshold and storm past the nuclear goal line.

Speaking before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a chilling account of just how close Iran is to meeting its nefarious goal. By early 2010, he said, the mullahs will have the technology to build a nuclear bomb, and they will be able to produce one within a year. That means that sometime in the next few weeks or months, Teheran will reach the technological point of no return, beyond which lies a future clouded in darkness and uncertainty.And so, less than 1,000 miles east of Jerusalem, a new Auschwitz is steadily being prepared as the world dithers over what to do.

MONTHS AGO, Washington and its allies set a year-end deadline for Iran to accept a deal drawn up by the UN under which their uranium would be enriched abroad. But even this proved unacceptable to the hard-liners in Teheran, who are not exactly quaking in their boots at the prospect of additional economic penalties.

In a speech delivered last Tuesday, Ahmadinejad made clear that he remains unmoved by warnings from the West. The international community, he said, can give Iran “as many deadlines as they want, we don’t care.”

And why should they? The UN Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran with little to show for it. Does anyone really think that yet another round of injunctions and hand-wringing will do the trick?

In fact, just a few days ago, reports surfaced in the press that Iran was once again actively seeking to violate existing UN resolutions by trying to import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan to further bolster its enrichment program.

This is just one more sign that the West’s efforts to freeze Teheran’s nuclear program have come up short.

MOREOVER, THE Iranians continue to improve their strategic missile capability, heightening the peril should they succeed in constructing a nuclear warhead. In mid-December Iran test-fired its latest missile, the Sajjil-2, a sophisticated solid-fuel rocket that is more advanced and more accurate than its predecessors. With a range of 1,200 miles, or nearly 2,000 kilometers, it can hit anywhere in Israel and even reach parts of Europe.

Iran’s defense minister boasted on state television that the Sajjil-2 can be fired more quickly and reaches its target faster, which makes it harder to intercept or shoot down. Since it is a solid-fuel rocket, it can be prepped in advance and hidden in silos, thereby decreasing its vulnerability to a preemptive attack.

And lest there be any doubt about the ayatollahs’ real intentions, the Times of London reported two weeks ago that Western intelligence agencies have obtained an internal Iranian document detailing plans for neutron initiators. These are the triggers which set off nuclear explosions, and they have no other use.

TAKEN TOGETHER, all these pieces combine to form a frighteningly unambiguous picture: Iran is terrifyingly close to becoming a nuclear power. With each passing day, this nightmare scenario moves one step closer to fruition.

And so we must look ourselves directly in the mirror and ask a simple yet very pointed question: Are we really prepared to allow the tyrant of Teheran to threaten our very existence?

An atomic Iran would transform the strategic dynamic of the Middle East, strengthen radical and fundamentalist forces and spark a region-wide nuclear arms race. It would raise the specter of terrorist groups allied to Teheran, such as Hamas and Hizbullah, getting their hands on the most devastating of weapons.

And we all know how Iran’s leaders have repeatedly and brazenly vowed to exterminate the Jewish state and wipe us off the map.

The alarm bells are ringing and the danger is near. Iran can and must be stopped, and military force may be the only way to do so. Six decades ago, the world watched in silence as the Germans tossed us into Hitler’s ovens and turned six million Jews into ashes. We cannot assume they will act any differently if Iran seeks to do the same.

So we dare not tarry. There is little room left for delay. If the world fails to act, the option of last resort may be our only choice.

The Yeshiva World » Are the War Drums Beating?

Despite continued messages of calm from senior government ministers, there is increased discussion surrounding the distribution of gas masks, bomb shelters and the existential threat faced from Iran, as Tehran continues towards their march to nuclear independence.

In addition, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee session this week that Hizbullah has over 40,000 rockets, adding that Hamas today is stronger and better equipped than it was prior to Operation Cast Lead.

The Security Cabinet convened on Wednesday to discuss pertinent issues, including preparing the homefront for war. They also discussed the situation in the north regarding bomb shelters and other aspects of area preparedness.

Just yesterday, Tuesday, YWN-Israel reported the IDF wrapped up a major training exercise in the north, assessing the military’s capabilities in the event of a major attack from Hizbullah and Syria, involving convention and chemical missile attacks.

Israel recalls all diplomats for conference | FTO.

Israel Says Iran Close to Nuclear Capability | Voice of America

Israel also alarmed by Iran’s recent test firing of its longest-range missile, previous threats by Iran’s president

Robert Berger | Jerusalem 28 December 2009

Photo: AP

ISNA photo claims to show launch of Sejil 2 missile, 16 Dec 2009

Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Iran is moving quickly toward the “point of no return.”  Speaking behind closed doors to the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Barak said Iran will have the technology to build a nuclear bomb by early next year and could produce one in 2011.

Cabinet Minister Yuval Steinitz is a former chairman of the committee.

“Iran is trying to gain nuclear weapons.  And if nothing serious, nothing dramatic will be done by the West, it will get there in a year or two,” he said.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Steinitz says Israel has proof that the Islamic Republic is building the atom bomb.

“There are good, I would say even excellent evidence and intelligence showing that this is the case.  And this is crystal clear to all Western intelligence services,” he added.

Israel is alarmed by Iran’s recent test firing of its longest-range missile and previous threats by its president to wipe the Jewish state “off the map.”  So Israeli leaders are calling for tougher international sanctions on Iran before it is too late.

But Israel has warned time and again that if diplomacy fails, it might launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Comprehensive Home Front Command Exercise in the North.

The Home Front Command held a comprehensive exercise in the North. Photo: Itamar Hassan, IDF Spokesperson

The Home Front Command held a comprehensive exercise in the North. Photo: Itamar Hassan, IDF Spokesperson

The Home Front Command trained correct procedures during missile firing and other threats in the North of Israel

Nadav Deutscher

An attempted abduction of IDF soldiers on the northern border, fire opened on IDF forces, the Israeli Air Force hit terrorist targets in response, rockets fired from Lebanon onto Israeli territory, the Syrian military joined the battles and fired missiles, thousands of civilians were forced to stay in bomb shelters – all of this did not really happen, but took place during a comprehensive training exercise held by the Home Front Command last week in the North of Israel.

“It is a routine exercise, and we hold exercises like this quite a lot with the objective of testing and practicing a specific model each time,” explains Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the GOC of the Home Front Command, after the successful completion of the five day long exercise. During this exercise, the Home Front Command tested nuclear rocket artillery for the first time in its history. In addition, in an unprecedented effort to simulate real life situations, the forces participating in the exercise were not told about the exact course of events before the exercise, so that they had to react spontaneously to the threats and complications during the exercise.

The Valleys District of the Home Front Command dealt with most of the missiles fired during the large exercise. Its commander, Col. (res.) Arik Tal is very satisfied: “This is the first time that we didn’t receive any information about the exercise beforehand. And still, the soldiers learned fast during the exercise, and after a test and an error everything went very well. I definitely see the exercise as very successful.”

The exercise also tested for the first time the use of scouts which report on the location of fallen missiles and rockets. After a nuclear missile hit, the scouts informed the relevant forces. Col. Anouar Sa’ad, the commander of the Home Front Command Northern Department says: “We understand that because of the weaponry arsenal in the hands of the enemy, we need to supervise the area better. Civilians can’t report on the location of a missile properly. The scouts, who locate the missile and send the forces to the correct place, can make the process a lot more efficient.”

International News | US eyes more targeted sanctions against Tehran.

Washington worries broad sanctions could hurt Iran protesters

A protester holds a sign reading: Iran is put to fire and blood, during a protest in Paris

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

The United States and its allies are weighing focused sanctions against Iran’s leadership rather than broad-based penalties that they fear could harm the protest movement, officials and diplomats said.

Increasingly frustrated by Iranian defiance over its nuclear program, the Obama administration has been crafting a “menu” of sanctions that could be imposed by the United Nations or in concert by the United States and its European allies.

U.S. officials, congressional aides and Western diplomats said the administration has grown increasingly cool to broad-based sanctions targeting the oil sector with the aim of destabilizing the Iranian economy.

Such measures, while favored by a growing number of U.S. lawmakers, would not only be a hard sell in the U.N. Security Council and Europe, but could have unintended consequences like undercutting Iranian public support for the opposition movement, officials and diplomats said. “This is not about trying to bring Iran to its economic knees. It is about stopping the nuclear weapons program,” said a Western diplomat. Broad-based sanctions aimed at destabilizing the overall economy “would just feed into Iranian paranoia” about the West, according to the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Eight people were killed in anti-government protests on Sunday, and Iran has expanded its crackdown on the groups, arresting at least 20 opposition figures.

“Iron fist of brutality” ” This is not about trying to bring Iran to its economic knees. It is about stopping the nuclear weapons program “ A Western diplomat U.S. President Barack Obama has condemned what he said was the “iron fist of brutality” used to quell the protests and demanded the immediate release of detainees. Iran has rebuffed the West’s year-end deadline to accept an enrichment fuel deal aimed at calming international fears it is trying to build nuclear weapons. A senior Obama administration official said Washington had given up hope of a breakthrough with Iran by Jan. 1, and played down the prospect of Western powers taking concrete steps against Tehran immediately after the deadline passes. The official said discussions over what sanctions to impose were unlikely to begin in earnest within the U.N. Security Council before mid-January. Negotiations could take several months. Support for tougher sanctions against Iran has increased in the U.S. Congress, but Obama administration officials have privately told leading lawmakers that the White House does not at this time support legislation that would curb Iranian imports of gasoline and other refined oil products. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the administration wanted to “ensure that any legislation that emerges preserves the necessary flexibility to pursue the president’s policy.”

Garnering world support Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that the nuclear rights of his country were not negotiable Diplomats said Washington knows that there is little chance of garnering international support for sweeping economic penalties aimed at the broader economy, citing resistance from Russia and China for far more modest penalties. The targeted sanctions being considered by the White House include expanding travel and other restrictions for individuals and institutions with close ties to the leadership and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials said. Some European states favor more sanctions targeting the country’s financial and insurance sector, diplomats said. Officials and experts said the sanctions debate was prompted by the resilience of the opposition protests, which began when a June presidential election returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. “Up until now, the (U.S.) administration thought of sanctions only in the context of altering the Iranian government’s nuclear calculations. I think they’re now thinking a lot harder about what types of punitive measures would be helpful and hurtful to the cause of democratic reform in Iran,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Imposing targeted sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard makes sense because it “potentially kills several birds with one stone,” he said, referring to the Guard’s oversight of the country’s nuclear program, its contacts with militant groups across the region and its role reining in the protests. “If the Obama administration can deprive them of the ability to sign billion-dollar deals with multinational corporations and turn them into an international pariah, I don’t think many tears will be shed for them among the Iranian opposition,” Sadjadpour added.

Tehran’s Effort to Import 1,350 Tons of Purified Uranium Ore from Kazakhstan Violates U.N. Sanctions

via Report: Iran Trying to Smuggle Raw Uranium – CBS News.

(AP) Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Diplomats said the assessment was heightening international concern about Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Such a purified uranium ore deal would be significant because Tehran appears to be running out of the material, which it needs to feed its uranium enrichment program.

The report was drawn up by a member nation of the International Atomic Energy agency and provided to the AP on condition of that the country not be identified because of the confidential nature of the information.

Such imports are banned by the U.N. Security Council.

In New York, Burkina Faso’s U.N. Ambassador Michel Kafando, a co-chair of the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee, referred questions Tuesday about a potential deal between Iran and Kazakhstan to his sanctions adviser, Zongo Saidou.

Saidou told the AP that, as far as he knew, none of the U.N.’s member nations have alerted the committee about any such allegations. “We don’t have any official information yet regarding this kind of exchange between the two countries,” Saidou said. “I don’t have any information; I don’t have any proof.”

A senior U.N. official said the agency was aware of the intelligence report’s assessment but could not yet draw conclusions. He demanded anonymity for discussing confidential information. A Western diplomat from a member of the IAEA’s 35-nation board said the report was causing “concern” among countries that have seen it and generating “intelligence chatter.” The diplomat also requested anonymity for discussing intelligence information.

A two-page summary of the report obtained by the AP said deal could be completed within weeks. It said Tehran was willing to pay $450 million, or close to 315 million euros, for the shipment.

The price is high because of the secret nature of the deal and due to Iran’s commitment to keep secret the elements supplying the material,” said the summary. An official of the country that drew up the report said “elements” referred to state employees acting on their own without approval of the Kazakh government.

After-hours calls put in to offices of Kazatomprom, the Kazak state uranium company, in Kazakhstan and Moscow, were not answered Tuesday. Iranian nuclear officials also did not pick up their telephones.

Purified ore, or uranium oxide, is processed into a uranium gas, which is then spun and re-spun to varying degrees of enrichment. Low enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel, and upper-end high enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze its enrichment program and related activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies such aspirations, saying it wants to enrich only to fuel an envisaged network of power reactors.