Top
Stories
AP: "The U.N. nuclear chief said
Monday that Iran is not cooperating with an investigation into suspected secret
work on nuclear weapons. Yukio Amano told the U.N. General Assembly that talks
between the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have
intensified this year after an IAEA report in November 2011 said it had
'credible information that Iran had carried out activities relevant to the
development of a nuclear explosive device,' he said. 'However, no concrete
results have been achieved so far,' Amano said. While the IAEA continues to
verify that Iran's declared nuclear material is not being diverted from peaceful
purposes, 'Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to
provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and
activities,' Amano said. 'Therefore, we cannot conclude that all nuclear
material in Iran is in peaceful activities,' he said." http://t.uani.com/VPwcBn
Reuters: "A slowdown in Iran's accumulation of its most
sensitive nuclear material may have helped put off the threat of a new Middle
East war for now, but Tehran's expanding uranium-enrichment capacity suggests
any relief could be short-lived. By dedicating a big part of its higher-enriched
uranium to make civilian reactor fuel, Iran is removing it from a stockpile that
could be used to make nuclear weapons if refined further and which would
otherwise have grown faster. This may explain why Israel - assumed to be the
region's only nuclear-armed state - recently signaled that an attack was not
imminent, after months of speculation that it might be. But the trend that has
emerged in U.N. nuclear watchdog reports on Iran this year could yet be
reversible, proliferation experts say: the material can be converted back to
uranium gas as long as it has not been introduced into a working reactor. Doing
so 'would take a bit of time, but not more than a month or two, using technology
the Iranians have already demonstrated that they have mastered,' a Western envoy
said. In addition, Iran's rapid installation of new centrifuges - the machines
that enrich uranium by spinning at supersonic speed - in an underground site
gives it the capability to rapidly increase output, analysts say."
http://t.uani.com/SJzQ1e
Daily Telegraph: "Speaking on
a visit to the United Arab Emirates, David Cameron said that he believed Tehran
was trying to develop nuclear weapons which he said would make the Middle East
'a more unstable and more dangerous place'. He said: 'We should do everything
we can to stop it happening.' ... During a 30 minute question and answer
sessions with students in Abu Dhabi, he said: 'Iran does pose a threat in two
ways. First of all, if Iran is embarked on trying to acquire a nuclear weapon,
as I believe it is, that is a threat in itself, particularly given what Iran has
said about other countries in the region, and in particular about Israel, about
wanting to wipe it of the map. In itself it is a hugely concerning development,
a desperately bad development for our world and that is why we should do
everything we can to top it happening. But I think there is a second reason why
it is so concerning and that is because I think it could trigger a nuclear arms
race across the whole region. That would consume a huge amount of resources and
energy but also I think make the Middle East a more dangerous, more unstable
part of the world." http://t.uani.com/QjyRqb
Nuclear Program
NYT: "Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated his willingness to attack the
Iranian nuclear program without support from Washington or the world, returning
to an aggressive posture that he had largely abandoned since his United Nations
speech in September... 'If someone sits here as the prime minister of Israel and
he can't take action on matters that are cardinal to the existence of this
country, its future and its security, and he is totally dependent on receiving
approval from others, then he is not worthy of leading,' Mr. Netanyahu added. 'I
can make these decisions.' ... As has been the case over the past two years,
however, it is impossible to know whether his hawkish words are harbingers of
deeds or part of a strategic campaign to scare nations into increasing economic
and diplomatic pressure on Iran. 'I am not eager to go to war,' Mr. Netanyahu
said in the seven-minute interview. 'I have been creating very heavy pressure,
and part of this pressure comes from the knowledge some of the most powerful
nations in the world have that we are serious. This isn't a show, this is not
false.'" http://t.uani.com/VPvd40
Reuters: "From a
suspected Israeli airstrike in Sudan to cyber warfare in the Gulf and a drone
shot down over Israel, the largely hidden war between Iran and its foes seems
heating up and spreading. Despite months of speculation, most experts and
governments believe the risk of a direct Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear
program stirring regional conflict has eased, at least for now. But all sides,
it seems, are finding other ways to fight. For the US and European powers , the
main focus remains on oil export sanctions that are inflicting ever more damage
on Iran's economy. But the Obama administration and Israel have also ploughed
resources into covert operations - a campaign that now appears to have prompted
an increasingly sophisticated Iranian reaction. With Iranian hackers suspected
of severely damaging Saudi oil facility computers and a suspected Hezbollah
drone shot down over Israel, tactics and tools once seen as the sole purview of
the United States are now clearly being used on both sides. The mounting body
count in Syria, some believe, is also in part a consequence of the proxy war
being waged there." http://t.uani.com/VyaeHA
Reuters:
"Discriminatory implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has
left many countries feeling that being a party to the anti-atom bomb pact
hinders cooperation in the field atomic energy, Iran's U.N. ambassador said on
Monday. Western diplomats and analysts have long expressed concern that Iran
might one day follow North Korea's example and pull out of the NPT and produce a
bomb. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 and tested nuclear devices in
2006 and 2009. Speaking at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on the annual
report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian Ambassador
Mohammad Khazaee sought to assure countries that despite Tehran's reservations
about the way the treaty is enforced, Iran does not plan to pull out."
http://t.uani.com/QkpeHD
SanctionsReuters:
"Switzerland's neutrality is being tested as Brussels and Washington raise
pressure over gaps in sanctions against Iran, in particular measures against its
oil industry. While Switzerland has replicated the western line on Libyan and
Syrian economic sanctions, it has reasserted its traditional neutrality over
Iran and opted out of some of the measures passed by Europe and the United
States... 'We are not putting in place, or are applying differently, sanctions
that seem to us to go too far and tend towards regime change. In particular,
that is the issue with the central bank, financial restrictions and the oil
embargo,' Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter told Reuters... The Swiss
government chose not to join the European Union's embargo on Iranian oil in July
and did not add Iran's central bank to a sanctions list. The gulf widened
further in October, when the EU voted to tighten sanctions again."
http://t.uani.com/ROD6oA
WashPost: "International
efforts to isolate Iran and force it to halt its uranium enrichment program are
having an impact that is both unintended and, for Iranian officials, very much
welcome: a jump in tourism. Although most sectors of Iran's economy are
struggling and oil revenue has steeply declined, foreign purchasing power is at
an all-time high in Iran due to a plunge in the value of the Iranian currency,
the rial. As a result, international travelers sensing a good deal are venturing
to a country that for decades has been considered off-limits to all but the most
intrepid tourists... The number of foreign tourists in Iran reached 3 million
last year, contributing more than $2 billion to the national economy, according
to Iranian data. Tour operators here say the number has risen this year. The
tourists have injected badly needed fuel into a country that has been hobbled by
runaway inflation, limited export markets and difficulty in obtaining raw
materials... The vast majority of Iran's visitors come for religious reasons,
making pilgrimages to Shiite holy sites."
http://t.uani.com/VPvG69
Trend: "Turkish Airlines (THY)
is struggling to collect 50 million euros from Iran, a sum of money that is said
to be blocked on account of difficulties in transferring money, a problem
seemingly exacerbated by a shortage of foreign currency in sanctions-hit Iran
Today`s Zaman reported... Payments for tickets which THY agencies sell in Iran
are deposited into a bank in Iran and some time is needed to transfer this money
to Turkey through the Central Bank of Iran. Hamdi Topçu, the chairman of THY,
was in Iran in September to meet with the Iranian vice president and officials
from the Central Bank of Iran to find a solution to the problem. Talking about
the sum of money that THY was due to receive from Iran, Topçu earlier said,
'There was some difficulty in transferring this sum of money to the Turkish
Central Bank but we overcome that problem, but some problems still persist.'"
http://t.uani.com/Ug3jTd
Terrorism
NYT:
"Relations between Iran and Canada, already at a low point after Canada severed
diplomatic ties in September, worsened Monday as Iran denounced a Canadian court
ruling that froze Iranian government assets in Canada. The Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said Iran held Canada's government
responsible for the court order, issued last week, which applied to Iran's
embassy in Ottawa, two former cultural centers and a diplomatic residence.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Mr. Mehmanparast as saying
'the political motivations behind such a move are not hidden to anybody.' The
Ontario Superior Court of Justice temporarily froze the assets in response to a
request filed by the family of an American, Marla Bennett, who was killed in a
Jerusalem bombing 11 years ago that was said to be the work of Hamas, the
militant Palestinian group supported by Iran." http://t.uani.com/SJBhg3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 comment:
I don't know why American are so crazy about Iranian nuclear program and on the other hand they have already have that kind of Material....
Abu Dhabi Tourism
Post a Comment