Iran Nuclear Standoff

[Skywatch_NC]

This standoff is escalating to a very dangerous period .Hopefully as I haved been saying in posts here the people in Iran start a movement to boot that tyrant person who is leading that country now.[/quote]

Thing is...there's just as many whackos behind that guy for next candidate...so it'll just go on and on and on...

[cycloneye]

ASSOCIATED PRESS.Updated: 1:29 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2006

VIENNA, Austria

- Iran warned Friday it no longer would consider a Kremlin proposal to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council over suspicions it might be seeking nuclear weapons.

If Iran’s nuclear file goes to the Security Council, “there will be no way we can continue with the Russian proposal,” said Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of the powerful National Security Council and a top nuclear negotiator.

He was referring to attempts to persuade Iran to shift its uranium enrichment program to Russia to prevent its misuse for nuclear arms. The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the world body’s nuclear watchdog, is considering whether to refer Iran to the Security Council over the disputed program.


But Russia’s chief IAEA delegate, Grigory Berdennikov, denied any threat to the proposal.

“Our offer is still on the table and the negotiations will continue,” he said Friday.

FIRSE DEFINITIVE STATEMENT

Officials in Tehran have previously suggested referral could endanger the proposal. But Vaeidi’s comments were the first to state outright that Iran would stop considering the plan, which has broad international backing from nations concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed only at generating electricity.

Referral by the 35-nation IAEA board appeared to be a certainty, but its Friday meeting was adjourned until Saturday morning, allowing U.S. and European diplomats to seek broad backing for reporting Tehran to the council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.

Vaeidi acknowledged that referral seemed unavoidable, telling reporters: “This is an adopted draft.

“It means that the U.S. and the EU-3 are intending to kill two issues, first to stop diplomacy and second to kill the Russian proposal,” he said, alluding to France, Britain and Germany, the countries proposing referral in a resolution before the board.

He reiterated earlier threats that Iran will resume full-scale work on uranium enrichment and stop honoring an agreement giving IAEA inspectors broad powers to conduct short-notice inspections of his country’s nuclear program.

“I advise them not to make a historical mistake,” he said, alluding to nations actively backing referral.

Limited support for Iran
Backing for Iran at the Vienna meeting appeared to be limited Friday. Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and a few other countries remained opposed, while India was said to be leaning toward supporting referral.

Egypt, one senior diplomat said, was insisting on a mention of a nuclear-free Middle East zone — an allusion to demands that Israel disarm.


As I haved said this standoff is getting very serious as time goes by and personnaly I dont see how some kind of mi,itary action can be avoided at this point.

ERiC I agree that the options after this one are not good but never say never about reform in Iran in the future.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Iran to do full-scale uranium enrichment in response to IAEA vote
afp ^


Iran is to move ahead on full-scale uranium enrichment in retaliation for being brought before the UN Security Council over its disputed nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said Saturday.

"Our government has to implement full-scale enrichment," Javad Vaidi, head of the Iranian delegation to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting told reporters.


Looks like Iran is choosing a war

[cycloneye]

Iran launched 'secret' rocket test
From correspondents in Berlin
February 04, 2006
IRAN secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles, the German daily Die Welt reported in its issue to appear today.

The test, conducted by members of the Revolutionary Guard led by Yahya Rahim Safavi, was successful, according to Western diplomats cited by the newspaper, which did not indicate the location where the test took place.

On January 28, Safavi said that Iran would use its ballistic missiles if it was attacked.

"Iran has a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres," he said on Iranian public television.

"We do not intend to attack any country, but if we are attacked, we are capable of effectively responding. Our position is defensive."

Mr Safavi was referring to the Shahab-3 missiles that Iran possesses which can reach Israel and US bases in the Middle East.


Military action looks more closer than ever as Iran is testing and enriching uranimun and not backing down on this.

[cycloneye]

Updated: 6:44 a.m. ET Feb. 4, 2006
VIENNA, Austria - The board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog voted on Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council because of suspicions it is trying to make atomic weapons, a diplomat who was in the session said.

Iran has threatened to respond to the move -- initiated by the United States, EU powers, Russia and China -- by curbing U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities and scrapping talks on a Russian compromise proposal.

The diplomat said a European Union-sponsored resolution aimed at increasing pressure on Iran to improve its cooperation with an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of its nuclear programme was passed by the 35-nation IAEA board.

[feederband]

Only time now...

[canegrl04]

Crap .Now I am really starting to get a sick feeling in my stomache

[cycloneye]

Iran Plans to Resume Uranium Enrichment
Feb 04 1:44 PM US/Eastern
Email this story

TEHRAN, Iran


Iran's president Saturday ordered the resumption of uranium enrichment and an end to snap inspections of its facilities after the U.N. nuclear watchdog voted to report Tehran to the Security Council.

"As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol and other cooperation beyond the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has to be suspended under the law," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a letter addressed to Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

The state television report of the order said it was issued to Aghazadeh as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.





As I see this situation now it's a matter of time that the military option will be on the table.

[canegrl04]

I don't see any other way out of this. Do we let this go for as long as we can,hoping that this guy will be overthrown for a US friendly leader? If thats the case,thats taking a big chance.Iran's looney leader could have a nuke bomb ready before that ever happens. This guy certainly is not afraid of the US and its allies.The only way is to nip it in the bud,damn any consequences

[cycloneye]

Updated: 2:42 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2006
WASHINGTON - Washington said the world rebuked Iran in a vote Saturday at the U.N. nuclear watchdog that reported it to the Security Council after Tehran underestimated international fears it seeks atomic bombs.

The United States also vowed to use the Security Council to intensify diplomatic pressure to make Iran curb its nuclear programs, which Tehran says are for the peaceful generation of electricity.

“It is a clear rebuke from the international community,” the State Department’s No. 3 official, Nicholas Burns, said in a conference call about the vote for reporters by American diplomats.

“Iran has been following a diplomatic strategy where it thought it was going to be able to go ahead with progressively important measures along the fuel cycle but it has miscalculated,” he added. “Clearly it did not predict the strength and the depth of international concern.”

A defiant Tehran pledged to retaliate over the International Atomic Energy Agency decision by curbing U.N. inspections immediately and pursuing full-scale uranium enrichment—which can be used to help build bombs or produce energy.

But the United States will not back down in the face of such threats, which were typical of Iran’s decision to choose confrontation over negotiation, senior U.S. diplomats said on the conference call.


Instead, the United States, which has not ruled out military action against the Islamic republic, will begin unspecified measures at the council starting in March to gradually press Iran to limit its programs.

“We are going to ratchet up the pressure step-by-step,” Burns said.

Washington succeeded after three years of efforts to have the Security Council take up Iran’s case, he said, even though Tehran “pulled out all the stops” to prevent America from enlisting major powers such as Europe, Russia and China to back the move.

The U.S. drive intensified after Iranian-European negotiations broke down last month.

Only the “gang of three” of U.S. adversaries—Venezuela, Cuba and Syria—voted against the IAEA resolution, Burns said.

“It has no other defenders in the world,” he added.


The above is a statement by the #3 State Department official in which he says the military option is not ruled out..

[canegrl04]

WEST MUST NOT WAIT TOO LONG TO ACT- Richard Perle (Feb.4)


Story via Reuters in an interview with Richard Perle,he stated we can't wait two minutes before Iran has nukes to act militarily. Does not rule out military force.

[feederband]

WEST MUST NOT WAIT TOO LONG TO ACT- Richard Perle (Feb.4)


Story via Reuters in an interview with Richard Perle,he stated we can't wait two minutes before Iran has nukes to act militarily. Does not rule out military force.

Kind of agree...I think the second Iran has a Nuc. weapon they will attack Isreal with it...

[cycloneye]

I heard in the past few days that Iran has the largest Ballistic missle stockpile in the world so we have to stop them before they pull the trigger.President Bush has said that the U.S would defend Israel from any attack by Iran with those Ballistic Missles.

[feederband]

I heard in the past few days that Iran has the largest Ballistic missle stockpile in the world so we have to stop them before they pull the trigger.President Bush has said that the U.S would defend Israel from any attack by Iran with those Ballistic Missles.

Yes the have the means...Just need the rest..

[cycloneye]

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel likened Iran's nuclear plans on Saturday to the threat posed by the Nazis in their early days, as top U.S. officials urged a tough line to stop Tehran from making an atomic bomb.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused the Islamic republic of being the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, a charge his Iranian counterpart rejected as "ridiculous" and "outrageous".

Addressing the annual Munich security conference, Merkel said countries around the world had underestimated the Nazi threat as Adolf Hitler rose to power.

"Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism (Nazism) was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited'," she told the assembled world defense policy makers.

"There were times when people could have reacted differently and, in my view, Germany is obliged to do something at the early stages ... We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program."

As she was speaking a few hundred metres (yards) from the Munich pub where Hitler launched his "Beer Hall Putsch" in 1923, the board of governors of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency voted in Vienna to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over concerns it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is purely aimed at civilian energy production.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has compounded concerns in the West and elsewhere with recent comments denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Post-war Germany, conscious of the Nazis' crimes, has made support for Israel a pillar of its foreign policy and Merkel said her country could not tolerate Ahmadinejad's stance.


German Chancellor Angela Merkel compares the actual president of Iran with Hitler and that is a scrary thought.

[greeng13]

although it has never actually admitted it. israel is considered to be in the posession of nuclear arms.

i feel if Iran tries to "wipe israel off the map" they might feel what Hiroshima and Nagasaki did in WWII.

JMHO.

The USA would more than happily oblige to help Isarael out with the use of conventional weapons but when faced with such a tyrant in a neighboring country i could easily see Israel saying in effect "enough is enough!"

[cycloneye]

U.S. Sen John McCain, R-Arizona, said military action is the last option for resolving the crisis, but it can't be ruled out if all diplomatic efforts fail.

McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that if Iran gained nuclear weapons, it would destabilize the entire Middle East, especially since Ahmadinejad's recent comments that Israel should be wiped off the map indicate that Iran is "dedicated to the extinction of their neighbor."

"It's a very bad option. It's the worst of all options except for allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons," McCain said. "We will exhaust all possible options before seriously considering the military option, but it cannot be taken off the table."


Since this standoff started is the first time that someone says openly that military action is a viable option.

[Terrell]

What's the range on Iran's missiles? I've heard that they can hit Tel-Aviv or any other city in Israel, I wonder can their weapons reach any part of the US.

[feederband]

They can't reach us...But they would gladly give some nut case terrorist one.That could reach us........

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

In that nut case would come a cross our southern Borders.