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Iran on brink of nuclear capability -IAEA

I see no confirmed news saying anything that Iran has nuclear weapons. about the ability to produce nuclear weapons, that's what every expert with a functioning brain expected to hear. so why this topic says Iran has nuclear weapons? That's beyond my understanding I guess. any one can explain?

Go and read the first post. It says weapons capability not the weapons itself. Till now it was only "experts" you referred to that were saying Iran has the capability but there was no confirmation of that by any international organization. Now IAEA the supreme atomic body of the world has confirmed it. I think now any expert with a functioning brain would know that Iran even might have the weapons too. Since IAEA can only inspect areas which Iran allows and declares as having nuclear materials in them.

Iran is a large country so if IRGC wanted to seal off a few young scientists in a large cave for a few years, which I am sure it is not difficult for them to do, IAEA would have no access, right or obligation to visit the cave. Go and pull out news about official Pakistani statements from 1980's and early 1990's. The standard line in those statements when Pakistan was being accused of having weapons was: "our nuclear program is peaceful and the world should not worry". It is amazing to see, how much Iranians have learned from Pakistan. I for one can not believe that Iran having the engineering knowledge and capability to build nukes would resist the temptation. If I was an IRGC general my heart would go giddies to physically touch an actual atomic weapon with its red LED's and massive cold metallic cold surface. Do you think Iranian Generals are so austere that they have resisted this manhood urge till now? I do not think so. Even in mid-1980s the IRGC head had written a letter to Khomeini published later that basically had requested Khomeini to provide IRGC with nukes. This is official record. Do you think IRGC has changed its mind? If you ask me IAEA is just saying Iran has the capability something that IAEA was previously saying Iran does not have, but I think Iran has already started making nukes and it is only testing which Iran is waiting for a good time to do.

Since IRGC guys are crazy they might not mind Iran to be attacked since that way, it would give them the excuse to test the weapons. An Israeli air strike would be very limited and have no strategic value but Iran can get a strategic value out of it by testing its nukes. This is the game Iran plays. It is all clear.
 
Man this is messed up. I hope whatever happens there are no or very few civilian casualties. I am afraid something is actually gonna happen soon though. to be honest I am very skeptical a military strike will actually achieve the aims of Israel and the US.

But on the other hand diplomacy has been tried for so long and the Teheran regime has been deceiving the international community constantly...
So at least from Israels perspective a necessity to act is somewhat understandable to everyone who examines the situation closely.. That doesn't mean I support it.. neither will the German gov most likely. I am just saying this is a very difficult situation.
 
IAEA report says Iran engaged in nuclear weapon-related activities

"Credible" evidence showed that Iran has engaged in projects and experiments relevant to the development of nuclear weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tuesday in its latest report on the country's nuclear program.

"The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," said IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano in the report.

After strict, comprehensive and reliable evaluation on owned extensive information, IAEA believed that Iran had carried out "organized and systematical" activities "specific to nuclear weapons" at least until the end of 2003, the report said.

The report also hinted that Iran probably was still conducting works related to nuclear weapons development until the end of last year, including trial producing of related components, tests and experiments.

Some of these activities are possibly still in progress, the report said.

The UN nuclear watchdog also expressed its serious concern in the report over the issue that Iran's nuclear program might have military purposes.

The paper contains so far the clearest statement of the IAEA about whether Iran was conducting nuclear programs for military purposes.

However, the paper was still unable to reach a clear-out conclusion about whether Iran is attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has long insisted that its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes such as meeting the ever-growing energy needs.

Analysts believe that the United States and its western allies will cite the findings in the report to push forward with more severe and crippling sanctions.

Teheran completely rejected the report and insisted that Iran had no nuclear weapon program, criticizing that the IAEA report was "unbalanced, unprofessional and politically motivated".

IAEA report says Iran engaged in nuclear weapon-related activities
 
What a joke, Iran has no working Nukes now, IAEA report only said that they are trying to build a bomb.
 
What a joke, Iran has no working Nukes now, IAEA report only said that they are trying to build a bomb.

Exactly.Some idiots over here are jumping up and down saying that Iran is the 2nd Islamic nuclear power etc.
 
What a joke, Iran has no working Nukes now, IAEA report only said that they are trying to build a bomb.

Not even that. It said Iran had made studies into nuclear bomb designs. That doesn't mean they are planning to build a bomb, only that they are trying to keep that option open.

---------- Post added at 11:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------

As far as I am concerned in the past 10 years the US has done things far more damaging to Saudi Arabia than they did to Iran.

Obviously. That's why you don't want to become an American puppet. You get used if you're a puppet.
 
Iran 'will never compromise rights' in nuclear programme
TEHRAN: Iran's envoy to the IAEA said Wednesday his country 'will never compromise its legitimate rights' in pursuing its atomic programme.

"As a responsible state, the Islamic republic of Iran will never compromise its legitimate rights and will continue to comply with its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, as cited by the official IRNA news agency.

"Iran will continue its peaceful nuclear activities. And, just as many other previous claims were proven baseless, this time also they will not bear any results," he said.

Soltanieh stressed that Iran's nuclear programme was entirely peaceful and that Iran would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.

His comments came a day after the IAEA released its report saying "credible" evidence existed to suggest Iran had done work towards building nuclear warheads.

Soltanieh, who late Tuesday dismissed the report as 'politically motivated', on Wednesday accused IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of making a 'historic mistake' in releasing the document.

Amano had displayed 'unbalanced, unprofessional and political' behaviour in publishing the report, which contained 'false claims' based on information from Iran's arch-foe the United States and other countries, Soltanieh said. (AFP)
 
This issue has slowly slowly become quite serious. I hope better sense prevails on both sides. We don't want to see another war.:tdown:
 
A bad case of nuclear Iranophobia
Asia Times Online :: A bad case of nuclear Iranophobia

As the climax to a leaking frenzy in Western corporate media that bordered on - literally - nuclear hysteria, United Nations inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally released a report essentially charging that Tehran had tried to design a nuclear weapon to fit in a missile warhead until as late as last year.

According to the report, Iran worked "on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components".

Besides the effort to redesign and miniaturize a Pakistani nuclear weapon, Tehran is also accused of trying to develop a covert


operation to enrich uranium - the "green salt project" - that could be used "in an undisclosed enrichment program".

All this leads the IAEA to express "serious concerns" about research and development "specific to nuclear weapons".

The report sells the notion that while the IAEA has tried for years to monitor declared Iranian stockpiles of uranium ore and processed uranium - currently 73.7 kilograms of 20%-enriched uranium in Natanz plus 4,922 kg of uranium enriched to less than 5% - Tehran, in secret, has been trying to build a nuclear weapon.
Dodgy intel
The IAEA insists is relying on "credible" intelligence - over 1,000 pages of documentation - from more than 10 countries, and has drawn on eight years of "evidence".

Yet the IAEA has no independent means to confirm the enormous mass of information - and disinformation - it receives from mostly Western powers. Mohammad ElBaradei - who was the predecessor of the Japanese Yukya Amano as the head of the IAEA - said so, explicitly, many times. And he always disputed what passes for "Iran intelligence" - knowing it was politicized to the extreme, and trespassed by waves of rumor and speculation.

No wonder ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan had reason to ask whether that was a IAEA report or an American diktat to the meek, easily pressured Amano.

There's nothing even remotely earth-shaking about the report - satellite images and speculation by "diplomats" being sold as irrefutable "intelligence". If this looks like the build-up towards the war on Iraq, that's because it does. Essentially, it's regurgitation of a four-year-old farce, known as the "laptop of death". [1]

The scenario closer to reality - even taking into consideration the existence of a covert program, which is not substantiated - spells out that building a nuclear warhead, for Tehran, is counter-productive.

Yet the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - in charge of all high-level military programs - may certainly keep the option of building a nuclear warhead as fast as lightning, as a deterrent in case they were absolutely sure the US would invade, or even launch an extended "shock and awe". The undisputed true consequence of Iran eventually holding a nuclear weapon is to end once and for all with the ever-present threat of an American attack. Any doubts, please consult the North Korean dossier.

The Tehran regime may be ruthless, but they're no amateurs; to build a nuclear weapon - either in secret or in full view of the IAEA - and go bang, would lead them nowhere. The regime - which is already embroiled in a vicious, complex internal battle between the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the faction of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad - would be totally isolated geopolitically.

The Iranian population is way more concerned with inflation, unemployment, corruption and the yearning for more political participation to be plunged inside a global nuclear controversy. There is ample positive consensus in Iran about a civilian nuclear program. But there's no guarantee even a minority would endorse an "Islamic bomb".

Calling Israel's bluff
What does rattle the nerves not only of Israel but the powerful array of US interests who 32 years later are still in denial about losing their prized gendarme of the Gulf (the shah of Iran) is that Tehran keeps them guessing, forever.

Predictably, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel will keep barking to deafening levels, while trying by all ruses necessary to wag the (American) dog.

The same Netanyahu that neither US President Barack Obama nor French President Nicolas Sarkozy can stand anymore has a single-minded strategy; to draw Washington and a few minions, from the Brits to the House of Saud - and this has nothing to do with "international community" - to exercise maximum pressure on Tehran. Otherwise, Israel will attack.

This is nonsense, because Israel can't attack even a stray poodle. All its crucial military hardware is American. It needs special permission to cross Saudi or Iraqi airspace. It needs a green card from Washington from A to Z. The Obama administration may be accused of everything - but it's not suicidal.

Only those non-entities at the US Congress - despised by the overwhelming majority of Americans, according to any number of polls - can possibly believe in the martial marching orders they get from Netanyahu via the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby.

So what's left is the possibility of even more sanctions. Four rounds of harsh UN Security Council sanctions already target Iran's imports and banking and finance. But that's the end of the line.

Russia is not convinced by the IAEA report, and already said so explicitly. China is not impressed; the IAEA simply did not have enough evidence to flatly accuse Iran of conducting an active nuclear weapons program.

So forget about Russia and China accepting another US-imposed round of sanctions at the UN - which would be literally nuclear; a de facto boycott of Iran's sales of oil and gas.

Only a bunch of clowns can assume that China would vote against its national security interest at the UN Security Council. Iran is China's third-largest oil supplier, after Saudi Arabia and Angola. China is importing around 650,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran - 50% more compared to last year. That's over 25% of Iran's total oil exports.

Even the Obama administration had to admit publicly that a boycott is unimaginable; it would deprive the depression-bound global economy of no less than 2.4 million barrels of oil a day, with the barrel probably hitting $300 or even $400.

Tehran has - and will continue to find - ways to bypass financial sanctions. India has paid Iranian oil imports via a Turkish bank. Tehran is starting to use a Russian bank as well.

This also proves that Israel's mantra of the "international community" isolating Iran is a monumental bluff. Key actors such as BRICS members Russia, China and India keep close commercial relations.

On top of it, amid all the Iranophobic hysteria, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - China, Russia and four Central Asian "stans" - engaged in their latest summit in St Petersburg. Iran - which enjoys observer status - was there, via Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. Sooner or later Iran will be admitted as a full member.

If even before Iran joining the SCO China and Russia considered an attack on Iran as an attack on both of them - as well as on the idea of Asian energy integration - it will be very enlightening to watch Israel trying to convince the US to conduct an attack on Asia.

The West = IAEA !

The West controls the IAEA just like it controls the U.N. and the I.M.F.
 
This issue has slowly slowly become quite serious. I hope better sense prevails on both sides. We don't want to see another war.:tdown:

They bark alot. time will learn US,Israel,Europe to live with a advanced Iranian (weapon) nuclear program
 
Exactly.Some idiots over here are jumping up and down saying that Iran is the 2nd Islamic nuclear power etc.

They said that about Pakistan too.
"How dare they?!" etc. They are now barking like mad dogs now suggesting Iran shouldn't have nukes. What right do they have to say who can and who cant have nukes? If Iran wants to protect itself and have deterrents then why shouldn't it? Iran has every right to protect itself. I am proud and impressed of what our Iranian brothers have achieved - even after all the sanctions and hindrance they have had from third party busybodies. Don't forget the attacks on their scientists by Mossad. Well done Iran. Don't stop now!!
 

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