Iran tests short-range missile

[Owais]

Iran tests short-range missile TEHRAN: Iran test-fired surface-to-surface short-range missile `Saeqa’ on Sunday, state-run television reported.

The missile testing came a day after Iran launched a series of large-scale military maneuvers geared at testing the country's new defensive doctrine.

``Saeqa, the missile, has a range of between 80 to 250 kilometers,'' the television said.

It said the missile was tested in the Kashan desert, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Saeqa means lightning in Persian.

 

[Owais]

Iran denies visa to key atomic inspector-diplomats


LONDON (updated on: August 20, 2006, 17:24 PST): Iran has denied entry to a senior UN nuclear inspector and cut back on multiple-entry visas that ease monitoring of its atomic sites as world pressure mounts on Tehran to stop enriching uranium, diplomats say.

As the clock ticks toward an Aug. 31 UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt a nuclear fuel programme it deems a sovereign right, Tehran "has been complicating" UN watchdog operations in the country, said a Western diplomat.

Diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran has not obstructed basic surveillance of nuclear sites declared under safeguard agreements and inspectors can still do their job.

But two said Iran recently refused the new visa for a veteran IAEA expert on centrifuges, machines with which Iran in April began enriching the fissile content in uranium for use as nuclear fuel.

The Western diplomat said the Islamic Republic was also increasingly giving single-entry visas to inspectors who had asked for multiple entries.

"This has( negatively) affected the work of four to five inspectors so far, and the Americans are getting quite nervous about the access issue," the diplomat told Reuters.

"It's not outright obstruction, but Iran is creating complications within its rights. They have reduced cooperation to a minimum under treaty obligations."

The Security Council has given Iran until Aug. 31 to shelve uranium enrichment in exchange for trade and other incentives.

Iran plans to give a firm answer to the incentives offer from six major powers on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi confirmed one inspector was "replaced on Iran's request ... (as) we were not happy with his activities. They were not in the framework of the inspector's duties". He did not elaborate.



IRANIAN WARNING

Asefi told a Tehran news conference that Iran continued to give inspectors routine access to nuclear sites, but suggested this could change if the Security Council considered sanctions on Iran.

Diplomats did not know of a concrete reason given for Iran's rejection of the senior inspector.

Tehran says it wants nuclear fuel solely to generate electricity. Western powers note Iran has the world's second largest oil and gas reserves and suspect its nuclear quest is a disguised project to learn how to build atomic bombs.

Ahead of its official response on Tuesday to the Security Council deadline, Tehran has suggested it could discuss suspending enrichment as part of talks to implement the incentive, but not as a precondition as the powers demand.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will issue a report to the Council on Aug. 31 certifying whether Iran has heeded the demand or not, based on the findings of senior inspector teams visiting Iranian atomic sites this month.

The inspector who was refused entry would have been in a team that went to Iran last week, the senior diplomat said.

More than 250 IAEA inspectors deal with Iran.

Tehran began narrowing cooperation with the IAEA in February when it withdrew its voluntary consent to short-notice inspections used to check allegations of secret military nuclear research under investigation since 2003.

In July, diplomatic sources said Tehran had banned the IAEA's Iran section head from visiting the country after he complained in a BBC documentary about inspectors being shadowed by Iranian security officials.

 

[Owais]

Iran tests tactical missile during war games


TEHRAN (updated on: August 20, 2006, 17:24 PST): Iran test-fired a short-range missile on Sunday during the second day of nationwide military exercises in a demonstration of its readiness to 'respond to any threat,' state television reported.

The surface-to-surface missile, called Saegheh or lightning in Farsi, has a range of between 80 and 250 kilometers (50 and 155 miles).

"The upgraded Saegheh missiles have been tested today," Iranian Brigadier General Kiumars Heydari was quoted as saying.

"Surface-to-surface as well as surface-to-sea missiles built by domestic defence industries with considerable range, high precision and large production numbers, will enable us to prevent any type of threat."

The missile was test-fired from Kashan, 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital Tehran as part of the massive war games which began Saturday with the aim of testing new weapons and tactics against a potential enemy.

Twelve army divisions along with air and naval forces and missile units are involved in the military operation, named "Zolfaghar Blow" after the two-point sword of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.

The exercises, which began in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Balochestan, will continue in 15 other provinces around Iran.

In April, the Islamic republic unveiled a wide range of weaponry such as multiple-head missiles, high-speed torpedoes and radar-evading anti-ship missiles during a week of exercises in the strategic Gulf waters to the south.

The latest operations come amid rising international tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover for efforts to build an atomic bomb.

Iran has two bodies of armed forces, the traditional army and the elite Revolutionary Guards, an ideological army, equipped with terrestrial, naval and air units. All are under the command of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The UN Security Council has given Iran until August 31 to halt enrichment and reprocessing activities or face possible sanctions.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday that a freeze of the nuclear work was "not on the agenda".

 

[Owais]

Iran's nuclear programme dangerous for US, Europe: Lawrimore

WASHINGTON: The White House said Sunday that Iran's military exercises, which included a short-range missile test, was a reminder of the danger of the Islamic republic's nuclear
ambitions.

President George W Bush's administration also recalled that Iran has until August 31 to respond to a UN Security Council demand that it suspend uranium enrichment and warned that failure to comply could swiftly lead to sanctions.

"We have made clear that if Iran fails to comply with the Security Council's mandate we will move quickly at the United Nations to impose sanctions," Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.

"Iran's show of military force while it continues to defy the international community's unanimous demands regarding its nuclear programme serves to remind us of the dangers of its nuclear ambitions," Lawrimore said.

"Iran sits at the nexus of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism; we know that Iran is producing and developing delivery systems that could threaten our friends and allies in the Middle East and Europe and eventually the United States itself," she said.