IRAN: Nuclear talks kick off in Tehran

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived this morning in Tehran as the head of a delegation trying to defuse the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States, Israel and Europe are alarmed by Iran's increasing mastery of the technically complicated process of teasing out isotopes from uranium ore to create enriched fissile material that can be used to either fuel an electricity plant or build a nuclear bomb.

There's been a lot of talk of war or increased sanctions if Iran doesn't halt the program, which arms control experts view as a potential cornerstone of an eventual nuclear weapons arsenal.

Prospects for a solution don't look so hot. Solana handed Iran a proposed package of incentives to halt its program similar to the one rejected by Tehran in 2006. Christina Golash, Solana's spokeswoman, was quoted on Iranian television as saying that Europe and Iran are "ready to establish a new energy relations," a possible hint of an offer to increase investment in the country's oil and gas fields.

But that's not likely to to get Iran to halt enrichment.

"Iran does not accept any precondition which implies suspension of uranium enrichment," said Gholam-Hossein Elham, a spokesman for the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran could come up within a month.

Iran has also offered a vague package of proposals which does not include any hint of suspending the enrichment program, something the U.S. has demanded.

But some U.S. officials have warmed up to an idea promoted by a group of MIT scientists in which Iran's enrichment facilities would be operated by an international consortium, according to a report this week in the Boston Globe. In the past, Iran has welcomed the idea of such a consortium.

In any case, unlike 2006, there are hints Solana intends to go public with the package of incentives so that ordinary Iranians will know what their leaders are passing up.

Iranians says the West needs to bend and hold off some more in what Europeans and Americans view as part of an endless series of stalling tactics.

"We should give more time ... to digest the Iranian package of proposals because understanding Iran's stances takes time and needs a U-turn [by the West] which cannot happen quickly," Hossein Hashemian, an Iranian Middle East specialist, said in an interview on Iranian state television.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: European foreign policy chief Javier Solana, left, speaks through an interpreter with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, right. Credit: Islamic Republic News Agency

Comments

[James Trusty]

The warning in my previous post about Septmenber 2014 should say September 2008. Big trouble is coming this September, especially around the Eighth--give or take a day or two--and it will affect America the most severely of all. Many nations, however, will be adversely affected, especially Iran, Israel, England, Russia, and China. The latter will be the least affected of them and may even benefit in some ways, though that may not seem apparent at first. Even so, I doubt that the peoples of our world will forget this coming September anytime soon. It will overshadow September 2001.
By the way, the American economy will lurch past the point of no return in about two weeks. Its impetus will then become a roller coaster ride undulating ever downward from then on and the finacial hopes of nearly all Americans will become more and more elusive.

[James Trusty]

If America, Israel, and the European Union keep sowing the winds of their psychotic obsessions regarding Iran, they will sooner or later reap whirlwinds infinitely worse than a nuclear Iran. Russia, China, and a host of other nations are watching and listening. They grow weariewr and weaqrier of America, Israel, and the European Union swaggering about as bullies. They are particularly irked by America's arrogance and will conspire against her. World War III is coming. The Ides of April 2014 will bring nothing good for America. By the way, a nasty surprise awaits America in early September of 2014. A month or so before then, her economy will lurch past the point of no return. Her economic skies will darken and remain ominous on Election DAy. The news is worse on Inauguration Day or soon thereafter. Her stalwarts and lovers better start preparing for a depression that shall prove far worse the the so-called Great Depression.
Have a nice day....

[Saint Michael Traveler]

Nuclear Fuel Cartel and Iran

Israel advocates that Iran would be dangerous learning about nuclear technology; what if they use this knowledge sometimes in the future and make nuclear bombs. Israel, whose nuclear arsenals and airplane to deliverer the devices were subsidized mostly by USA, has been assured by both Republican and Democratic candidates that if Iranians would ever develop any nuclear bomb and if she would use the bomb on Israel, we will obliterate Iran to dust. All is fair. But, Iranians are not that stupid to risk their existence to a trigger happy Israel.
They have said multiple times they are not developing nuclear bomb. They even have asked us to join them in an international consortium in their nuclear fuel cycle. Iran submitted a package to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in mid-May 2008 as well as to world powers, including Russia. The proposal suggests "the creation of uranium enrichment consortiums in various countries, including Iran." It also requires that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) step up its supervision of nuclear sites around the world and asserts that more should be done to ensure nuclear programs would not divert materials for fabrication of nuclear bomb. They want to generate electricity.
Based on GlobalSecuirity.Org, in 1974, the German contractor Siemens began construction of two 1,200-1,300 megawatt electric (MWe) pressurized water nuclear reactors near Bushehr. The German program included 2100 German workers and roughly 7000 Iranian workers. The Shah of Iran intended that this program would provide Iran with the infrastructure essential for industrializing the country.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iraqi strike aircraft partially damaged both reactors despite reported Iranian efforts to deter such an attack by moving reactor fuel to the site. Iraqi warplanes first struck the Bushehr reactor on 24 March 1984, inflicting light damage. Two more Iraqi air strikes took place in 1985, one in 1986, two in 1987, and a final raid occurred in 1988.
We were responsible for Iranian difficulty to rebuild and fuel their old nuclear reactor. Further Iran had serious difficulty to purchase fuel for their Russian rebuilt of their nuclear reactor. Iranians learned that their national energy independence demanded home grown nuclear fuel cycle development.
But we have another way to look at this problem:
USA indicates that would ever Iran need nuclear fuel, we will sell them at our price and our time. You know nuclear fuel is the oil of tomorrow. We want to keep our own nuclear fuel cartel. Wait until their oil wells go dry sometimes before 2025, they will come to USA begging for nuclear fuel, i.e. if we would allow them to have any nuclear reactor. We would not even allow them to have a Geiger Muller counter.
Israel with the latest war machines and nuclear bombs would not be at risk from Iran. Iran is a developing nation trying hard to feed her people and recover from 200 years of British and Russian colonialism.
Israel and USA are insisting that unless Iran stops their nuclear fuel cycle, jointly they will destroy their country. Be serious. It is all about management of international resources.