IRAN: Good news and bad news in U.N. report on nuclear program

The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear program said the country had boosted its nuclear capacity and supply of enriched uranium about 25% to 30% since February. 

But Princeton University physicist R. Scott Kemp (right), who parsed the report on Friday, found some encouraging signs as well for those who hope that Iran won't develop nuclear weapons, as Tehran insists it won't.

Kemp, in an extensive e-mail to The Times, said the report showed Iran's steady progress in installing its centrifuges, but also said Iran is "suffering several performance problems" that suggest the uranium-enriching machines aren't quite up to snuff. 

"Iran is clearly aware of these problems, and is pursuing four new designs," which are  being tested in Iran's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. 

"This information suggests that Iran is learning a lot about basic centrifuge design," he said. 

Enriched uranium can be used for fueling a nuclear power plant or, if much more highly refined, provide fissile material for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists its doing the former, while the West suspects it's planning to someday do the latter.

IRAN: Is peace possible between Washington, Tehran?

Iran experts abound. But few of those talking about the Islamic Republic have ever lived or worked there. 

Francois Nicoullaud, the former French envoy to Tehran, lived in Iran for more than four years, learned some Farsi and wrote a small book about Iran. 

He discussed ways to resolve the impasse over Iran's nuclear program in an article that appeared in today's Los Angeles Times. 

During the same interview, he talked about the deeper conflict between Iran and the U.S., and whether he saw any possibility of resolving the decades-old animosity rooted in the U.S. role in the 1953 coup d'etat that overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh and the 1979 revolution that led to the taking of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. 

LAT: Do you think that the United States and Iran are ready to forgive and forget 30 years of hostility?

Francois Nicoullaud: The Americans have apologized already for the wrongdoings of the past, especially for the CIA coup against Mossadegh. The difficulty for the Iranians in apologizing for their own wrongdoings, ...

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IRAN: For Obama, the road to Tehran leads through Jerusalem

Barely noted in the reports about Monday's meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a revealing exchange toward the end of the question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters.

The president was asked whether he agreed with Netanyahu's view that dismantling Iran's nuclear program and getting it stop supporting militant groups in the Levant was the first step toward a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Obama said while the charged atmosphere in the Middle East makes it tough for Israel to negotiate with its rivals, he viewed the situation the other way around. 

Read the little-cited quotes below:

IRAN: New Israeli government reignites war talk

After dying down for a few months amid U.S. elections, rumors of an impending Israeli war against Iran's nuclear facilities have resurfaced again, and with a vengeance.

On Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres  seemingly threatened military action against Iran if President Obama's diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from going nuclear failed. 

If Obama's proposal of talks don't change Iran's approach, "we'll strike him," he said, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to reports citing an Israeli radio interview.

Iran has long denied it is seeking nuclear weapons and insists its drive toward mastering the production of nuclear fuel is aimed at advancing the country's industrial and technological capacity. The U.S., Israel and Western European powers are highly suspicious of the nuclear program. 

The Bush administration dangled the prospect of preemptive war against Iran to prevent it from gaining access to nuclear weapons technology, talk that died down in the final year of the presidency.

IRAN: Swiss leak word of secret U.S.-Iranian talks

For six years, groups of American and Iranian academics and others have been secretly traveling to Geneva and other European cities for closed-door brainstorming sessions on how to break through three decades of hostility between the two nations, a Swiss newspaper is reporting. 

According to a lengthy and detailed report in the French-language Swiss daily Le Temps, the informal series of meetings took place with the full knowledge of authorities in Washington and Tehran.

About 400 people have taken part in the discussions -- called the "Track II" process -- including experts and scholars from Europe, the Arab world and Israel. None of the participants would speak on the record about the meetings.

But Switzerland's foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, told reporters that her government was fully aware of the contacts, the last of which took place from March 6 to 8.

"The talks are on a purely informal level and the foreign ministry is not involved,"  she said, according to an English-language report on the website of Swiss public broadcasting.

ISRAEL: Science against nuclear proliferation

For the last several years, Israel has been keeping a watchful eye on the evolution of Iran's nuclear program and warning the international community that it's not an exclusively Israeli problem. For now, the new U.S.  administration is seeking opportunities for dialogue with Iran. This week Israel outlined to visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the red lines it would like the U.S. to incorporate in this dialogue. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warns that "time is running out," and a new report suggests Israel might not wait for a diplomatic solution.

But science might succeed where diplomacy fails.

Engineers from Ben-Gurion University have developed a technique to "de-claw" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. The addition of americium, a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors, "denatures" the plutonium, ensuring it can be used for peaceful purposes only. Americium is meant for pressurized water reactors, like the one being built in Iran.

The news release explains this method could take the sting out of more than a dozen countries currently developing nuclear reactors if the U.S., Russia, Germany, France and Japan agree to add the denaturing additive to all plutonium, because these countries also provide the nuclear fuel for the reactors they sell. Among those developing reactors are Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Namibia and Libya. The client countries would then "have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare," says Professor Yigal Ronen of Ben-Gurion University, who headed the project. However, countries that make nuclear fuel could decide not to denature it for themselves, he says.

And, of course, the technique won't help when it comes to the countries suspected of selling nuclear know-how.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

IRAN: It's not time for Obama administration talks

Iranian and American officials may brush past each other in the hallways of a major conference in southern Germany this weekend, the first time representatives from the two countries will be attending the same forum since the inauguration of President Obama.

Of course, the new president has said he’s willing to try to improve relations between Washington and Tehran.

But Iranians have been falling all over themselves to predict there won’t be any thaw in the diplomatic ice at the upcoming 45th annual Munich Security Conference, which Vice President Joe Biden, as well as other ranking American and Western officials, will attend.

Biden is scheduled to make a major foreign policy speech on behalf of the Obama administration.

Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran’s parliament, will be among the Iranians at the conference. He told reporters today there was “no plan” to talk with American counterparts, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of informal contacts.

IRAN: Nuclear secrets or nuclear pride?

Secrets? There are no secrets, says Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Iran is proud of its nuclear program and doesn't try to hide anything, he says, contrary to the allegations of Western officials and other arms control experts who allege that Iran is using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover to build the infrastructure for a weapons program.

Soltanieh is a loquacious guy who welcomes reporters to his quarters with tea and sweets. He sat down earlier this month for an extensive interview with the Los Angeles Times, some of which appeared in today's paper.

Soltanieh, a former nuclear scientist and an alumnus of Utah State University, insists not only that Iran has stuck to the letter of international law, but also that it has been as transparent as possible. Below are some more excerpts from the interview:

Los Angeles Times: What was the reason for Iran to hide its nuclear program for so many years? Why not be transparent from the beginning?

IRAN: Noam Chomsky says Americans support Iran's right to nuclear energy

The scholar and leftist political activist Noam Chomsky says his fellow countrymen support Iran's nuclear enrichment program and oppose any kind of military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

Chomsky, a noted linguistics professor who is among the most outspoken American critics of U.S. foreign policy, spoke in an interview with Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency. The 80-year-old scholar and Massachussets resident was in Berlin:

"Now nobody thinks they have the right to develop nuclear weapons, however that's a different issue. But the majority of the [American] population agrees [on Iran's right to enrich uranium]. ... Public opinion here overwhelmingly holds that Iran should have the right to develop nuclear energy."

Mastering the enrichment of uranium is a key step toward building either a peaceful nuclear energy program or creating a homegrown atomic-bomb industry. The U.S., Israel and Europe accuse Iran of exploiting loopholes in international arms-control regulations to build nuclear-weapons capability. Iran has strongly denied the charge.

Chomsky is enormously popular in the Middle East, where his books are widely sold and translated. His critiques of U.S. Middle East policy are a huge hit with Iranians and Arabs.