Russia now says Iran sanctions ban S-300 air-defense missiles

MOSCOW The new U.N. sanctions prevent Russia from delivering S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran, a Kremlin official said Friday, in a reversal of the position announced by Russia’s Foreign Ministry the day before.The Kremlin statement was sure to please Israel and the United States, which have long urged Russia not to supply the powerful missile system. Russia signed a deal to sell the missiles in 2007, but has delayed their delivery.

The U.N. Security Council resolution passed Wednesday bans Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, investing in nuclear-related activities and buying certain types of heavy weapons. (AP)

Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own

Manouchehr Mottaki

TEHRAN,  Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own if there is no deal to have the West deliver the fuel in exchange for Tehran’s enriched uranium by the end of January.Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state TV on Saturday the West must “make a decision” whether to accept the Iranian counterproposal to either sell Tehran the fuel or swap it for Iran’s enriched uranium.Mottaki says this is an “ultimatum.”He says the international community “has one month left” to decide – or Tehran will enrich uranium to a higher level, needed for the fuel.Iran dismissed an end of 2009 deadline on a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would have reduced Iran’s capabilities to make nuclear weapons.(AP)

Iran's president dismisses deadline for nuclear deal,US says cannot dominate Mideast

TEHRAN,   Iran’s president has dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.The deal aims to diminish Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, easing the West’s fears that the material could be used to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran, which denies it seeks to build a bomb, has balked at the deal’s terms.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that “if Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you.”He says the West can give Iran “as many deadlines as they want, we don’t care.”Ahmadinejad spoke on Tuesday to supporters in the southern city of Shiraz. He lashed out at Washington, saying Iran won’t allow the U.S. to dominate the region.

Iran making new model centrifuges named IR3 and IR4

new model centrifuges

TEHRAN, Iran’s nuclear chief said Friday the country has started making more efficient centrifuge models that it plans to put in use by early 2011 – a statement that underscores Tehran’s defiance and adds to international concerns over its nuclear ambitions.The official, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iranian scientists are still testing the more advanced models before they will become operational at the country’s enrichment facilities.Tehran has been saying since April that it is building more advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium with higher efficiency and precision, but Salehi’s remarks were the first indication of a timeline when the new models could become operational.

The new centrifuge models will be able to enrich uranium much faster than the old ones – which would add to growing concerns in the West because they would allow Tehran to accelerate the pace of its program. That would mean Iran could amass more material in a shorter space of time that could be turned into the fissile core of missiles, should Tehran choose to do so.

Iran’s uranium enrichment is a major concern to the international community, worried that the program masks efforts to make a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its enrichment work is peaceful and only meant to generate electricity, not make an atomic bomb.

Iran has threatened to expand its enrichment program tenfold, even while rejecting a plan brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to supply fuel for Iran’s research reactor if Tehran exports most of its enriched stockpile. The U.N. plan would leave Iran – at least temporarily – without enough uranium to produce a bomb.

Centrifuges are machines used to enrich uranium – a technology that can produce fuel for power plants or materials for a nuclear weapon. Uranium enriched to low level is used to produce fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building nuclear arms.

“We are currently producing new generation of centrifuges named IR3 and IR4,” Salehi told the semiofficial Fars news agency. “We hope to use them by early 2011 after resolving problems and defects.”He did not elaborate on the technical details or the difference between various centrifuge types.However, Salehi added: “We are not in a rush to enter the industrial-scale production stage.”

The new centrifuges would likely replace the decades-old P-1 centrifuges, once acquired on the black market and in use at Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran.

Iran has said the new centrifuges would also be installed at Iran’s recently revealed secret uranium enrichment facility. The plant is still under construction at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom.

Salehi said that more than 6,000 centrifuges are currently enriching uranium – 2,000 more than the figure mentioned in a November report by the U.N. watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA has reported that it is watching Iran’s efforts to improve its centrifuges.Iran says it will install more than 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz, but currently they have installed fewer than 9,000, so there could easily be room for more advanced models in the future, a Vienna nuclear expert said. The expert spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iranian officials have claimed that most parts for the new centrifuges are made domestically and others have been imported – a sign that Iran was able to get around U.N. sanctions imposed on the country for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.Iran’s defiance has not wavered amid recent signals of possible more U.N. sanctions over its enrichment. Salehi said Friday such new sanctions won’t stop Iran from developing its nuclear program.

“We don’t welcome new (U.N. Security Council) resolutions,” he told ISNA, another semiofficial news agency. “But resolutions won’t stop us in any field, including the nuclear.”

UN nuclear agency (IAEA) that called for Iran to stop uranium enrichment activities

Robert Gibbs

China says dialogue is more effective than sanctions to resolve Iran’s nuclear program is controversial, but the United States emphasizes the possibility remains to be considered.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang China Affairs in a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday said that the sanctions is not the goal. He said the dispute should be resolved through dialogue.

In Washington, on Tuesday, the Press Spokesman Robert Gibbs White House told CNN that some steps may be taken against Iran, including sanctions and possibly military action.

Head of Iran’s nuclear program Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran’s claim last Sunday that Iran plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment center is a direct response to the statement of the UN nuclear agency (IAEA) that called for Iran to stop uranium enrichment activities.

A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said Iran planned to take legal action after being reprimanded by the IAEA.

Iran plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants

Iran announced earlier today that it plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants. Iranian media reported that the Cabinet approved the construction of the plants just two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) censured Iran for its nuclear activities.The proposed facilities, reported to be similar to Iran’s main nuclear plant at Natanz, would vastly increase the nation’s capacity to produce enriched uranium. Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that Iran should get to the point where it can produce 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel each year.”We should reach a position where we can produce from 250–300 tonnes of nuclear fuel a year. To do this we must employ new centrifuges with a higher speed,” he commented.Ahmadinejad said the new Iranian-designed centrifuges used to enrich uranium will have higher speeds than those currently being used. He added that Iran “is not joking around with anyone” when it comes to defending its nuclear rights.

The announcement seems to make good on a warning earlier in the day that pressure on Iran would force it to reduce its cooperation with the IAEA. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said western pressure may force parliament to review the country’s stance toward the UN nuclear agency.Iranian Members of Parliament said that “we consider the behaviour of the IAEA to be that of double standards and political. We want it to give up this double standard which has tarnished its reputation.”

The five-plus-one group of nations working on the Iran nuclear issue – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – all voted Friday for the IAEA censure of Iran for defying international demands to freeze uranium enrichment and for secretly building a nuclear facility. The move appeared to take many officials in Tehran by surprise.The tensions coincide with problems over an IAEA proposal to send Iran’s uranium abroad for enrichment, part of a plan to ease some concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying that the programme is for civilian purposes only. The country has offered counter-proposals to the deal, but the IAEA has not accepted any of them.An unnamed US official said that “if [the plant construction is] carried out, [it] would constitute yet another violation of Iran’s continuing obligation of suspension of all enrichment-related activities. There remains a fleeting opportunity for Iran to engage with the international community, if only it would make that choice.”

the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium

The members of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is expected to vote Friday on a draft condemning Iran’s nuclear activities, while the Western countries suspect the country is developing nuclear weapons.The diplomats from the United States, England, France, Germany, Russia and China proposed that the draft UN resolution demanding that Iran halt uranium processing building where previously secret and asks Iran confirm that Iran has no other hidden nuclear activities.The IAEA board of commissioners consisting of 35 countries, which met in Vienna on Thursday, is expected to continue to debate and vote on the draft last Friday. If agreed, the draft will be the first act of the IAEA on Iran since 2006.Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, warned on Thursday that Iran would not cooperate with the IAEA if the resolution is approved.In a meeting Thursday, the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium processing near the city of Qom to early September. ElBaradei also said his investigation of allegations that Iran has tried to make nuclear weapons had reached a dead end street, because Tehran does not want to cooperate.