Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations

WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations.The trip, featuring Clinton’s first stops in South America as secretary of state, includes a visit to Chile on Tuesday, although officials said they were assessing the situation after Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.Brazil is the centerpiece of Clinton’s five-day visit and she will use her March 3 stop there to seek support for the drive on the U.N. Security Council to put new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.Brazil  a non-permanent member of the council  has been reluctant to get tough on Iran and analysts say Clinton faces a diplomatic test as she seeks to bring President Inacio Lula da Silva on board in the final weeks before U.N. diplomats unveil the sanctions strategy in New York.But the trip also marks a fresh U.S. start in Latin America, which saw early hopes for better ties with the Obama administration fade amid disputes over last year’s Honduras coup and the continued U.S. embargo on communist-ruled Cuba.That disappointment was underscored this week when the “Rio Group” including Mexico and Brazil agreed to form a new regional bloc that explicitly leaves out the United States  a thumbed nose at a power many feel is still too cavalier in its dealings with its southern neighbors.”Their early expectations were very large, and probably impossible to meet,” said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There has been a lot more continuity in policy than people expected.”Latin America-watchers say Clinton’s itinerary speaks volumes. The first two stops on the trip, Uruguay and Chile, have both recently held smooth elections and are regarded as models of moderate, market-oriented economies.She winds up with stops in Costa Rica, another stable longtime U.S. ally, and Guatemala, which has seen its strategic importance skyrocket as a major new front in the battle against international drug traffickers.”She is making the right stops,” said Roberto Izurieta, head of the Latin America Department at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.”She is supporting moderate economic policies and democratic principles. It is the right message.”

TOUGH SELL ON IRAN

Despite the Latin America focus, Iran will top the agenda as the United States and other veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany, seek to agree on a resolution calling for new sanctions on Tehran.Russia has sounded more positive about possible sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but which western powers fear is a cover for building atomic weapons.But China has called for more talks, and Brazil which hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November is also reluctant, a position Clinton may not be able to change.

Julia Sweig, director of the Latin American program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Brazil’s own experience with both nuclear energy and democratic transformation made it leery of U.S. saber-rattling over Iran’s current crisis.”They see themselves as having had an experience both in shifting toward a peaceful nuclear program and in shifting to democracy that Iran might have the potential to undergo right now,” Sweig said.

“They are still insisting on not isolating Iran, though I don’t know how long they will be able to play that out.”Brazil has also pushed for a change in U.S. isolation of Cuba Lula payed an “emotional” visit to the island last week and those calls are likely to be repeated during Clinton’s two stops in Central America.While the Obama administration resumed migration talks with Cuba that had been suspended by former President George W. Bush in 2004, it has been cautious on any broader policy change despite repeated prodding by its Latin American neighbors.

Clinton is also likely to be pressed on Honduras, which is struggling to return to stability and legitimacy after a coup last year toppled President Manuel Zelaya.The United States helped to broker new democratic elections in November that brought President Porfirio Lobo to power. But Washington was widely accused of failing to take a strong enough line on Zelaya’s ouster  raising bitter memories of U.S. support for past military coups in the region.”She’s got to make up for lost time, especially over Honduras,” Sweig said. “American credibility has really taken a hit.”(Reuters)

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.