Iran Starts Production of Warship Missile Launchers

TEHRAN – Iran on Monday said the two warships began producing high-speed missile launchers  along the coastline and surrounding sea routes vital Strait Hrmuz. Inauguration of rapid production of ships and Zolfaqar Seraj a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated an unmanned bomber aircraft produced in the country, which he referred to would send a “death” to Iran’s enemies. IRNA official news agency announces Seraj (Lights) and Zolfaqar will be produced at the industrial complex naval defense ministry.Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was inaugurated, said the ships will help strengthen the defense forces of Iran, IRNA said.

“Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense industries rely on the army and junk (Revolutionary Guards) is strong and the military, with their full strength, can guarantee security in the Persian Gulf, Oman Sea and the Strait of Hormuz,” said Vahidi.IRNA Zolfaqar is preaching a new generation of ship missile launcher that can be used for patrol and attack operations.

The ship was designed for rapid strikes against ships and equipped with two missile launchers, two machine guns and a computer system for controlling the missiles, “says the news.Fars news agency quoted the statement as saying Zolfaqar Vahidi is equipped with a cruise missile Nasr (Victory) “which has a tremendous destructive power.Iran has previously said Nasr missile can destroy targets up to 3000 tons.

IRNA preach, Seraj, specially designed for tropical climates, also serves as a vessel of war for use in the Caspian Sea, the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and can fire rockets and also used in violent seas,The launch of the productions were done to coincide with the annual activities of a “government week”, a period when the country is usually announced the successful ituh latest technology.

Ahmadinejad, on Sunday inaugurated a small unmanned bomber, a period when the country was generally indicates the success of new technology.Ahmadinejad, on Sunday inaugurated an unmanned bomber aircraft with a cruising range of up to 1.000km he called “the ambassador of death.” State media said the bomber, stable (Striker), can carry four rudat stealth cruise, two bombs each weighing 115kilogram or a sophisticated missile weighing 230 tons.

Tehran claims its military began on Friday when it fired a ground-to-surface missile, named Qiam (Resurrection), and there will be some more announcements in the next few days.The Islamic Republic is also expected to test the third generation missile Fateh (Conqueror) 110, after the exhibit’s version of the missile has a range of 150 to 200kilometer shoot.

Iran recently held four mini-Ghadir submarine built in the DSLAM country, a ship “invisible”, designed to be operated in such shallow peairan Bay.”The latest military activity coincided with warnings against any attack on Iranian territory.

Implacable foe, the United States and Israel, not military action involving Iran’s controversial nuclear program it.Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, where about 40 percent of the oil tanker through those waters in case of a military attack.(AFP)

Israel Will Buy 20 F-35 combat jet

JERUSALEM Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has agreed in principle on Sunday, the purchase of 20 jet fighter that can avoid radar stealth artificial United States under an agreement worth 2.75 billion U.S. dollars, according to several defense officials said.Warplanes F-35 is expected to be delivered between 2015 and 2017, said an Israeli defense official, as quoted from Reuters.Some Israeli officials have been talking about the country’s old enemy, Iran, which potentially has developed nuclear weapons in the mid-decade.Israel gives the impression that the planes F-35 will not be used for preventive action, but rather to bolster the country’s deterrence.A ministry statement said Barak “has been approved in principle the recommendations of the Israel Defense Forces and the Ministry of Defense to move forward” with the purchase.

Stealth fighter planes, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., “will provide a continuing Israeli air superiority and maintain the technological advances in our region,” said Barak was quoted as saying in a statement.The defense officials said Israel had initially planned to buy 20 aircraft, which is expected to reach full price of 2.75 billion U.S. dollars, which will be closed to the granting of annual U.S. defense amounted to 3 billion dollars.Some officials predict that the final approval of the agreement can be given at the end of September by a panel of Israeli government ministers.Israel will become the first foreign country to sign an agreement to buy F-35, or the Joint Attack Fighter aircraft, outside the eight international partners who have helped to develop the plane.

The treaty has been negotiated since September 2008, when the first Pentagon approved the sale of 25 jet fighters with more options in the coming years.F-35 aircraft is designed to avoid radar detection and can play a role in efforts to strike Israel what Israel regarded as a threat to their survival posed by Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran denies Western and Israeli accusations that the country has been trying to produce atomic weapons.

Defense Ministry Director General Udi Shani declared Israel’s incorporation of technology into the F-35 has played a role in Barak’s decision to buy the planes.Israel, widely regarded as the only country in the Middle East which has a nuclear arsenal, has also been considering a cheaper option – the purchase of fighter version of the Boeing F-15 which has modification. (AFP)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that in March next year it will spread-made unmanned aircraft /KhAI-112 aircraft

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on Saturday (04/24/2010), said that in March next year it will spread-made unmanned aircraft in the country capable of conducting air strikes.”Super-sophisticated unmanned aircraft is made by the Revolutionary Guards and will be operated in the second half of this year,” said the Guard Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, which refers to the end of Iranian year falling on March 20, 2011.

He did not give detailed explanation about the flight was unmanned. Iranian unmanned aircraft technology has raised concerns in the U.S..U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates recently warned they would make it harder for the military presence in Afghanistan.In February, Iran opened two production lines to manufacture the unmanned aircraft.Tehran said the unmanned aircraft will be capable of doing high-precision attack.

Iran denies Enrichment Determining Location facilities for uranium enrichment has not been decided

Tehran,Head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Wednesday (21/4/2010) said the location for the construction of new facilities for uranium enrichment has not been decided.”Design for the location (enrichment) of the first new nuclear will be done this year,” said Ali Akbar Salehi told news agency ILNA.

“The location for a nuclear facility has not been decided. After presidential approval, the decision will be made regarding this matter.”On Monday, Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, senior advisor to Ahmadinejad, says the president has approved the location for new nuclear facilities.Development in this location will start with commands him. But Hashemi also explained that the design of new facilities that are still studied.

In November 2009, Ahmadinejad announced Iran will build 10 new uranium enrichment facility after Tehran’s nuclear watchdog criticized the UN for building a second facility like that near the Shia holy city, Qom.Salehi, April said the plans of two new uranium enrichment plant has been presented to Ahmadinejad and construction will commence mid year and will run until March 2011.

senior official said on Monday Iran has started work on a new uranium enrichment nuclear plant

Iran has started work on a new uranium enrichment nuclear plant, a senior official said on Monday, part of a big expansion of its nuclear program which has contributed to fears in the West it aims to build a bomb.Defying Western pressure to curb its sensitive nuclear work, Iran announced in November it planned to expand its enrichment activities by building 10 new sites. The announcement was condemned by the United states and its European allies.”The president has confirmed the designated location of a new nuclear site and on his order the building process has begun,” Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, a senior adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the semi-official ILNA news agency.

“New locations on which the plants should be constructed this year have been determined and initial construction is underway,” Samareh-Hashemi was quoted as saying.Iran’s top nuclear official Akbar Salehi told Reuters in February that Iran would start construction of two enrichment sites by March 2011.Washington is pushing for a fourth round of United Nations sanctions on Iran in the coming weeks to pressure it to halt its enrichment-related work, which Tehran says is entirely peaceful.Iran started higher-level enrichment in February, saying it needed the 20 percent enriched fuel for a research reactor in Tehran making medical isotopes. Such potent material is not necessary to generate electricity.

Tehran has said it is still willing to swap low-level enriched uranium for higher-grade fuel enriched abroad — a move which would help address fears about Iran’s enrichment activities — but the exchange must happen on Iranian soil.The West believed it had persuaded Iran, at talks in Geneva last October, to hand over some of its uranium stocks to be enriched abroad, but that deal fell apart soon afterwards.Samareh-Hashemi said any import of enriched uranium would not mean Iran planned to stop its own enrichment.”The domestic production of (nuclear) fuel does not contradict importing it,” he said.

“We have started to produce uranium domestically based on our need to provide fuel for the Tehran research reactor and this will continue until our needs are met.”In a separate development, state-owned Jam-e-Jam daily said Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, would soon be stepping down as his term was coming to an end. Soltanieh was not immediately available to comment.(Reuters)

President Barack Obama and prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.Confronting what he calls the “single biggest threat to U.S. security,” Obama is looking for global help in his goal of ensuring all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion within four years.

On the eve of what would be the largest assembly of world leaders hosted by an American president since 1945 – the San Francisco conference to found the United Nations – Obama said nuclear materials in the hands of al-Qaida or another terrorist group “could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come.”

While sweeping or even bold new strategies were unlikely to emerge from the two-day gathering, Obama declared himself pleased with what he heard in warm-up meetings Sunday with the leaders of Kazakhstan, South Africa, India and Pakistan.”I feel very good at this stage in the degree of commitment and a sense of urgency that I have seen from the world leaders so far on this issue,” Obama said. “We think we can make enormous progress on this, and this then becomes part and parcel of the broader focus that we’ve had over the last several weeks.”

He was referring to what had gone before this, the fourth leg of his campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The United States is the only country to use the weapons, two bombs dropped on Japan to force its surrender in World War II.The high-flown ambition, which the president admits will probably not be reality in his lifetime, began a year ago in Prague when he laid out plans for significant nuclear reductions and a nuclear-weapons-free world.

In the meantime, he has approved a new nuclear policy for the United States, promising last week to reduce America’s nuclear arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. North Korea and Iran were not included in that pledge because they do not cooperate with other countries on nonproliferation standards.

That was Tuesday, and two days later, on the anniversary of the Prague speech, Obama flew back to the Czech Republic capital where he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new treaty that reduces each side’s deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Medvedev also arrives Monday to sign a long-delayed agreement to dispose of tons of weapons-grade plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear weapons – the type of preventive action Obama wants the summit to inspire.Obama welcomes the assembled world leaders at a Washington convention center late Monday afternoon, but begins the day with a morning meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose intelligence apparatus is deeply involved in the Afghan war.

He then will sit down one-on-one with the leaders of Malaysia, Ukraine, Armenia and China.National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said Obama would squeeze in a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a key NATO ally, and relations have been difficult recently, particularly over Iran. Rhodes said there were additional “pressing issues,” including normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Throughout the two-day gathering, Iran will be a subtext as Obama works to gain support for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to shut down what the United States and many key allies assert is a nuclear weapons program. Iran says it only wants to build reactors to generate electricity.Support from Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who sees Obama privately Monday, is critical, but neither is firmly committed to a new sanctions regime. (AP)

President Barack Obama will seek to build momentum with China in his push for sanctions on Iran as world leaders assemble in Washington on Monday

Obama will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao before hosting high-level delegations from nearly 50 countries for the opening of the global conference, where the focus will be on how to prevent nuclear terrorism.In the one-on-one meeting with Hu, Obama hopes to cement China’s commitment to help ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program after Beijing agreed to join serious talks about possible new U.N. sanctions on Tehran.

The two leaders will also try to nurture a thaw in Sino-U.S. relations after tensions spiked in recent months over a range of issues. Financial markets will be seeking further signs of China giving ground over its currency valuation.The Washington summit is the culmination of a hectic week of nuclear diplomacy for Obama and comes a year after he laid out a vision of a world free of atomic weapons.It follows close on the heels of Obama’s unveiling of a revamped U.S. nuclear doctrine limiting the use of atomic arms and the signing of a landmark post-Cold War treaty with Russia pledging to cut their nuclear arsenals by a third.

At home, Obama’s conservative critics say his arms-control strategy is naive and could compromise U.S. national security.Despite that, the two-day summit the biggest U.S.-hosted assembly of world leaders in six decades — will be a test of Obama’s ability to rally global action on his nuclear agenda.Speaking on the eve of the conference, Obama said he expected it to yield “enormous progress” toward the goal of locking down loose nuclear materials worldwide.

“We know that organizations like al Qaeda are in the process of trying to secure a nuclear weapon, a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using,” Obama told reporters, calling it the biggest threat to national security.A draft final communique shows leaders will pledge to work toward safeguarding all “vulnerable nuclear material” within four years and take steps to crack down on nuclear smuggling.

NOT ON AGENDA BUT ON SUMMITEERS’ MINDS

Iran and North Korea are not on the guest list or the summit agenda. But their nuclear standoffs with the West are sure to figure heavily in Obama’s talks with Hu and other leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will sit down with the U.S. president on Tuesday after the summit is over.With Obama pushing to get new sanctions in place against Iran within weeks, China — after months of delay — reluctantly agreed to join in crafting a U.N. resolution. But Obama has yet to completely overcome Beijing’s skepticism.

The West wants to deter what it sees as a covert drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran says it has only peaceful intentions, focused on generation of electricity.The list of leaders in attendance will range from heads of state of traditional nuclear powers like Russia and France to nuclear-armed foes like India and neighboring Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani assured Obama in talks on Sunday his government has “appropriate safeguard” for its nuclear arsenal. Experts say Pakistan’s stockpile of weapons-grade material poses a high risk because of internal security threats from the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Missing will be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who withdrew fearing Muslim leaders would use the summit as a forum to demand Israel give up its assumed nuclear arsenal.Still, nuclear-defiant Iran will be the summit’s sub-text.In Prague last week, Obama persuaded President Dmitry Medvedev to keep pressure on Iran, but the Russian leader made clear there remain limits to Moscow’s support for sanctions.

For its part, a defiant Iran has dismissed the summit’s chances for success “as long as some nuclear-armed countries … are constantly preoccupied with the idea of depriving other countries of the peaceful use of nuclear technology.”Hu’s decision to attend the summit is seen as part of a two-way effort to get relations back on track after months of bickering over China’s currency, its Internet censorship, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Days after Beijing announced Hu’s participation, Washington said it would delay a decision scheduled for mid-April on whether to declare China a currency manipulator.China, meanwhile, has signaled it may be close to revaluing its yuan currency. In a pivotal congressional election year, the Obama administration has pressured Beijing to scrap its currency peg, saying it hurts U.S. business and jobs.(Reuters)

OPEC price hawks like Iran and Venezuela are happy with present prices near $80 a barrel

VIENNA With U.S. demand for oil lackluster, even traditional OPEC price hawks like Iran and Venezuela are happy with present prices near $80 a barrel as they head into Tuesday’s meeting of the 12-nation organization.These two countries traditionally are the greatest advocates of tight OPEC supply. But ahead of their meeting there is informal unanimity among OPEC oil ministers that – with the world’s economic recovery feeble at best and crude prices at preferred levels – it’s best not to rock the boat.

That means the ministers will likely agree to maintain OPEC’s formal production target, now at 26 million barrels a day – a benchmark set over one year ago.OPEC has left its members’ production quotas unchanged since December 2008, when it announced the last of a series of cuts aimed at bringing their output down by 4.2 million barrels per day. The cuts helped engineer a rebound in crude prices, which had collapsed to the low $30s from a mid-2008 high of almost $150 per barrel.

Since the oil ministers last met three months ago, prices mostly have hovered between $70 and $80 a barrel – a range that most OPEC nations have factored into their national budgets this year. That has kept even hardliners Iran and Venezuela on board with other OPEC members.”OPEC should not take any decision to change production,” Iranian oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters in Tehran on Monday, echoing comments voiced by Rafael Ramirez, his Venezuean counterpart.Still, there will be behind-the-scenes pressure on some members to produce less by honoring their allotted targets.

At close to 27 million barrels a day, OPEC now is producing a daily 600,000 barrels above its official target – a result of cheating by individual nations on their quotas. While OPEC does not reveal which nations are overproducing, the Paris-based International Energy Agency put overall quota compliance within OPEC at only 58 percent in January.World oil demand is expected to rise this year due to surging economic activity in Asian countries, especially China. The IEA, which advises oil-consuming countries, predicts that the world’s appetite for crude will average 86.6 million barrels a day this year, or 1.6 million barrels a day more than 2009’s 86.5 million barrels.Still, oil markets remain concerned about shaky demand in the U.S. Crude consumption there and in other top industrialized nations is expected to contract in 2010 for the fifth consecutive year.(AP)

Iranian-American academic says his client was temporarily released Saturday night for Iranian New Year holidays

TEHRAN, Iran  The lawyer of an imprisoned Iranian-American academic says his client was temporarily released Saturday night for Iranian New Year holidays.The lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, told the Associated Press Sunday that Kian Tajbakhsh was healthy after nearly nine months in prison.Tajbakhsh was working on a book when he was arrested amid security forces’ postelection sweep against the opposition in July.He was among more than 100 people brought before a court in a mass trial in August.Tajbakhsh was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 15 years in prison but the term was reduced to five years by appeals court in February.Iranian New Year, later in March, is traditionally a time to release some prisoners.(AP)

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)