ElBaradei: West will probably ratchet up sanctions against Iran
IAEA head: Sanctions alone won't resolve dispute over nuclear program; source: Russia delays work on Iranian nuclear plant.
By News AgenciesWestern powers will probably ratchet up sanctions against Iran but that will not be enough to resolve a standoff over its nuclear ambitions, International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday.
"The Iran issue is not going to be resolved through sanctions alone. You need to reach out to the country and bring them to engagement. You need to get that process going," ElBaradei told a conference in London on Monday.
ElBaradei said there is still time to negotiate with Iran about its nuclear program, saying it would take years for Tehran to produce weapons.
He also said international cooperation and more aid for poor countries are needed to build a secure world free of nuclear weapons.
"Our system is based on a combination of inequality and insecurity," ElBaradei said in a speech at the London School of Economics.
This week, Iran faces a U.N. Security Council deadline to halt uranium enrichment or face further economic sanctions.
ElBaradei, general director of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hopes Iran can be persuaded to end its nuclear program.
He said Iran is not an imminent danger and that it would be "four to six years before the country could develop nuclear weapons - which means that you have enough time to engage in dialogue."
Russia to delay construction of Iranian nuclear reactorRussia will delay construction work at Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor because Iran is behind with its payments, a source in Russia's nuclear agency said on Monday.
The source in Rosatom told Reuters it was "obvious that the timetable on building the plant will need to be corrected" because Tehran had not made payments for the work for more than a month.
A top nuclear official in Iran on Monday rejected Raussian claims of foot-dragging on payments for the nuclear power plant and accused Moscow of trying to prolong the reactor's launch, the official news agency reported.
"Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant to the Russian ... company," IRNA quoted Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying.
Russia has been building Iran's first nuclear plant, known as Bushehr, since the early 1990s. It has delayed work several times, citing technical reasons, as the project has become politically sensitive since Iran came under Western pressure over its nuclear ambitions.
Moscow is due to start nuclear fuel deliveries for the plant in March this year, paving the way for the reactor's planned start-up in September.
It was unclear by how long the project would now be delayed.
The United States, which suspects Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons, wants Russia to stop building the Bushehr nuclear plant altogether.
Iran and Russia say the power plant is meant solely to produce electricity.
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I'm sorry you did not pay attention to that, but it was the US starring John Bolton, who were the only ones even in the position to weaken and damage the NPT and even sacrifice it in their lost cause to drive out El Baradei. The NPT however, thanks to the Iranian support and suggestions to enhance it's strength, survives and whatever shortcomings it's the only thing we have. One of the most serious shortcomings, but inherently part of treaties perse is what are the consequences for countries who do NOT sign it. The handling of nuclear (on of the biggest in the world) Israel in the past and present and more recently the rewards for India are samples of real-politik that seriously undermine non-proliferation because it takes away any imperative to aspirant countries to sign up voluntarily to trade enormous problems against a little technology when it can be gained so much cheaper as Israel and India have demonstrated.
Ahh, a breath of fresh air, Joe! I agree with everything you stated. It is ridiculous to demand something that is the only carrot in joining an agreement such as NPT. Article IV of the NPT GUARANTEES the right to enrich uranium, which Iran is a signatory to. Without that there is no reason any non-nuclear state would sign into it. And god knows the NPT has been undermined severely by many states and it is only a matter of time for it to become obsolete. However, I'm afraid these days nobody is for/about rationilizing and more about rationing. With all the voices of extremism from ALL ideologies so aloud the voices of reason and logic have been marginalized. Keep up the voice!
Aaron, I remember you from a couple of weeks ago. Iran has a vibrant democratic movement that will blossom (even shortly) if it's left alone and not poking it from left and right. The mullahs have lost their legitimacy and credibility, but in the presence of external threat, the patriotic sentiments will position the people (who are pro-western & anti-Iranian-gov)behind their gov justifiably which will be to the detriment of the democracy there. I'm interested in dialouge with you, but am not the fan of masochistic macho obnoxious rantings - I can turn on FOX if I were interested in that. If you'd like to converse and perhaps even (God Forbid) broaden your horizon, I'd be happy to chat, otherwise find someone else to abuse. This type of self-righteous indignation comes a dime a dozen nowadays and I'm definitely not interested. Capiche?
Kip, I recommend you research on the subject. Your "1st of all" point is pointless. Iran has all of the nuke sites dispersed around the country and buried deep in the ground. In order to "destroy" these sites you will HAVE to use mini-nukes to do the job. The radiation fall out will have massive (millions) casualties in human life. Last year the Oxford Research Group published a report that estimated 10 million lives will be lost just in the first few weeks. Furthermore, the fall out puts other countries and their population at high risk also (estimated 35 million in other countries) through the winds and air shifts. Lastly, you don't know jack about the PEOPLE of Iran. They are not like the government. Your point of "look at lebanon" is sketchy at best.The destruction of Lebanon was aimed to position the people AGAINST Hezbollah ideologically, but in reality worked the opposite way. Doing that to Iran will also have an adverse result and will make people to rally behind the gov.
There are various sites regarding these facts. The Persian/Jewish friendship goes back to almost 3 millennia (remember Cyrus and the rebuidling of the temple?). You could google it and see for yourself, but just in case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org My respond to you was rregarding your comment on the ineffectiveness of UN ans IAEA. WHat that not your comment? PS-We LOVE our Jews Dammit! :o)
NO NEED FOR YELLING! My comments regarding the largest jewish community after Israel was in regards to THE MIDDLE EAST (get it). The US is a melting pot....pretty useless to include the stats of the US in the MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL ISSUES!!!!!
100% correct. The UN fiddles while the world burns. What a wasteful org. Move it to Moscow or Bejing. Get them to finance it. And El Baradei. What does he do? Why pay him this huge salary? The West must stop funding these org's, they simply bag the west in the end. If Iran does not stop its Nuke prog then there is no other way other than Israel destroying these plants. Israel will be doing the whole world a favour In fact the world must be hoping Israel will do the job for them! We hope that Russia and China stops arming such rogue nations? But alas, they are anti-west. They will arm any nation that is anti-west.
There are less than 30,000 Jews in Iran, most of them are over the age of 70 (most Jews were forced out of Iran in 1948 after Isreal was restored as a Nation. The USA HAS THE LARGEST jEWISH POPULATION IN THE wORLD at 13.5 million, Israel second at 5.5 millon, Russia, France, etc..
and global Jihad. Do you think we are suckers? Terrorism works by hiding behind civillians. You worried about civillians in Iran? Convince them to remove the terrormullahs that are using them as human shields. Otherwise, take cover, because we will act protect ourselves and our freedom from your leaders' genocidal ambitions. Long live democracy and freedom, Death to political islam and Jihad!
where do you get your facts on iran?? do they really have the 2nd jewish community after israel?? come on that doesnt even have the smell of truth. as for your rsponse to my post, whats your point??
1ST OF ALL the only things that will be destroyed will be Nuclear Facilities. Followed by the Iranian Air Force. When I talk about damage in Lebanon I am making the point that if Iranian's want war they don't have to look very far to see what will happen.
Maybe, Russia isn't delivering because Israel is going to flatten the Iranian Nuclear program in the next few weeks and they (Russia) doesn't want radioactive uranium spewed into the atmosphere. Besides, Russia will just offer to build the fool's in Iran a new reactor and double their money.
... and that is that the jewish people need safety and good structures urgently. Even if Ahmadinejad would say: "We need to help Israel", in the Israeli and US papers that would be translated as: "The Iranian fool wants to destroy Israel"
ummmm. in case anyone is really paying attention, the issue here isn't really nuclear weapons. it is the fact that Iran decided to pursue enriching uranium at a timwe when the IAEA was coming to grips with the fact that the NPT was a lie. We could not promote nuclear energy and stop proliferation. you all have proved that in Israel. But as the US and IAEA are gathering the new nuclear fuel priesthood to run the world, Iran decides to go her own way. We all know she has the right to enrich uranium under that broken NPT. what to do? what to do? And el Baredi gambled that he could finesse the Iranians into giving up enrichment. Along comes Ahmadinejad, and we have today's serious confrontation. It's really all the fault of the IAEA for not being forthcoming. The NPT is broke. And we need to fix it big time.
What does the arab talk about??
You need to wake up and smell the coffee. The UN and IAEA have only been tools of their controlling states. I learned that 20 years ago when it did NOTHING against Saddam's use of ILLEGAL use of US-sent chemical weapons that resulted in overr 100,000 victims of mostly children and civilians? Ever heard a baby's cry from the pain of breathing as a result of chemical bombs?
Dude, do you realize you're talking about 70 million innocent people? What is wrong with you? Didn't you see how flattening of Lebanon positioned the people behind exactly what you had hoped to have destroy? For God's sake Iran has the largest Jewish community after Israel! You want them dead too? When did you lose your soul Kip, tell me! The only interesting thing in March will be March Madness! Go grab your keg....
IAEA and UN have done nothign to prevent iran from its ambitions to have a nuke. both should be held responsible for their failure. again the US will need to clean up the mess they made. its time to shut down IAEA and the UN. they are useless bodies.
Where's that loudmouth Iranian President now since he can't be reached for "comment", as he's usually displaying daily public bouts of verbal diarrhea commenting on all kinds of things he knows nothing about? Probably wishes he never squandered all that precious cash on doled-out payments to Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. when he could really use it now to keep his nuclear WMD (er, I mean civilian nuclear program) on track! Time for Khameni, Rafsanjani, and other money swindlers (of Iran's poor) amongst Iran's leaders to show leadership and sacrifice and pull out their personal money from Swiss bank accounts to make up the cash shortages for their national cause.
If what this article says is true then March is going to be very interesting. I truly believe Iran won't have to finish those payments to Russia because they won't have a nuclear reactor existing so the nuclear fuel will not be needed. Iran is trying to flex it's muscle in the middle east and I truly believe the clock is ticking for them to be taken down a notch or two. All the Iranians need to do is look at Lebanon and then look around and imagine what Tehran will look like soon.
ElBaredei says that the sanctions do no good because the sanctions are too mild, which means that something which is very close to nothing IS being done. Thanks, for at least doing something close to nothing than just doing nothing that is nothing ...I think.
Also, Russia especially under comrade putin will always be there to help Iran with what ever it wants no matter what. History shows that they have always been intersted in having a warm water port for their ships (not to mention the oil & natural gas - which g-d knows they have plenty of in siberia.) They tried to get to get close to the warm water ports they desire when they invaded afgahnistan but we all know what a success that turned out to be. Putin will always continue to make "nice" to Olmert and Israel in public, while continuing to support Iran by building this reactor and therefore aiding the enemy. Israel should take out the reactor ASAP.
I guess the promised 20 million a month just wasn't forthcoming. Second time in 4 months this has happened. Iran owes Russia millions for this program. One reason for all the delays. I'm just loving it!! Fuel rods by March do not look promising.
Instead of paying them, the Iranian government has to assure them that they will not criticize Russia when they stomp the Chechnya muslims into the ground. If they keep mum when the Russians torture their brother muslims, they will build them a dozen nuclear plants. After all, the muslims they kill will be martyrs, and isn't Iran all for Martyrdom.