Iran: We are now among world's top 15 nuclear states
We are ahead of Pakistan - even though it already has the bomb, says atomic energy chief.
By News Agencies Tags: Iran Israel newsIran is among the top states in terms of its nuclear technology, the country's atomic chief was quoted as saying Friday by the Fars news agency.
"Within the 150 IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] member states, we are among the top 15," Ali-Akbar Salehi claimed.
"We are of course not yet at the same level as Japan but within the Islamic world, we are the number one," he claimed. "Even though Pakistan has the atomic bomb but that does not mean that also it possesses all nuclear technologies," he added.
According to the IAEA, 436 power reactors are in operation in 30 different countries, although only a handful of them enrich their own uranium. Iran only plans to begin operations at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant this year.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran has succeeded in producing its first batch of uranium enriched to 20 per cent. He also claimed his country's nuclear technicians had the capacity to enrich up to the 80 per cent needed for weapons grade material, and was therefore to be counted among the nuclear powers.
The IAEA monitors had not been able to verify the claims of enrichment capacity to 20 per cent.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday that neither France nor the Americans believe Iran's declaration that it has the capacity to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
"The Americans don't believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent," Kouchner told Europe 1.
Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader on Thursday warned the West to stop putting obstacles in his country's path, amid international efforts to halt the contentious nuclear program.
State Press TV reported on Friday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked the tens of millions who gathered to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, saying it reflected the nation's strength. "It's time for foreign enemies to wake up and abandon futile efforts to subjugate Iran," he said.
Earlier Thursday, the State Department said that Ahmadinejad's announcement that the country has succeeded at creating higher levels of uranium enrichment shows its nuclear intentions are "anything but peaceful."
Iran's nuclear ambitions continue to draw concerns from the United States and European allies. Iran has rebuffed diplomatic overtures to resolve the issue and is in defiance of UN Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.
'Iran hacking into broadcasts of at least 3 major news outlets'
At least three major international media outlets have meanwhile accused Tehran of interfering with their broadcasting, while cracking down on foreign programs aired in the Islamic Republic.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America reported jamming that began as Iran marked the anniversary of its revolution.
"We condemn any jamming of these channels. It contravenes international agreements and is interfering with the free and open flow of international transmissions that are protected by international treaties," the broadcasters said in a joint statement.
"The Iranian authorities are using the same satellite services to broadcast freely around the world including broadcasts in English and Arabic; at the same time they are denying their own people programs coming from the same satellites from the rest of the world," they added.
The United States on Thursday accused Iran of imposing a "near-total information blockade" over the course of the day. The State Department cited evidence that telephone networks had been silenced, SMS messages blocked and that the Internet had been "throttled." The Gmail email system had also been blocked, said sources.
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it's not safe for the Arabs and Iran if Israel have nukes, Israel is bullying the whole ME. attacking and killing the palestinians. I dare you to publish that, you will not do it , because you don't have the courage to even reply it. tell me how you are better than Iran, you occupy the land and oppress the pals. Iran didn't do that, you threatened Egypt by the use of Nukes on their high Dam by the FM lieberman. who suppose to change his name to the hateful man.
So Is Israel one of the 15 top nations? If so then they are indirectly recognizing the state of Israel. Ignorance is a bliss in this region! When will my Iranian country men wake up? Mullahs are stealing everything we have in the name of this BS nuclear energy. As if we did not have enough oil for the past 30 years and the only thing is missing is nuclear BS. As if nukes could create jobs and prosperity!! What a joke!
It's ok for sane people to have nukes. Mahmood is not one f them. Do you consider Bin Laden sane enough to have nukes? Your sympathy is appreciated but not safe for us.
...and judging from the bravado Iran is having an increasingly difficult time in closing the deal on weaponization....
... them. They claim ownership of all the technologies they covertly purchased from China, Russia, N. Korea, etc. and boast on a daily basis of how great they alone are. Why, E = m x c(squared) must now mean Esfahan's nuclear tech research and uranium conversion site equals Mullahs x Caliphate (squared). Insecure, Islamic Iran is still grappling with the embarrassing disconnect of why after 1500 yrs. of clinging to Allah, their one and most high G-d in an otherwise infidel world, that the Muslims are also not number one in the world. It just doesn't make sense in their minds, but doing nonsensical acts of violence, murder, spitting venom, and rape is justified. Someone should have paid more attention to these Iranian babies when they were growing up and showed them more love and also given them the kotak (thrashing) they deserved when they showed signs of going astray, so the world does not have to deal with these morons now.
I too hyped the iranian 20% enrichment story. Actually, the IAEA has reported that the experiment only involves 10 kg of UF6 in a single centrifuge. But even a 100% overstatement of what was being done mocked the hype by both Ahmadinejad and fear-mongers.
Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps...
The recently ballyhooed 'enrichment' to 20% has started. The IAEA reports that that it involves 20 kg of Uraniumhexfloride gas. That is a single centrifuge and nothing like the program necessary to produce reactor fuel for the TRR in time to keep it running. Sorry if facts annoy and confuse Haaretz, the censors, and anyone else.. The facts do so much damage to the boasts of Ahmadinejad and the claims of warmongers as to show both for the propaganda they are.
Like the commercial, ridiculing these Iranian Bozos is so easy... a caveman can do it. But sorry, I simply can't overlook the statement... 'within the Islamic world... we're number one'. That's the delirium which should be re-printed throughout the Muslim Universe... from Islamabad to Timbuktu. Let the Numero Uno Iranians compete for glory... with other bowel-movements like Al-Queda.
From the current version of the story: "The IAEA monitors had not been able to verify the claims of enrichment capacity to 20 per cent. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday that neither France nor the Americans believe Iran's declaration that it has the capacity to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels. "The Americans don't believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent," Kouchner told Europe 1. " It is pretty funny to see how Iran has gotten other countries to say that Iran is wrong, and that Iran really isn't capable of enriching Uranium to weapons grade levels. Which pretty much undermines any argument made by the same people that Iran must be bombed/sanctioned/whatever to keep them from enriching to weapons grade levels....
Same way, feel sorry for Israeli leaders. Both using their erections as compasses and thus walking in circles.
.. which the regime in Teheran is getting quite plentyful nowadays by nearly each and every side.
Iran being an Oil producing country knows their Oil is not an infinite resource. With all the new reactors coming online throughout the world these guys are looking to become a new fuel supplier, and thats nuclear fuel for all these reactors. Hundreds of new reactors are coming online within the next 10 years and Uranium on the commodities exchange has blown up exponentially in price. They are going for the cash money. They are going to turn this around on Israel and make them look like idiots once they are go online.
No matter what they say they can sleep quietly on their two ears, no one in the world has any intention of attacking Iran, in short IRAN GOT NO ENEMY (how lucky they are as compared to some others) it is simply nobody's interest and no one may profit from attacking it. The only problems they got to solve are of internal nature,such as democracy, theocrathy etc; these problems being of internal nature can by no means be solved by nuclear solution. So there is nothing to worry about. they should be completely out of their mind to spend a fortune on developement of nuclear wepons, so most probably they dont, they are not crazy to do that for no apparent reason. SO just leave them alone to solve their own problems the best they can.
Beautiful work of art.
The IAEA is monitoring the much touted Iranian experiment attempting enrichment to 20%. It involves only 20 kg of Uraniumhexfloride gas. Which is to say it is being conducted as an experiment and is no where near achieving the level of production necessary to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor.
and first in flying carpets!