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Iran rep details nuclear program

Diplomat calls U.S. study 'ridiculous' and CIA 'stupid'

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 26th, 2008 issue

IAEA ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh spoke in Prague March 19.
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On the evening of March 19, the promise of a unique seminar drew throngs of students and professors into a packed lecture hall at Prague’s University of Economics. Hours before flying home to celebrate the Persian New Year, diplomat and nuclear physicist Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna — a United Nations watchdog organization — candidly discussed the details of his country’s nuclear research program.
Criticized by the United States and its Western allies, Iran’s program has become a volatile issue for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which has responded to Iran’s consistent refusal to discontinue its uranium enrichment program — believed to be capable of producing nuclear weapons — by imposing several rounds of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
On March 3, the UNSC approved new sanctions, citing the international community’s concerns regarding Iran’s continued expansion of “enrichment-related activities.” Offering “opportunities for political, security and economic benefits” as an incentive for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, these sanctions allow for stricter inspection of ship cargo suspected of carrying prohibited goods, tighter monitoring of financial institutions, and the extension of travel bans and asset freezes.
Adamant that Iran was using the enriched uranium for peaceful energy projects, Soltanieh rebuked the latest regulations. By outlining the program’s diplomatic and technical history from Iran’s perspective, he pledged to “remove ambiguities and questions, so that those ill-minded people cannot … manipulate and give biased information to the public and then make it into an excuse for an invasion.”
Alleging that the latest UNSC resolution served the economic interests of “certain states” with permanent seats on the security council (comprising Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States), Soltanieh pointed out that Iran’s longtime policy was to cooperate with the IAEA, whose reports contribute to the UNSC’s decision-making.
In the latest report, circulated to the Board of Governors (the IAEA’s policymaking body) Feb. 22, agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradai commended Iran for cooperating with the IAEA on a series of inspections. He also announced that a majority of questions — including the “most important issue” exploring the “scope and nature” of Iran’s enrichment program — had been resolved.
However, one remaining issue pertaining to the “alleged weaponization studies” conducted by Iran in the past appears to be the incendiary behind the most recent UNSC sanctions.
Described by Soltanieh as forgeries, the United States presented these studies to the Board of Governors Feb. 18 — the same day ElBaradai was to issue a report concluding its latest inspections in Iran — as fresh evidence that Iran’s nuclear program posed a proliferation threat.
This alleged evidence, Soltanieh said, was a black laptop given to the United States by an Iranian opposition group, which contained information that Iran was conducting undeclared research into an enrichment method using uranium tetrafluoride, or “Green Salt.”
“They have said ‘we have found a laptop,’ and in the laptop, one Iranian out of 70 million Iranians had in mind to make research to produce Green Salt, and Iran should prove innocent,” he said. “I want you to understand how ridiculous it is, because we are producing tons of Green Salt now under IAEA surveillance. We don’t need to have an Iranian doing research to produce one kilogram of it.”
Calling the Green Salt evidence the latest politically motivated U.S. ploy to discredit Iran, Soltanieh followed up with “one memory” to illustrate his perceived ineptitude of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which he called “not clever, but stupid.”
Soltanieh said he once escorted inspectors to a site flagged by a two-year CIA project as an undeclared uranium mine and conversion facility. After several fruitless days of searching, it was revealed that the undeclared facility was actually a stone-cutting workshop, which had recently built a few extra lavatories for their newly employed workers, Soltanieh said. “It was very embarrassing for the IAEA inspectors,” he added.
Local impact
While the United States has, in past months, conceded that Iran may have halted its nuclear arms development program, international officials continue to stress that Iran’s ability to construct such weapons is in itself a cause for concern.
This viewpoint is echoed by the Czech government, which is currently negotiating a bilateral treaty that would allow the United States to construct a radar base on Czech soil as part of a Central European missile-defense shield. Listing Iran as one of its declared targets, the shield aims to protect Europe against terrorist missile attacks.
Responding to a December 2007 U.S. report stating that Iran suspended weaponization in 2003, the Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that “Iran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015. The European part of the missile-defense system is to be built at this time.”
In addition, Iran’s cessation of nuclear arms research could indicate that it has turned its attention to another type of weaponry outside of the IAEA’s competency, such as ballistic missiles.
“While they apparently have suspended activity in weaponization, they have accelerated activity in the delivery-vehicle program, i.e.  the missiles,” Gen. Henry Obering III, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told The Prague Post Jan. 17.
Referring to U.S. intelligence reports indicating that Iran now had the capability of launching a missile with a 2,000-kilometer (1,243-mile) range, and could double that range within the next several years, government radar spokesman Tomáš Klvaňa reiterated the local administration’s uncompromising stance.
“Iran is an international threat. … The infrastructure for developing nuclear weapons remains in place,” he said. “The only way [the Czech government] would change its position on the matter is if Iran dismantled this infrastructure, but we have no reason to believe that this is happening.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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[06:09 28/03/2008] : Iran may be working on harnessing nuclear power for use to generate electricity and other non-aggressive uses. This is most likely true.

One must always take into account what the leaders, both elected government officials and the religious imams or mullahs say every single day. That is, Islam will conquer the world as it has tried (and succeeded more than once) and is actively doing now.
In the last hundred years, they have not had the military might to do so. They have been rebuffed over and over again. But with nuclear weapons in their possession, the military field will be somewhat leveled. Given the fact that the leaders of Iran are all Muslims, and that all Muslims believe that Islam is the only religion that can be on earth, and that all others, even atheists, must submit to Islam or perish, it is frightening to see nuclear capability in these hands.

If Iran does get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, the free western world will be at peril.
Vladimir Val Cymbal
Tarzana California USA
[12:31 28/03/2008] : I agree with Vladimir 100 percent. For Iran to have nuclear capabilities is unacceptable, and it is time for someone other than the United States to step up to the plate and do something before it is too late...
Philip
Germany
[22:56 28/03/2008] : ::If Iran does get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, the free western world will be at peril.

The only problem that you are facing is your struggle against reality. Perhaps the mad mullahs are hiding under your bed, just like the communists were a few decades ago.

I suspect that you have been watching too much Fox News again.
Margot Winston
Prague
[23:20 28/03/2008] : >>If Iran does get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, the free western world will be at peril.

Iran has never been a threat to any country. There is not the remotest chance that it could be a threat to the "western world" with or without nuclear weapons.

By far the biggest threat facing your country is the propaganda machine which makes you believe this drivel.

You evidently believed the "weapons of mass destruction" nonsense before. *Surely* you can't be hoodwinked twice in a row. *Please* tell me that you are aren't as stupid and gullible as you appear to be.
Patrick Endsworth
Bratislava
[21:45 01/04/2008] : My view is a bit different from the views expressed here. If my memory serves me right, Czechoslovakia as a member of the Warsaw Pact, suffered significant military and economic setbacks owing to the restrictions imposed on it.

I do not wish to see an Iran armed with nuclear weapons, however I do profoundly disagree with the idea that science and technology should be restricted to just a few countries. To the extent that knowledge is a common heritage of mankind, then even Iran should be free to pursue the gaining of knowledge in whatever area it might want to.

The idea of restricting science to a few, is to say that the Jewish state has no right to modern agriculture, since this gives it an advantage, it is to say that Israel has no right to a university, because they might learn something that might be applied against the Arabs. This approach is dangerous at best.

Basil Fletcher
Basil Fletcher
Kingston, Jamaica
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