International News

IRAN: U.S. 'HALLUCINATING' OVER NUCLEAR TALKS
[By Paul Hughes]

Reuters
March 13, 2005

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7119928/

TEHRAN -- The United States is “hallucinating” if it thinks Iran will scrap its nuclear fuel production plans in return for economic incentives, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Washington offered the encouragements in support of the European Union, which is negotiating with Tehran to try to persuade it to give up sensitive nuclear activities.

“U.S. officials are either unaware of the substance of the talks or (they are) hallucinating,” Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, told the official IRNA news agency.

Iran says it needs atomic technology to generate electricity and will never use it to make bombs, as the United States fears.

London’s Sunday Times said Israel had drawn up plans for a combined air and ground attack on Iranian nuclear installations if diplomacy fails to halt Tehran’s atomic program.

The newspaper said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his inner cabinet had given “initial authorization” for a unilateral attack at a private meeting last month.

Israel, which bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, played down the report. Iran has said it will respond vigorously to any attack on its nuclear plants.

Washington gave practical backing for the EU’s diplomatic approach on Friday, offering to allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organization and consider letting it buy civilian airline parts if it ceased all activities that could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.

Washington and the EU have warned Iran it faces referral to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions, if it fails to allay fears it wants the bomb.

TEHRAN: U.S. PROPOSAL 'DISRESPECTFUL'

Iran dismissed the U.S. offer as insignificant. Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi told IRNA it was “funny and disrespectful.”

“The U.S. should apologize to Iran for making this proposal,” he said, going on to describe U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a “queen of war and violence.”

Naseri said it was not clear if greater U.S. involvement in the negotiations was “helpful or an obstacle to progress.”

He said the EU, which has persuaded Iran to suspend potentially weapons-related activities like uranium enrichment while the two sides try to reach a solution, was close to accepting that Iran would not give up enrichment.

Instead, Tehran has offered to give “objective guarantees” that it will not divert nuclear fuel to military uses.

“It seems the Europeans are ready to adopt a logical position,” Naseri said.

Iran has refused to disclose its guarantees publicly but diplomats and analysts say it is offering to allow intrusive inspections that ensure it only enriches uranium to a low grade which would be unsuitable for weapons.

It may also be prepared to restrict its enrichment activities to a pilot project, too small to make weapons production practical, diplomats and analysts say.

Such a solution would allow Iran to save face while meeting most of the West’s concerns.

So far EU officials have said the only acceptable guarantee would be for Iran to mothball its enrichment plans and rely on imported nuclear reactor fuel.

The two sides are due to hold a crucial meeting in Paris on March 23 to review their talks.

“If the policy of the United States and Europe is for Iran not to go after nuclear weapons, we are ready to negotiate and reach an agreement,” Hossein Mousavian, another of Iran’s nuclear negotiators, told IRNA.

“However, if they want to prevent Iran producing the fuel it needs for its nuclear power plants, Iran will not welcome negotiations or these incentives,” he said.

[MACROMEDIA FLASHPLAYER 7 MAP INSET: IRAN'S NUCLEAR NETWORK -- TABRIZ (Missile design & production/Weapons development): Russian media and Iranian exiles say Iran is producing modified versions of the Soviet-era Scud missile, possibly with nuclear-capable ballistic capabilities, at a plant in this northern city. -- BONAB (Research & development): The Bonab Atomic Energy Research Center conducts research on food irradiation and other agricultural issues. Located 50 miles south of Tabriz, the IAEA gave the facility a clean bill of health after a 1997 inspection. -- MO'ALLEM KALAYCH (Uranium processing): Suspicions are rife about this site, which is guarded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard troops and has been under construction for years. The MEK says centrifuges used to enrich uranium to bomb quality are at the site, 30 miles north of Tehran, but no independent verification or international inspections back this claim. -- CHALUS (Weapons development): Israeli intelligence has been cited by western media sources alleging that an underground nuclear weapons development site exists beneath this mountainous coastal town. No inspections have been made to refute or verify this claim. -- NEKA (Weapons development): An important Iranian weapons research and development lab is located in this Caspian Sea town, a facility that international nuclear inspectors have listed as suspect. Western intelligence agencies say nuclear weapons research is conducted at Neka. -- KARAJ (Research & development): The MEK claims two laboratories operate as satellite plants in this Tehran suburb as a backup to a larger nuclear facility in Natanz. -- KOLAHDOUZ (Uranium processing): The MEK claims this facility on the outskirts of Tehran is involved in the enrichment of uranium for bomb-making purposes, acting as a supplement to the country's main uranium enrichment site in Natanz. -- TEHRAN (Research & development/Missile design & production): Sharif University of Technology is a central repository for Iran's nuclear research and the site of an alleged uranium centrifuge research program. The University of Tehran has two small research reactors, one supplied during the Shah's rule by the United States, the other by Argentina. -- ARAK (Reactor): Iran has admitted to international nuclear inspectors that this facility has produced heavy water, an element used in reactors that can produce weapons-grade plutonium as a byproduct. The admission came after international pressure following an allegation made by the MEK. -- NATANZ (Uranium processing): After the MEK accused Iran of enriching uranium in this central town, international nuclear inspectors confirmed that a high-security uranium enrichment facility was using gas centrifuges was under construction. During inspections in 2003, IAEA inspectors found particles of highly enriched uranium in environmental samples taken at Natanz. Iran claimed the centrifuge parts must have been contaminated by the supplier company, which has not been named. Western intelligence agencies suspect that country is Pakistan, which has been shown to be at the center of a sophisticated nuclear technology smuggling ring. -- ISFAHAN (Research & development): By far Iran's largest nuclear research center, its work on nuclear issues dates to the 1970s, when France signed contracts with the Shah's government to provide a nuclear reactor. Staffed by some 3,000 scientists, the site allegedly coordinates the country's nuclear-weapons design research. A small, Chinese-built research reactor is active on the university grounds, and plans for a larger reactor plus an existing uranium enrichment plant have been publicly acknowledged. Iran says Esfahan would convert yellowcake uranium into uranium hexaflouride gas to fuel the Bushehr nuclear plant, which is currently nearing completion. However, uranium hexafluoride gas also could fuel bombs. -- ARDEKAN (Nuclear fuel production): The MEK alleged in the summer of 2003 that a uranium treatment facility was under construction and due to be completed by 2005 in this central Iranian town. Iran acknowledged the plant shortly afterward, noting it would be used to help convert locally mined uranium fuel for the Bushehr nuclear reactor. -- YAZD (Research & development): The local university runs a nuclear research department that focuses on the geology of uranium ore deposits at nearby Saghand. -- SAGHAND (Uranium mining/Possible test site): Iran admitted in the summer of 2003 that it has started mining for uranium ore at Saghand in central Iran. Western intelligence agencies say the Saghand field could produce up to 5,000 tons of uranium oxide and is relatively rich in the weapons grad element Uranium-235. During the 1980s, Argentina began work under contract on a uranium-processing facility hear but dropped out in 1992. The head of Iran's nuclear agency says uranium ore from Saghand is to be processed into yellowcake at Ardakan and then converted into hexafluoride gas at Esfahan. This gaseous form of uranium serves as the feedstock for centrifuges, which enrich uranium to a form suitable fuel [sic] for the Bushehr reactor. But such enrichment also can be used for nuclear weapons. -- FASA (Research & development): The facility is thought to be the site of a uranium hexafluoride gas conversion plant, or some other form of nuclear research center. Western intelligence believes a nuclear research center in this southern town was designed by China in the early 1990s under contract before Washington pressured Beijing to break ties with Iran's nuclear program. No international inspections of the alleged site are known to have taken place to date. -- BUSHEHR (Reactor): Started as a German reactor project during the Shah's regime, the Bushehr 1 and 2 reactors were partially completed then damaged during the Iran-Iraq War. Construction of Bushehr 1 resumed with Russian assistance, a source of friction between Moscow and Washington. Russia in 2002 pledged to halt work on the project, due for completion in 2006, if Iran did not address the concerns of the international community with regard to proliferation. Russia also said it would provide all nuclear fuel and remove spent fuel produces [sic] at Bushehr, obviating the need for local Iranian production. But Iranian and Russian public statements often conflict on these points, suggesting it is too early to tell what policy will be adopted on the Bushehr site. -- DARKHOVIN (Weapons development): The MEK says this to be the site of an underground nuclear weapons facility. Iran denies this, but it is public record that Darkhovin was to be the site of two Chinese-built nuclear reactors cancelled in the early 1990s after pressure from Washington. Western intelligence sources note that the facility is guarded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops. -- SOURCES: MSNBC/Nancy Liu, Reuters, Federation of American Scientists, The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control (which maintains a web site called Iran Watch), Center for Non-Proliferation Studies (a project of the Monterrey Institute of International Studies).]