Iran ready and able to build a nuclear bomb, UN watchdog warns the world
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Nov 7, 2011, 7:15:24 PM11/7/11
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Iran ready and able to build a nuclear bomb, UN watchdog warns the world
Iran has acquired the know-how and material to build its first nuclear weapon with assistance from a former Soviet scientist, the UN's nuclear safety watchdog will disclose on Tuesday.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the 'father' of Pakistan's atom bomb, handed over plans for a neutron initiator, a key element in a bomb
By Alex Spillius, Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
11:00PM GMT 07 Nov 2011
The Telegraph UK
A landmark report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will detail how specialists from Pakistan and North Korea have also helped to take the Islamic regime to the threshold of full nuclear capability.
Tension has risen in the Middle East in anticipation of the report, amid suggestions that Israel may use it to justify a pre-emptive military strike against Iran.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, warned Israel on Monday that such action would be a "very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences".
Russia and China are also likely to oppose new, tougher UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, despite the IAEA making clear the extent of the regime's nuclear ambitions.
Its report will disclose that North Korea has provided mathematical formulas and codes involved in designing a nuclear device and that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's atom bomb, has handed over plans for a neutron initiator, a key element in a bomb.
It will also say that the Iranians were aided for at least five years by a former Soviet scientist, alleged by The Washington Post to be Vyacheslav Danilenko. He was allegedly contracted in the mid-1990s by Iran's Physics Research Centre, a facility linked to its nuclear programme. There is no evidence that Moscow knew.
According to intelligence sources and documents provided by the Iranians, he helped to design a so-called R265 generator, a high-explosive device used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. The West also believes that Tehran has a blueprint for a nuclear device small enough to fit into a warhead, and has completed a steel container the size of a double decker bus in which the high-explosive element of such a device could be tested.
The UN's nuclear watchdog will detail how the regime plans to triple its capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade at a facility deep inside a mountain near Qom and is experimenting with detonators and neutron physics in a way that can only be for military purposes.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, accused Israel and the United States yesterday of drumming up global support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which his country claims are for civilian and medical purposes only.
Mr Ahmadinejad added that Washington wanted to "save the Zionist entity, but it will not be able to do so".
"This entity [Israel] can be compared to a kidney transplanted in a body that rejected it. It will collapse and its end will be near," he said.
His remarks came after Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, said: "The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option."
However a push for a fifth round of UN sanctions is more likely in the short term. Britain and the US still believe Iran can be forced to back down, because the regime has not yet decided to proceed to the "breakout" stage of placing a nuclear explosive inside a warhead.
Israel will nonetheless press the West to act robustly. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Ehud Barak, his defence minister, have lobbied cabinet colleagues to back military strikes.
The United States has failed to win a guarantee from Mr Netanyahu that Israel will not act alone and is reportedly so concerned that it has ordered its intelligence agencies to step up monitoring of its ally. Some observers think Israel's rhetoric is intended to galvanise the international community into stronger action than it might otherwise have taken.
That could include a US ban on transactions with Iran's central bank, or a ban on Iranian oil imports, though the effects of either measure on Iranian society and the international economy are regarded as highly unpredictable. There is no doubt in Western capitals that the IAEA's quarterly report will offer the most compelling evidence yet about the military aspects of Iran's nuclear project, though it will stop short of concluding that the regime is either building a bomb or has firmly decided to so.
Iran's history of deception and obstruction and the involvement of bodies linked to the military in an ostensibly civilian scheme have deepened suspicions. Mark Hibbs, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "If you look at the gamut of activities over time, and how they are funded and organised, then you can conclude this looks like a nuclear weapons programme, because it is what all weapons programmes we know about have looked like."
Iran ready and able to build a nuclear bomb, UN watchdog warns the world
Iran has acquired the know-how and material to build its first nuclear weapon with assistance from a former Soviet scientist, the UN's nuclear safety watchdog will disclose on Tuesday.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the 'father' of Pakistan's atom bomb, handed over plans for a neutron initiator, a key element in a bomb
By Alex Spillius, Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
11:00PM GMT 07 Nov 2011
The Telegraph UK
A landmark report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will detail how specialists from Pakistan and North Korea have also helped to take the Islamic regime to the threshold of full nuclear capability.
Tension has risen in the Middle East in anticipation of the report, amid suggestions that Israel may use it to justify a pre-emptive military strike against Iran.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, warned Israel on Monday that such action would be a "very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences".
Russia and China are also likely to oppose new, tougher UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, despite the IAEA making clear the extent of the regime's nuclear ambitions.
Its report will disclose that North Korea has provided mathematical formulas and codes involved in designing a nuclear device and that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's atom bomb, has handed over plans for a neutron initiator, a key element in a bomb.
It will also say that the Iranians were aided for at least five years by a former Soviet scientist, alleged by The Washington Post to be Vyacheslav Danilenko. He was allegedly contracted in the mid-1990s by Iran's Physics Research Centre, a facility linked to its nuclear programme. There is no evidence that Moscow knew.
According to intelligence sources and documents provided by the Iranians, he helped to design a so-called R265 generator, a high-explosive device used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. The West also believes that Tehran has a blueprint for a nuclear device small enough to fit into a warhead, and has completed a steel container the size of a double decker bus in which the high-explosive element of such a device could be tested.
The UN's nuclear watchdog will detail how the regime plans to triple its capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade at a facility deep inside a mountain near Qom and is experimenting with detonators and neutron physics in a way that can only be for military purposes.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, accused Israel and the United States yesterday of drumming up global support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which his country claims are for civilian and medical purposes only.
Mr Ahmadinejad added that Washington wanted to "save the Zionist entity, but it will not be able to do so".
"This entity [Israel] can be compared to a kidney transplanted in a body that rejected it. It will collapse and its end will be near," he said.
His remarks came after Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, said: "The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option."
However a push for a fifth round of UN sanctions is more likely in the short term. Britain and the US still believe Iran can be forced to back down, because the regime has not yet decided to proceed to the "breakout" stage of placing a nuclear explosive inside a warhead.
Israel will nonetheless press the West to act robustly. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Ehud Barak, his defence minister, have lobbied cabinet colleagues to back military strikes.
The United States has failed to win a guarantee from Mr Netanyahu that Israel will not act alone and is reportedly so concerned that it has ordered its intelligence agencies to step up monitoring of its ally. Some observers think Israel's rhetoric is intended to galvanise the international community into stronger action than it might otherwise have taken.
That could include a US ban on transactions with Iran's central bank, or a ban on Iranian oil imports, though the effects of either measure on Iranian society and the international economy are regarded as highly unpredictable. There is no doubt in Western capitals that the IAEA's quarterly report will offer the most compelling evidence yet about the military aspects of Iran's nuclear project, though it will stop short of concluding that the regime is either building a bomb or has firmly decided to so.
Iran's history of deception and obstruction and the involvement of bodies linked to the military in an ostensibly civilian scheme have deepened suspicions. Mark Hibbs, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "If you look at the gamut of activities over time, and how they are funded and organised, then you can conclude this looks like a nuclear weapons programme, because it is what all weapons programmes we know about have looked like."
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