 The UN nuclear watchdog's governing body has voted overwhelmingly to censure Iran for developing a uranium enrichment site in secret, and has demanded it freeze the project immediately. The resolution, the first against Tehran in almost four years, was passed by a 25-3 margin, with six abstentions, by the 35-nation governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. The move received rare Russian and Chinese backing but it was unclear whether the measure would translate into support from Beijing and Moscow for further sanctions that Western leaders may push for if Iran does not begin to dispel concerns about its nuclear ambitions soon. Most developing nations on the IAEA board opposed the resolution, which was sponsored by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States, saying it would be provocative and counterproductive. The resolution criticises Iran for defying a UN Security Council ban on uranium enrichment. It also rebukes Tehran for secretly building a uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom. Supporters of the resolution were provoked by the revelation in September of the site, which Iran had been building for at least two years. The discovery of the site has fuelled suspicions among Western states that Iran could be building other covert facilities dedicated to the making of nuclear weapons. The resolution notes that the IAEA cannot confirm that Tehran's nuclear programme is exclusively geared towards peaceful uses and expresses "serious concern" that Iran may be hiding a military nuclear program. Iran, which says its nuclear activity is for peaceful purposes, had warned before the vote that passing the resolution would undermine its relations with the IAEA. The measure also signalled that IAEA members hare losing patience with Iran's reluctance to fully accept an IAEA-brokered plan to provide it with fuel for a nuclear medicine reactor, in exchange for enriched uranium that could be turned into bomb material if further refined. On Thursday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the IAEA, said an investigation into whether Iran was seeking to build nuclear weapons had reached "a dead end". More at Al Jazeera 
 BERLIN -- Mohamed ElBaradei, the departing chief of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, said Iran's continued refusal to accept tighter scrutiny of its nuclear activities would likely force the international community to impose new sanctions. Though he described sanctions as a "grievous violation of human rights" that "affect the weak" and "do not solve problems," Mr. ElBaradei said Iran's continued intransigence regarding its nuclear program would likely lead world powers to increase their pressure on Iran. "The ball is in Iran's court," Mr. ElBaradei said in a brief interview after delivering a speech on his 12-year tenure as the International Atomic Energy Agency's Director General. Mr. ElBaradei, who is set to retire from the agency at the end of November, said he still hoped Iran's leadership would accept a plan to address concerns about its nuclear activities but acknowledged that it was "a fleeting opportunity." He urged the international community to continue to engage with Iran, saying that "small steps and negotiations" are necessary to achieve results. "We can threaten to use force, but this is a bridge to nowhere," Mr. ElBaradei said. Diplomats familiar with the talks say Western powers will wait until the end of the year for Tehran to accept a deal brokered with Iran this fall that would require the country to ship some of its uranium stockpile abroad for reprocessing into fuel for a medical-research reactor. Mr. ElBaradei's remarks came as top officials from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the U.S., U.K., France, Russia and China -- plus Germany, met in Brussels to discuss the standoff with Iran. The group issued a statement expressing disappointment that Iran had failed to respond to proposals aimed at calming worries about its nuclear ambitions. They urged Iran "to engage seriously with us in dialogue and negotiations." The six said they viewed Iran's failure to notify the IAEA about the existence of an underground uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom as a breach of Iran's safeguards agreement with the agency and "in defiance of several UN resolutions." The officials said they would meet again soon to decide about next steps. International criticism of Iran's nuclear program escalated in September after the existence of the Qom facility came to light. President Obama has said the facility appears to be designed to produce fuel for a secret military program. Mr. Obama has called for a two-track policy of negotiations backed by the possibility of sanctions, should the talks fail to lead to an agreement that would restore confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. At the U.N. Friday, Iran drew criticism for how it handled the aftermath of the country's disputed presidential election. The General Assembly's human-rights committee passed a resolution condemning Tehran's violent response to protests against the results of the June balloting as "serious ongoing and recurring human-rights violations." Mohammad Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the U.N., called the Canadian-sponsored resolution "politically charged and motivated." WSJ
 UN inspectors found "nothing to be worried about" in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks published on Thursday. Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections. The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for electricity. ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his inspectors' initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom were "nothing to be worried about". "The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect things," ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran's references to the site as a fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment plant were bombed by a foe like Israel. "It's a hole in a mountain," he said. The IAEA has declined to comment on whether the inspectors came across anything surprising or were able to obtain all the documentation and on-site access they had wanted at the remote spot about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran. Details are expected to be included in the next IAEA report on Iran's disputed nuclear activity due in mid-November. The inspectors' goal was to compare engineering designs to be provided by Iran with the actual look of the facility, interview scientists and other employees, and take soil samples to check for any traces of activity oriented to making bombs.
 Iran has told the UN nuclear watchdog that it wants new supplies of nuclear fuel for a reactor before it agrees to ship most of its enriched uranium stocks to Russia and France, diplomats have said. Diplomats said on Friday that Western powers, which accuse Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, found the Iranian demand unacceptable. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) described Iran's demand as an "initial response" to its brokered nuclear fuel proposal. The deal would involve Iran sending potential nuclear fuel abroad for processing to allay Western concerns. Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, who is in New York for a series of meetings at the UN headquarters, declined to comment on Iran's response to the proposal. But Western diplomats appeared unimpressed by the Iranian demand. "The Iranians want to get enriched uranium fuel for their reactor first before they send it abroad, which simply isn't acceptable," one diplomat was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. The Iranian state news agency, IRNA, said it was not Tehran's final "answer" to the plan. Iran has insisted on simultaneously exchanging its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel produced overseas, the state news agency said on Friday, calling the demand a "red line'' that will not be abandoned. The condition undermines the basis of the plan which demands Iran ship most of its uranium to be further enriched in Russia and turned into fuel rods in France for use in a research reactor. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged Iran earlier this week to accept the IAEA proposal, saying it would "constitute an important confidence-building measure". Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful and has refused to halt it. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 A team from the UN's nuclear watchdog has inspected a controversial Iranian uranium enrichment plant near the town of Qom. The four inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited the facility on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said. "The inspectors ... visited the facility in central Iran. They are expected to visit the site again," it said. Iran's disclosure of the Qom plant's existence on September 21 sparked a wave of global outrage. Iran has already been enriching uranium - the most controversial aspect of its nuclear project - for several years at another plant in the central city of Natanz, in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions. Uranium enrichment is the focus of Western concern that Iran's ultimate aim is to manufacture a nuclear weapon, a charge strongly denied by Tehran. Enriched uranium produces fuel for civilian reactors, but in highly extended form can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb. On Saturday, Mehr quoted an unnamed Vienna-based official as saying that the IAEA inspectors would "compare the information given by Iran [about the Qom plant] with the facility during their visit." Hossein Ebrahimi, an Iranian legislator, said the IAEA inspection "shows that Iranian nuclear activities are peaceful and transparent". The inspection comes as Barack Obama, the US president, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, and France's Nicolas Sarkozy pledged support for a separate deal to end the crisis over Iran's uranium enrichment drive. The White House said the three "affirmed their full support" for a UN-brokered deal under which Tehran's existing stock of low-enriched uranium (LEU) would be sent abroad. Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tehran, the Iranian capital, said the UN inspectors had only three days to do their job. "They say they are going to use all technical tools available to them to assess whether there has been any recent activity at the plant. The Iranians, of course, deny this. They say that enriching has not started yet," she said.
"But what we understand is that [the] inspectors will be taking environmental swaps at the plant - trying to assess whether there is any military dimension at all.
"And that's really key - to try to prove that Iran's intentions are peaceful or whether the plant was going to be used for military purposes.
"The Iranians say they're going to fill the plant with the latest kind of centrifuges, which will only be able to produce low-enriched uranium. That's what the inspectors will have to assess and report back to Mohamed ElBaradei [head of the IAEA] in November." Tehran missed a Friday deadline for responding to the UN deal about uranium, saying it would give its answer next week. State TV has said Iran would prefer to buy uranium for a reactor that makes medical isotopes, rather than send its own stock abroad for enrichment. Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, said on Saturday that Western powers are trying to "cheat" Iran through deal. "They are saying we will give you the 20 per cent [enriched uranium] fuel for the Tehran reactor only if you give us your enriched uranium," he told Iran's ISNA news agency.
"I see no links between providing the fuel for the Tehran reactor and sending Iran's low enriched uranium abroad." Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 VIENNA: Iranian negotiators last night agreed to consider a draft deal that - if accepted by the Tehran leadership - would delay its ability to make nuclear weapons by sending most of the material it would need to Russia for processing. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that representatives of Iran and its three interlocutors -- the US, Russia and France -- had accepted the draft, which still has to be finalised by the four nations' capitals. He hoped that would occur by tomorrow night. "I have circulated a draft agreement that in my judgment reflects a balanced approach to how to move forward," he told reporters, suggesting that all four parties had worked hard to overcome differences exacerbated by suspicions that Iran may be interested in nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its activities are peaceful and meant only to generate energy. "Everybody who participated at the meeting was trying to look at the future, not at the past, trying to heal the wounds," Dr ElBaradei said. "I very much hope that people see the big picture, see that this agreement could open the way for a complete normalisation of relations between Iran and the international community." He gave no details of what was in the package. But diplomats said it was essentially the original proposal drawn up by the IAEA that would commit Tehran to shipping 75 per cent of its enriched uranium stockpile to Russia for further enrichment. After that material is turned into metal fuel rods, it would be shipped back to Iran to power its small research reactor in Tehran. While essentially technical, such a deal would have significant political and strategic ramifications. It would commit Iran to turn over more than 1200kg of low-enriched uranium. That would ease fears about Iran's nuclear program, since 1000kg is the amount of low-enriched uranium needed to produce weapons-grade uranium. Meanwhile, Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was detained for nearly four months in Iran, has been released to rejoin his pregnant wife. Bahari, 43, was one of hundreds arrested on June 21 during the crackdown that followed the country's disputed presidential election. Source: The Australian
 Iran signaled to the West on Monday that it will not allow its enriched uranium to be moved out of the country, in spite of international demands. Iranian state-run Press TV cited unnamed officials in Tehran as saying the Islamic Republic was looking to hold on to its low-enriched uranium and buying what it needed for the Tehran reactor abroad. The report indicated that Iran will not meet terms the West said it agreed to — including transferring most of its stock of enriched uranium, the potential base for fissile warhead material. Tehran says it needs enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. "Buying nuclear fuel from abroad does not mean Iran will stop its uranium enrichment activities inside the country," Ali Shirzadian, spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told Iran's official IRNA news agency. "If the talks do not bring about Iran's desired result ... we will start to make 19.7 percent enriched uranium ourselves," Shirzadian told Reuters a few hours before the talks were due to start. The U.S. says Iran is now one to six years away from being able to make such arms, should it choose to. Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency says talks with Iran's International Atomic Energy Agency delegation were off to a"good start" in Vienna. Mohamed El Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, attended the first day of talks Monday. He spoke of "quite a constructive meeting." "We are off to a good start," Baradei said. Even if Tehran agrees, it could still try to resist pressure to hand over most of its stock in one batch, insisting instead on sending small amounts out of the country. Iran still has enough fuel for the Tehran reactor to last until mid-2011. Monday's Vienna talks between Tehran and the U.S., Russia and France, focused on the technical issue with huge strategic ramifications. Progress would strengthen confidence on the part of the U.S. and five other big powers trying to persuade Iran to dispel fears about its nuclear program that this time Tehran is serious about reducing tensions and ready to build on Oct. 1 Geneva talks with six world powers. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNew
 The top nuclear inspector at the UN does not believe that Iran is the number one threat in the Middle East.He says Israel is the number one threat.China View reported, via Free Republic: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported.
At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30 years, the report said.
"Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying.
Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear capabilities, although it refuses to confirm or deny the allegation.
"This (possession of nuclear arms) was the cause for some proper measures to gain access to its (Israel's) power plants ... and the U.S. president has done some positive measures for the inspections to happen," said ElBaradei.
ElBaradei arrived in Iran Saturday for talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear program.
 United Nations inspectors will visit Iran's recently disclosed nuclear power plant on October 25, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday from Tehran, Iran "It is important for us to send out inspectors to do comprehensive verification ... to assure ourselves that it is ... fit for peaceful purposes," Mohamed ElBaradei said. Iran sent shock waves through the international community recently when Tehran wrote a letter to the IAEA revealing the existence of a nuclear enrichment facility near the city of Qom. Iran said its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the United States, among others, fears the country aims to build nuclear weapons. The New York Times reported Sunday that IAEA experts "have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired 'sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable' atom bomb." Citing senior European officials, the report said that the conclusions are tentative, but "go well beyond the public positions taken by several governments, including the United States." CNN could not immediately confirm the Times' report. Speaking to CNN, U.S. national security adviser Jim Jones rejected the idea that Iran may be closer to a bomb than the U.S. government has said. "No, we stand by the reports that we've put out," Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that there will be "a lot of speculation, one way or the other." Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, "I'm not going to get into characterizing the substance of a confidential report or our own intelligence. But suffice it to say, our whole approach is predicated on an urgent need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capacity." Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," she added, "There are various assessments and they don't all align." But, Rice said, key players are on the same page about what to do. "This is a very serious process where we are together aligned with the P5+1 -- that's Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the United States -- presenting Iran with a very stark choice: Either they give up their nuclear weapons program conclusively to our satisfaction, or they will face additional pressure," Rice said, adding: "We're very much in a period of intense negotiations now." And while "Russia and China have resisted sanctions," Rice said, "we are united in presenting this choice to Iran." Read more here,,,, Source: CNN
 By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Al Jazeera network Monday that the Arab world should built up its “security capabilities” as a signal to Iran to think twice about developing a nuclear weapon.He said that the Islamic Republic has to understand “that this path they're on is not going to advance Iranian security but in fact could weaken it.” However, he stopped short of saying that war will break out with Iran and stated that the Obama administration still prefers diplomatic and economic measures to persuade Iran to cooperate with international atomic energy inspectors. The Arab world buys billions of dollars of weapons from the United States and other countries, but the Defense Secretary voiced doubt regarding a claim that American arm sales to the region have reached $100 billion. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last month said Iran is preparing new proposals for talks with the world’s major powers, continues to maintain that Iran will not negotiate what he called its “undeniable” rights to develop nuclear power. Diplomatic pressure on Iran is expected to increase after the American Congress ends its summer recess and its members meet to consider tougher sanctions against Iran. However, China and Russia, which have invested heavily in Iran’s nuclear facilities, have indicated they will continue to oppose crippling sanctions if the issue reaches the United Nations Security Council. Mohamed ElBaradei, outgoing director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stated on Monday that the agency has reached an “impasse” with Iran. Source: INN
 Iran accused the US on Friday of using "forged documents" and relying on subterfuge to make its case that Teheran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, according to a confidential letter obtained by The Associated Press. The eight-page letter, written by Iran's chief envoy to the UN nuclear agency in Vienna, denounces Washington's allegations against the Islamic republic as "fabricated, baseless and false." The letter does not specify what documents Iran is alleging were forged. It also lashes out at Britain and France for "ill will and political motivation" in their dealings on Iran. Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh sent the letter to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose 35-nation board will take a hard new look at Iran's nuclear program next week. Iran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful and geared solely toward generating electricity. The US and key allies contend the Islamic republic is covertly trying to build an atomic bomb. Teheran has bristled at the agency's latest report, which accuses Iran of defiantly continuing to enrich uranium and refusing to clear up lingering questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear program. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, Soltanieh insists that Iran has demonstrated "the full commitment of my country to its obligations" under an IAEA nuclear safeguards agreement. But it takes sharp aim at Washington for giving the UN nuclear watchdog unspecified intelligence and other evidence allegedly recovered from a laptop computer that reportedly was smuggled out of Iran. US intelligence later assessed the information as indicating that Teheran had been working on details of nuclear weapons, including missile trajectories and ideal altitudes for exploding warheads. The material on the laptop also included videos of what intelligence officials believe were secret nuclear laboratories in Iran. "By interfering in the work of the IAEA and exerting various political pressures, the government of the United States attempted to spoil the cooperative spirit between the Islamic republic of Iran and the IAEA," the letter reads. Read more here,,,, Source: JPost
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The UN nuclear watchdog's governing body has voted overwhelmingly to censure Iran for developing a uranium enrichment site in secret, and has demanded it freeze the project immediately. 
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