US wants Iran to admit to nuke program

Senior US Envoy: Iran Needs to Admit to Past Weapons Program

GEORGE JAHN
AP News

Dec 21, 2007 16:04 EST

Iran must "confess" to running a past nuclear weapons program or its claims of cooperating with a U.N. investigation will not be credible, the chief U.S. envoy to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Friday.

(Since the IAEA has stated unequivocally that Iran has no weapons program, and has cooperated with its inspections, this is a desperate attempt to undo that success, reframe the debate, and perpetuate the illusion of a crisis.)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said in Washington that if Iran wants U.N. sanctions lifted and avoid new ones, it must halt uranium enrichment and related activities that could make the ingredients for an atomic bomb.

(This is the US Regime's way of avoiding meaningful negotiations, since they don't really care about this issue, as they know they're just making it up, and only want a war with Iran.)

If Iran complies, Rice said she was "prepared to meet my (Iranian) counterpart any place and anytime and anywhere, and we can talk about anything." But "as long as the Iranians are talking and practicing enrichment, we're not getting anywhere," she said.

(Enrichment is Iran's right under the NPT, and these demands are a way to scuttle talks, and ensure that diplomacy cannot work. This should be what is discussed, not a demand to preclude negotiations.)

Iran says it needs an enrichment program to produce fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington suspects it is part of its ultimate drive to possess nuclear weapons. Low enriched uranium generates power, but highly enriched, it has no use other than for the fissile payload of nuclear warheads.

(Responsible journalists would have explained that Iran's growing energy demands and limited petroleum refining capability supports these claims, while the US has no evidence to support their empty allegations. As well, vastly more construction would be required to start a refining process necessary for a weapons program, which would be immediately evident to the many eyes peering at Iran.)

Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment "violates Security Council resolutions and casts doubt on its leaders' ultimate intent."

(The Resolutions, which were designed to create a crisis, violates Iran's NPT rights. Several investigations are currently underway into allegations that the US coerced nations like India to vote for these resolutions.)

"Iran is already a danger in the Middle East," Schulte said. "That danger only increases as Iran's leaders shorten the timeline to produce nuclear weapons."

(The only real threat to the region is that posed by Israeli and American Extremists, who have already started several illegal wars, are conducting illegal covert wars against others - including Iran - are illegally brutalizing the Palestinians, and have created this crisis in order to start another war.)

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programs since revelations in 2003 that the country had conducted nearly two decades of secret atomic activities, including developing enrichment and working on experiments that could be linked to a weapons program.

(However, none of this work was ACTUALLY linked to any weapons program. This irresponsible misrepresentation of the IAEA's work is reminiscent of the media's complicity in starting the disastrous war against Iraq.)

A recently published U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that in the same year, Iran stopped direct work on creating nuclear arms.

(But this claim only comes from a single, unreliable source, and is not in any way supported by any hard evidence.)

Under a plan agreed to earlier this year with the IAEA, Iran committed itself to answering all lingering questions about its past nuclear activities. That, by implication, included programs that could have weapons applications.

"We are looking for an acknowledgment that they had nuclear weapons," Schulte said. "The end of the year is rapidly approaching (and) we are waiting to see if Iran's leaders are ready to confess."

(They never had nuclear weapons. The desperation, and willingness to do anything to start a war, on the part of the Israeli and American Extremists is frighteningly apparent.)

However, the agreement between Iran and the IAEA makes no direct mention of a clandestine Iranian weapons program, and because Iran denies it ever tried to develop one, the U.S. demands are unlikely to be met.

(Because it is a ludicrous request ...)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the U.S. intelligence estimate a victory for his country, and officials of other governments have suggested it could relieve pressure on the Islamic republic.

Schulte warned against such interpretations. Iran had been engaged in a "concerted, covert program, conducted by military entities, under the direction of Iran's government," he said. "Iran's leaders could choose to restart that program."

(But there is no evidence that such a program ever existed. Using the Neo-Con's own terms for 'pre-emption', wouldn't Iran be justified in attacking Israel or the US, both nulcear powers, since they're plotting to attack the country ... ?)

Still, the revised U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has stiffened resistance from permanent U.N. Security Council members Russia and China to moving quickly on a third set of sanctions against Iran.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said he wants to wrap up the investigation by December. But diplomats accredited to the agency, who demanded anonymity because their information was confidential, told The Associated Press this week that the agency had run into unspecified obstacles, and that Iranian officials were now talking about March as the new deadline — something they said the United States and its allies would be unlikely to accept.

(El Baredei also said that any attack on Iran would be "an act of Madness", and was subsequently attacked/slandered by the Israeli Government, and the US tapped his phones.)

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

 http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/US_wants_Iran_to_admit_to_nuke_prog_12212007.html

'Israel will attack Iran on its own'
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388351.html

Iran, Nukes, and the 'Laptop of Death'
How we were almost lied into war – again
 http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12030

'Laptop of Death': Revising the NIE on Iran

The claim that Iran once had a nuclear program comes from a single, questionable source, reminiscent of the false information passed to the US neo-cons by Ahmad Chalabi.

 http://www.antiwar.com/ips/akhavi.php?articleid=12028