U.N. Nuke Head Voices ‘Serious Concerns’ About Iran’s Potential Nuclear Weapons Program
- Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:47am by
Billy Hallowell
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VIENNA (The Blaze/AP) — In what seems like a broken record continuing to play the same ear-curdling sound, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency on Monday said his organization has “serious concerns” that Iran may be hiding secret atomic weapons work, as he acknowledged failure in his latest attempt to probe such suspicions and listed recent atomic advances by Iran.
(Related: Obama to Israel Conference: Iran’s Leaders Should Have No Doubt About Our Resolve)
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano spoke to the 35-nation IAEA board amid backdoor diplomatic maneuvering aimed at coming up with substantial joint pressure on Iran to end its nuclear defiance and address global concerns about its nuclear activities.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano (AP)
The conference opened as fears grow that Israel may soon strike Iran in an attempt to destroy its nuclear facilities. It also comes as U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are scheduled to hold a private White House meeting on Monday to discuss Iran.
While Obama is expected to say that he does not want to enter into another war, he will purportedly tell Netanyahu that he would attack the Middle Eastern nation if all other options fail. The Israeli leader, though, is expected to ask the president for concrete U.S. plans for dealing with the situation. Regardless of the discussion that develops, all sides seem to agree that Iran’s potential nuclear power plan is problematic.
Amano summarized the most pressing worries — Tehran’s rebuff of two recent attempts to probe the weapons program suspicions and a sharp, recent increase in uranium enrichment, which Iran says it needs for nuclear energy, but which can also produce fissile weapons material.
“The agency continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program,” he told the meeting. “As Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation … the agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to concluded that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
A senior diplomat from an IAEA member nation said shortly after Amano‘s opening comments that the United States and its western allies continued to lobby Russia and China to back a resolution critical of Iran’s refusal to heed IAEA and U.N. Security Council demands that it banish such concerns by opting for full nuclear transparency.
Moscow and Beijing traditionally act as brakes on Western attempts to tighten the sanctions vise on Iran, and the diplomat — who asked for anonymity because his information was privileged — told The Associated Press that the focus was on finding language they could agree with, without watering down the message to the point that it became meaningless.
Any resolution passed by the IAEA board automatically goes to the U.N. Security Council and could be used as a platform for additional sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which already is the focus of four sets of U.N. sanctions meant primarily to pressure it to give up enrichment. The U.S., the European Union and others have additionally slapped Tehran recently with financial and economic penalties meant to hurt its banking system and oil export industry.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks to a gathering at the University of Havana, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday Jan. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
Recent moves to boost higher-enriched enrichment at Fordo, an underground facility that may be able to withstand aerial attack, are of particular concern.
Referring to his most recent report on Iran circulated late last month, Amano noted that Tehran had tripled higher monthly enrichment to 20 percent at Fordo over the past four months, as well as significantly expanding lower-level enrichment at another facility.
Both lower enriched uranium below 5 percent and 20 percent enriched material can be processed further to 90 percent — the level used to arm nuclear warheads. But 20-percent enrichment is of particular concern because it can be turned into weapons-grade material much more quickly and easily that lower-enriched uranium.
Outside the meeting, Ruediger Luedeking, Germany’s chief IAEA delegate, told The Associated Press that onus was on Iran to “actively disprove the substantial doubt … about the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.”
The IAEA meeting comes less than two weeks after IAEA experts returned from Tehran from their second failed attempt within a month to persuade Iran to end nearly four years of stonewalling on what the agency says is growing intelligence-based information that Iran has worked – and may still be working – on components of a nuclear weapons program.
Iran dismisses the suspicions as based on fabricated information provided by the United States and Israel.
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porkandbeanz
Posted on March 7, 2012 at 9:58ammahmond ahmadinejad is nuttier then a squirrel turd, thats all we need is this guy with a nuke. it doesn’t matter how many sanctions you put on this country thats not going to stop them from building one, if anything that would modivate them to get it done faster.
Report Post »Carefreeflyer
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:01pmREALLY!!! Someone needs to tell Obama.
Report Post »Starman1
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:11pmwe‘d all like to REALLY think that Iran wouldn’t do it (nuke US or Israel) ………. but they’re a different breed. They TRULY think that we (and Israel) are infidels and NEED to be destroyed. One of these morning we’re gunna wake up to VERY BAD news …… if you don’t wake up ? then guess where your living …… “in range” ! I would bet that when Iran makes it’s move …….. they’ll be TWO simultaneous flight paths …… ! US and Israel ……. ! in their minds, get rid of everything that stands in their way all once.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:26amNow the UN has “serious concerns” I thought they just were going to wait for a mushroom cloud to indicate Iran’s progress. So if the UN has serious concerns are they going to invite Ahmadinejad to a tea to discuss in stern language their concerns. They might even use a stern tone.
Report Post »wtune
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:01amIran poses no nuclear threat to anyone. If you don’t believe it, ask Ron Paul.
Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. That is probably true. However, next week things may be different. International experts agree that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. But they know NOTHING.
Sergeant Schultz, better known to his followers as Ron Paul, knows more than all the experts. But at least Schultz was wise enough to admit he knew nothing. Ron keeps merrily spouting his drivel.
Report Post »elihu
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 2:25amThis is from a Texan: Ron Paul is a nutcase! The sooner that fact is out of the bag the better.
Report Post »mycomet123
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:47amApparently this nutjob running Iran is PART OF THE PLAN spoken of in the Old Testament. Israel is about to have their own Pentocost. The rest of us?, only God really knows. It’s time to pay the piper–God hav MERCY on us all.
Report Post »robert
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 10:47am“…Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation…”
Yet not a peep out of them about other rogue states having not only nuclear weapons, and developing ICBM’s to reach the US, like North Korea, Pakistan, India ( yes India. It’s a strong ally of Russia.), but their policies are becoming more and more anti-American.
Report Post »mycomet123
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:51amROBERT, We all have different beliefs/interpretations of the Bible. I believe that once Israel defends itself against Iran, several other countries will come after Israel. Iran is the catalyst.
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:26amWe have been listening to this UN gibberish ever since it was started. The only teeth the UN has is us. We are the only country with the will and the power to start or stop anything. The useless blather pouring out of the UN is meaningless.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:10amIt’s_TIME_2_ END_Iran. The time is now to make our stand against radical Islam. It will be painful and it will call for sacrifice from ALL Americans (not just our Military), but it has to be done… sorry.
And if it makes Ron Paul happy… we can drop a few “inert foreign policy progressive” bombs on Tehran as opposed to “smart bombs” just to make the Libertarian geezer giggley. But when the Mullahs/Clerics/ Ayatollah gather round to sing their Ron Paul praises? Poof! Death from above.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:07amI have to be amused though when people pray to God “Help us lord” and yet people won’t actually do, and they send up empty prayers and bitter or no incense. And I’m amused because you are actually praying to Baal, but the very lord you think you are praying to is the lord bringing about your destruction. And the Prophets said: woe to those who say in their heart the lord will not do good, and neither will he do evil.
Report Post »elihu
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 2:30amYou paint with a very broad brush!
Report Post »scrapadapolis
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:04amIran wont launch any nukes on or over American soil.Knowing they will be killing the muslim armys poised in the US guised as the GOOD muslim until called upon.And if something will go down all the muslims will flee America like rats before the ship sinks.Note to America when the muslims pack up and begin to leave launch out nukes and glass Iran.
Report Post »randy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:56amOh U.N., you’re just being alarmists, We all know Iran isn’t a threat.
YOu guys are just being “Nukers”
OK, sarcasm ended now.
The UN, just knows that when WW3 starts, The U.N. will be a joke…..
Oh Cr@p, I forgot, the U.N. already is a JOKE!
Hey Iran, do the world a favor and drop your first one here:
Report Post »760 United Nations Plaza, New York, New York 10017, U.S
Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:01amYou have much bigger things than Iran to worry about, but I understand you have a small mind so you have to focus on one thing, and it’s always never yourself.
Report Post »randy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:07amCouldn’t agree more. We do need to worry more about people like you.
Report Post »You need to just pull your head out of your A$$.
because as soon as the rest of the fat, lazy patriots finally put the Doritos down and get of the couch,
It’s going to suck being you.
Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:11amrandy,
Report Post »You’re not going to ever, ever do anything, because you are a pansy. You can’t even fight off your own beastly inclinations.
Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:18amYes Randy you are unto a “Soldier of fortune magazine soldier” who would like to be a soldier, but quite frankly is fearful of it unless you’re dressed like robocop. I recall this story about one soldier once who could do 250 push-ups, and every time people walked passed his room he was working out and he had plenty of Soldier of Fortune magazines laying around. But when it came to jumping out of air-planes he became an instant pansy.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:22amYou see Randy even a beast is afraid of heights, and cats will climb trees afraid to come down, and cows won’t walk across grates because they are afraid of falling through.
Report Post »mycomet123
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:43amRANDY, Do yourself a favor & don’t respond. Obviously your dealing with someone who is mentally unstable OR is trying to get you pissed off–in that case don’t waste your time with an idiot.
Report Post »randy
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:55am@MYCOMET123
Report Post »Oh that’s ok MYCOMET123, takes a lot more that little timmy boy to pi$$ me off.
People like him just make me smile.
Soldier_FORTHERECORD
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:56amThe UN continuing to have zero effect on the world’s stage. An economic redistribution paradise since 1945.
Report Post »objectivetruth
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:16amYeah it started out with the right attitude and meaning,Unfortunately none of the treatys and other underpinnings were ever revisted.Instead every other nation became more powerful than the nation that started and built it.Being us, the us.Instead of protecting the world from unlawful efrects of war and the horrors.It instead seeks to impose them.
Report Post »mike_trivisonno
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:30amIt is deception. Iran is a third-world, Islamic craphole being paraded before the bewildered non-muslim world as a nuclear bogeyman man while the real power continues gaining ground, power, and resources.
Mecca. Saudi Arabia.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:36amPakistan is a “is a third-world, Islamic craphole” too and they have nukes. What makes you think Iran won’t develop them?
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:51amIn sworn statements that seem likely to reignite the debate, two former senators who were privy to top secret information on the Saudis’ activities say they believe that the Saudi government might have played a direct role in the terrorist attacks.
“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, said in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit brought against the Saudi government and dozens of institutions in the country by families of Sept. 11 victims and others. Mr. Graham led a joint 2002 Congressional inquiry into the attacks.
His former Senate colleague, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a Democrat who served on the separate 9/11 Commission, said in a sworn affidavit of his own in the case that “significant questions remain unanswered” about the role of Saudi institutions. “Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued,” Mr. Kerrey said.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:10amIsn‘t it amazing all the Ace’s in the hole the Lord has to assure the world is pulled into the abyss when the earth has been condemned? You should be recording all these things to make sure you don’t ever repeat created a world wide government, because God will just tear it down again.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:13amWhen you just sit on your *ss and sit on your lores in an evil system saying about the slavery of your children “Oh I won’t be around for it” then the Lord will make sure your *ss is around for the collapse.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:40amHere’s just a few of the ways it could end very soon: Global financial collapse; Cataclysmic solar flare; asteroids; an EMP from North Korea; an EMP from Iran; China’s military; WW3 going nuclear; massive weather anomalies; and diseases that spread out of control. Yes I’d say the lord has all bases covered, and at least one of these are gonna get ya.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:43amAnd if that isn’t enough to keep you in captivity, then there’s always the go to officer of captivity flying around the universe in intergalactic space-ships.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:08amAnybody see 60 minutes last night? Somebody unleashed a virus on the Iranian‘s nuclear program and it screwed up their centrifuge’s,made them inoperable. Israel probably created the virus since it‘s in their interest to take down Iran’s nuclear weapons program.The Iranian‘s had to replace 100 centrifuge’s and it set them back but sadly didn’t destroy their systems.
Report Post »PoliticallyRightUs.Com
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:56amIll believe it when I hear it from anyone other than “MSM”!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:06amDon’t worry, Obama is going to sweet talk them out of those pesky nuclear ambitions. He said so in 2008 didn’t he? Of course he is pretty busy stopping the rise of the seas right now.
Report Post »AJAYW
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:25amGonzo -He will more than likely see to it they get it- it will futher his standing in the muslim world
Report Post »