Inspectors cite big gain by Iran on nuclear fuel

Iranian Monitor · May 15, 2007

This is not even news to me, but given the attempts to question Iran's claims regarding its enrichment capabilities, and the fact that the excuse for adopting sanctions against Iran and demanding Iran suspend enrichment activities is supposedly to prevent it from acquring the "know-how" to make nukes, the findings by the IAEA should at least bring some realism to the discussion. Should and will, however, are not the same thing....

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/15/africa/15iran.php

Inspectors cite big gain by Iran on nuclear fuel

VIENNA: Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency's top officials.

The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington, which has aimed to force a suspension of Iran's enrichment activities in large part to prevent it from learning how to produce weapons-grade material.

In a short-notice inspection of Iran's main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday, conducted in advance of a report to the United Nations Security Council due early next week, the inspectors found that Iranian engineers were already using roughly 1,300 centrifuges and were producing fuel suitable for nuclear reactors, according to diplomats and nuclear experts here. Until recently, the Iranians were having difficulty keeping the delicate centrifuges spinning at the tremendous speeds necessary to make nuclear fuel, and often were running them empty, or not at all.

Now, those roadblocks appear to have been surmounted. "We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich," said Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the energy agency, who clashed with the Bush administration four years ago when he declared that there was no evidence that Iraq had resumed its nuclear program. "From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that's a fact."
...
The logic of demanding suspension was that it would delay the day that Iran gained the knowledge to produce its own nuclear fuel, what the Israelis used to refer to as "the point of no return." Those favoring unconditional engagement with Iran have argued that the current strategy was creating a stalemate that the Iranians are exploiting, allowing them to make technological leaps while the Security Council steps up sanctions.
...
ElBaradei has always been skeptical of that strategy, telling European foreign ministers that he doubted the Iranians would fully suspend their nuclear activities, and that a face-saving way must be found to resolve the impasse.

"Quite clearly suspension is a requirement by the Security Council, and I would hope the Iranians would listen to the world community," he said. "But from a proliferation perspective, the fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension — keeping them from getting the knowledge — has been overtaken by events. The focus now should be to stop them from going to industrial scale production, to allow us to do a full-court-press inspection and to be sure they remain inside the treaty."
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Operation Opera · May 15, 2007

I am glad for the Iranian Nation. They are like a train moving forward without brakes. Iranians are not like Iraqis or Libyans. They want technological advances and they wont bow to pressure.

Well done, Iran!

352klr · May 15, 2007

Operation Opera said: ↑

I am glad for the Iranian Nation. They are like a train moving forward without brakes.

Well done, Iran!
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And what happens to trains without brakes?

Operation Opera · May 16, 2007

352klr said: ↑

And what happens to trains without brakes?
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how old are you? you cant take the right from them away. [edit]

Beerking · May 16, 2007

352klr said: ↑

And what happens to trains without brakes?

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You own him now Repped!

352klr · May 16, 2007

Operation Opera said: ↑

how old are you? you cant take the right from them away. moron.
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Says the person who used the absolute worst analogy of all time.

Rostam · May 16, 2007

This train has all its components in place functioning quite well, and we can expect, sometime in the future, that its pace ought to be recaliberated from time to time, but NOT NOW!

Transcend and make it be known.