Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised on Monday that he would announce “very good news” about Tehran’s nuclear program within days, Reuters reported.
"I will give you, the Iranian nation, very good nuclear news in the coming days," President Ahmadinejad said in a speech carried live on state television.
"Our enemies know they are unable to even slightly hurt our nation and they cannot create the tiniest obstacle on its glorious and progressive way,"
"They cannot stop our nation," Ahmadinejad said. "They should know they cannot deprive our nation of its rights by political pressure."
Ahmadinejad’s comments echoed comments by other top Iranian officials suggesting the imminent announcement of progress in Iran's nuclear program.
Meanwhile, a top Iranian newspaper said the Iranian President might declare that Iran enriched uranium to a level used in power plants.
"It was said the good news is related to Iran's achievement of uranium enrichment at 3.5 percent and creating a laboratory platform that will register Iran in the club of nuclear fuel countries,” the daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami wrote, without revealing its sources or giving further details.
Uranium enriched to a low level can be used as fuel to generate electricity. Fuel for use in Iran’s only nuclear plant now under construction must be enriched to 3.5 percent. Uranium must be enriched to far higher levels for bomb-making.
Striking Iran would be “completely nuts” - Straw
A military strike on Iran would be “completely nuts”, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in an interview on BBC television.
Straw’s comments were in response to a report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine that the Bush Administration was readying plans for a possible air strike on Iran's nuclear sites.
The report, dismissed by Iran as part of a U.S. “psychological war”, stated that the U.S. administration was seriously considering using "bunker buster" tactical nuclear weapons against Iran’s underground facilities. It also said that President Bush consider Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “new Hitler”, and sees regime change in Tehran as the ultimate goal.
Straw acknowledged public concern that Iran was going to turn into another Iraq, but said that Britain, the U.S.’s closest ally in Europe, wouldn’t accept a pre-emptive strike against the Islamic republic, adding that the U.S. is committed to a negotiated solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
"The idea of a nuclear strike on Iran is completely nuts," he said.
Straw also said that there was a “difference of emphasis” between the British and American governments on Iran.
"The American administration, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush use slightly different language . . . As far as they are concerned, (military action) is not on the agenda but they don't rule out any option in theory about their position, "
Although Straw reiterated allegations by the U.S. and EU that Iran was developing a civil nuclear program that could be used for atomic weapons, he said that there was “no smoking gun”, and stressed that military action couldn’t be justified at this point.
“We can't be certain about Iran's intentions and that is therefore not a basis on which anybody would gain authority for military action," he said.
Iran insists that it has a legitimate right to work on a peaceful nuclear program as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Referring to Straw's comments, Hersh told the BBC that there were questions about how much information the U.S. government was sharing with its European allies.
Meanwhile, the White House, which dismissed Hersh’s report, claimed that it was pursuing a diplomatic solution on the issue of Iran's nuclear developments.
"We are not going to discuss military planning," said a White House spokesman.
Last week, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a non-binding statement giving Iran 30 days to halt uranium enrichment activities.
A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts is currently in Iran inspecting uranium enrichment and reprocessing plans. The agency is due to report on Iran’s compliance to the UN demands later this month.
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised on Monday that he would announce “very good news” about Tehran’s nuclear program within days, Reuters reported.
"I will give you, the Iranian nation, very good nuclear news in the coming days," President Ahmadinejad said in a speech carried live on state television.
"Our enemies know they are unable to even slightly hurt our nation and they cannot create the tiniest obstacle on its glorious and progressive way,"
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by Vahid
Aweesomeee
hopfull they have developed nukes lol
You are relaxed about the likely victims of such a program - the Iranians who die from poorly managed radiation, the Muslims who will be the inevitable victims when those weapons are used? That sort of thing?
Iranians have only proved to be a danger to other Muslims. Remember that when gloating over the coming victims of these weapons.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by islam-truth
Salaam
You've got too mmuch faith in the US
No just realistic. A nuclear strike against the US or EU would involved a nuclear response. Both US and EU nuclear stockpile is exponetially larger than Iran's and have a greater range. Do the math. I'm not saying the US military wouldn't take loses just that the toll would be greater.
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by knuckles
No just realistic. A nuclear strike against the US or EU would involved a nuclear response. Both US and EU nuclear stockpile is exponetially larger than Iran's and have a greater range. Do the math. I'm not saying the US military wouldn't take loses just that the toll would be greater.
Salaam
Only by the permission of allah things happen so if bush were ever trigger happy without permisson from allah he wouldn't be able to do anything.
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
The EU And US are threats to each other just as Iran is to US belive me their hiding it , The Eu cant stand that migrants from their own continant where to build a new country that would be super power!!!
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by Arch_warrior
The EU And US are threats to each other just as Iran is to US belive me their hiding it , The Eu cant stand that migrants from their own continant where to build a new country that would be super power!!!
The EU is no threat to us. They can't even get together to decide what hand it should use to wipe it's butt with.
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by HeiGou
You are relaxed about the likely victims of such a program - the Iranians who die from poorly managed radiation, the Muslims who will be the inevitable victims when those weapons are used? That sort of thing?
Iranians have only proved to be a danger to other Muslims. Remember that when gloating over the coming victims of these weapons.
very unrealistic view, if iran gets nukes it only mean far greater muslim infulence in MD agaisnt US and isreal
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, although he insisted his country does not aim to develop atomic weapons.
In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment.
The announcement came ahead of a visit to Tehran this week by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, who is trying to resolve the West's standoff with Iran. The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran stop all enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected this, saying it has a right to the process.
"At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory-scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Ahmadinejad said.
"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.
The White House denounced the latest comments by Iranian officials, with spokesman Scott McClellan saying they "continue to show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction."
Ahmadinejad said Iran "relies on the sublime beliefs that lie within the Iranian and Islamic culture. Our nation does not get its strength from nuclear arsenals."
He said Iran wanted to operate its nuclear program under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency and within its rights and regulations under the regulations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The announcement does not mean Iran is immediately capable of producing enough fuel to run or a reactor or develop the material needed for a nuclear warhead. Uranium enrichment can produce either, but it must be carried out on a much larger scale, using thousands of centrifuges.
Iran succeeded in enriching uranium to a level needed for fuel on a research scale — using 164 centrifuges, officials said.
But the breakthrough underlined how difficult it will be for the West to convince Iran to give up enrichment.
Ahmadinejad made the announcement in a richly appointed hall of one of Iran's holiest cities in a ceremony clearly aimed at proclaiming the country's nuclear success.
Speaking before Ahmadinejad, Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh — the nuclear chief — said Iran has produced 110 tons of uranium gas, the feedstock that is pumped into centrifuges for enrichment. The amount is nearly twice the 60 tons of uranium hexaflouride, or UF-6, gas that Iran said last year that it had produced.
Aghazadeh said Iran plans to expand its enrichment program to be able to use 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the year.
The United States and some European countries accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran denies, saying it intends only to generate electricity.
The IAEA is due to report to the U.N. Security Council on April 28 whether Iran has met its demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment. If Tehran has not complied, the council will consider the next step. The U.S. and Europe are pressing for sanctions against Iran, a step Russia and China have so far opposed.
McClellan told reporters traveling on Air Force One with President Bush that Iran's enrichment claims "only further isolate" Tehran and underscore why the international community must continue to raise concerns about its suspected ambition to develop nuclear weapons.
McClellan noted the Security Council clock now running on Iran.
"This is a regime that needs to be building confidence with the international community," McClellan said. "Instead, they're moving in the wrong direction."
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the Iranians' announcement "shows that they're not paying any attention to what the Security Council has said."
"And it shows why we feel a sense of urgency here that we have to have Iran realize the mistaken course it's pursuing," he told The Associated Press.
In Vienna, officials of the IAEA, whose inspectors are now in Iran, declined to comment.
A diplomat familiar with Tehran's enrichment program said the announcement appeared to be accurate. He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss information restricted to the agency.
The reported breakthrough came only two months after Iran resumed research on enrichment at its facility in the central town of Natanz in February. The resumption of work there prompted the IAEA to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council — escalating the standoff.
The enrichment process is one of the most difficult steps in developing a nuclear program. It requires a complicated plumbing network of pipes connecting centrifuges that can operate flawless for months or years.
The process aims to produce a gas high with an increased percentage of uranium-235, the isotope needed for nuclear fission, which is much rarer than the more prevalent isotope uranium 238.
A gas made from raw uranium is pumped into a centrifuge, which spins, causing a small portion of the heavier uranium-238 to drop away. The gas then proceeds to other centrifuges — perhaps thousands of them — where the process is repeated, increasing the proportion of uranium-235.
The enrichment process can take years to produce a gas rich enough in uranium-235 that it can be used to power a nuclear reactor or produce a bomb.
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by Vahid
very unrealistic view, if iran gets nukes it only mean far greater muslim infulence in MD agaisnt US and isreal
Really? Many Muslim countries have WMDs. Not one of them has used them against the US or Israel. They have used them against other Muslims (Iraq against Iran and the Kurds, Egypt in Yemen, perhaps Syria). What makes you think nuclear weapons will be any different?
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by HeiGou
Really? Many Muslim countries have WMDs. Not one of them has used them against the US or Israel. They have used them against other Muslims (Iraq against Iran and the Kurds, Egypt in Yemen, perhaps Syria). What makes you think nuclear weapons will be any different?
nukes are alot different, wmd cant do squat damage when u get nuked because of it
Re: Iran to announce “good news” on nuclear progress
format_quote Originally Posted by Vahid
nukes are alot different, wmd cant do squat damage when u get nuked because of it
You're not being rational. Would they risk being hit with 100 nukes for the hope of using just one? Nukes can't do squat damage when you get annhilated because of it.
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