Eye on Iran: Iran Needs Two Weeks to Load Nuclear Plant Fuel
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 19:42 | by uaniadminTop
Stories
AFP: "Iran will need another two weeks to complete
the process of
loading fuel into its Russian-built first nuclear power plant, atomic
chief Ali
Akbar Salehi has said. The process of loading 163 fuel rods, also
supplied by
Russia, into the nuclear power plant located in the southern port city
of
Bushehr began on August 21 and was to be completed by September 5.
Thereafter
the rods were to be transferred to the reactor."http://bit.ly/c1x1Gd
Reuters: "Iran said it would produce in a
year the nuclear fuel
needed for a medical reactor in Tehran, a news agency reported on
Monday, days
after the Islamic state began loading fuel into its first atomic power
plant.
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran so far had produced
25 kg (55
lb) of uranium to a level of 20 percent purity for the Tehran reactor,
the
official Irna news agency quoted Salehi as saying in an interview with
the
country's Arabic-language TV station, Al-Alam." http://bit.ly/bhquho
AFP: "Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
backed the Iranian
government's plan to scrap subsidies in the coming weeks, despite
concerns from
some conservatives of its inflationary impact. Khamenei has asked the
government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to 'seriously apply... the
plan for
removing subsidies' state news agency IRNA reported late Monday quoting
the
all-powerful leader as telling members of the government, including
Ahmadinejad." http://bit.ly/b5yLmn
Nuclear
Program
AP: "Iran says it has set a 2020 target date to build its
first
experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a feat that has yet to be achieved
by any
nation. Iran said in July that its nuclear agency began research on the
experimental reactor. Nuclear fusion, the process powering the sun and
stars,
has so far only been mastered as a weapon, producing the thermonuclear
explosions of hydrogen bombs." http://bit.ly/cZvUJK
Human Rights
CNN: "The mother of the 26-year-old woman whose
videotaped
shooting last year in Tehran sparked anti-government demonstrations
throughout
Iran appealed Monday to international human rights organizations and to
the
international court in The Hague for help in prosecuting her daughter's
killer.
'I have kept my silence all this time,' Hajar Rostami told the New
York-based
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. 'Now I want the world
to help
me find Neda's murderer.'" http://bit.ly/9w8KjB
Radio Farda: "Iran's science minister has said
universities that
are against the values of the regime and its Basij militia should be
razed to
the ground, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Kamran Daneshjou was quoted
by
Iranian media as saying on August 29 that universities should follow
the path
of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei." http://bit.ly/bIFmyh
Domestic Politics
FT: "Iran's radical and conservative fundamentalists
have ignored
the orders of the regime's supreme leader and begun exchanging
recriminations
once again. Barely one week after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds
ultimate power,
publicly urged President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and his critics to unite
and keep
any disagreements private, another round of acrimony between the
factions has
taken place." http://bit.ly/aBICSk
LAT: "A rare victory was won by Iranian moderates
Monday. The
legislature opted to shelve a controversial set of proposals that
activists
said would have further restricted women's rights. According
to a report
by the Iranian Labor News Agency, Iran's parliament has decided to send
three
articles of the family law bill back into committee for additional
study.
'According to the notification of the lawmakers and in consultation
with the
judiciary branch, seemingly the articles 22, 23 and 24 contain some
Islamic
shortcomings,' said parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, according to
the news
agency." http://bit.ly/cHMVSG
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran on Tuesday sought to distance itself from
harsh remarks
by a hard-line newspaper, which called France's first lady a
'prostitute' for
condemning the stoning sentence against an Iranian woman convicted of
adultery.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said insulting foreign
dignitaries like Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is incorrect and not sanctioned by
the
government." http://yhoo.it/9yNkon
Opinion
George Friedman in STRATFOR: "Public discussion of potential attacks on Iran's nuclear development sites is surging again. This has happened before. On several occasions, leaks about potential airstrikes have created an atmosphere of impending war. These leaks normally coincided with diplomatic initiatives and were designed to intimidate the Iranians and facilitate a settlement favorable to the United States and Israel. These initiatives have failed in the past. It is therefore reasonable to associate the current avalanche of reports with the imposition of sanctions and view it as an attempt to increase the pressure on Iran and either force a policy shift or take advantage of divisions within the regime." http://bit.ly/9OxVL6
Mohamad Bazzi in Global Post: "In February 2003, as he marshaled the United States for war, President George W. Bush declared: 'A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.' Now, as the U.S. military concludes its combat role - which President Barack Obama will formally announce from the Oval Office on Tuesday - Iraq is indeed a dramatic example for the Middle East, but not in the ways that Bush and his administration envisioned. Iraq did not become a beacon of democracy, nor did it create a domino effect that toppled other dictatorial regimes in the Arab world. Instead, the Iraq war has unleashed a new wave of sectarian hatred and upset the Persian Gulf's strategic balance, helping Iran consolidate its role as the dominant regional power." http://bit.ly/9LuH3c
Joshua Kucera in The Diplomat: "The Caspian Sea, an oil-rich body of water on the border of Iran and the former Soviet Union, has seen an unprecedented amount of naval activity this year: Iran has launched its largest ship yet into the Caspian, Kazakhstan has declared plans to start construction of six new ships by the end of the year and Turkmenistan announced the creation of its first navy. This military build-up, though so far still modest in scope, has observers wondering if the stage is being set for an arms race on this heretofore quiet sea."
Michael Theodoulou in The National: "Within the space of a few weeks, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, an Iranian vice president, opined that the British were 'inhuman' idiots saddled with a dunce of a prime minister, and the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, scoffed that the Americans should 'pour water where it burns,' a vulgar Iranian expression that refers to people who are so angry that their buttocks catch fire. A hardline Iranian newspaper joined the fray by branding Carla Bruni, France's first lady, a 'prostitute.' It is nothing new for the Iranian regime to lambast the West in robust terms. But these various diatribes raised eyebrows at home and abroad because crudity rarely features in Iran's political discourse." http://bit.ly/aKsxmK
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