Iran "In Scramble" For Uranium -- Officials "Counting Students & Housewives Among The Ranks Of Employed" In Iran To Pad Numbers
Sun, 01/25/2009 - 20:00 | by uaniadmin<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->The London Times reported that Iran is "running short of the raw material required to manufacture nuclear weapons, triggering an international race to prevent it from importing more... Diplomatic sources believe that Iran's stockpile of yellow cake uranium, produced from uranium ore, is close to running out and could be exhausted within months. Countries including Britain, the US, France and Germany have started intensive diplomatic efforts to dissuade major uranium producers from selling to Iran." Read More
Reuters reported that Iranian officials are "Counting students and housewives among the ranks of the employed has helped lower Iran's jobless rate." Read More
Iranian Press reported on the development of a stealth aircraft and a new air to air missile. "Iran has completed the design phase of its stealth aircraft, the commander of the Iranian Air Force announced here on Sunday.... Shah-Safi said that the Air Force has also tested a new air-to-air heat-seeking missile manufactured by the Iranian military. The new missile, which has a range of 100 kilometers, will be mass-produced by the Ministry of Defense, he added " Read More
Reuters reported "Iran expects to reduce its soaring inflation to around 22 percent by the end of the calendar year in late March, the central bank chief was quoted as saying by Sarmayeh economic daily on Sunday." Read More
AP reported that "The European Union decided Monday to remove an Iranian opposition group from the EU's terror list and lift the restrictions on its funds, a move likely to further damage relations strained over Tehran's nuclear program." Read More
Daniel Levinson wrote an oped in the Miami Herald asking Pres Obama "to help bring our father home... My father, Robert ''Bob'' Levinson', went missing in Iran on March 9, 2007, while investigating cigarette smuggling for his security consulting firm. It has been almost two years since anyone has seen or heard from him. My mother, six siblings and I continue to suffer as we hear less and less from the Iranian government about his case." Read More
Reuters reported that "Emirates Telecommunications Corp expects to invest up to $5 billion over five years in its Iran operations after winning the country's third mobile phone licence, its chairman said on Sunday." Read More
In an oped in the International Herald Tribune, Mikhail Gorbachev wrote "Reducing nonproliferation to the demand that Iran and North Korea cease their nuclear programs will lead to a dead end. The nuclear powers will not be able to hold on to their monopoly indefinitely, and the nonproliferation treaty does not allow it. The solution is to move toward a world without nuclear weapons. But this goal cannot be achieved if one country retains an overwhelming superiority in conventional weapons. Without specific steps to reduce these weapons - more generally, without demilitarizing international politics - we will have only empty talk. What's needed is a real breakthrough, like the one achieved in the late 1980s." Read More
The LA Times reported on Iran's efforts to supply and assist Hamas in Gaza. "One of the few countries willing to directly fund Hamas is Iran, which has emerged in recent years as one of the militant movement's main patrons.... Iranian Vice President Ali Saeedlu said Friday that his government planned to rebuild 1,000 homes, 500 businesses, 10 schools, five mosques, a hospital and a university, according to an article posted on the website of Press TV, Tehran's state-owned English-language news channel.... Though Iran has been circumspect in talking about plans to help replenish Hamas' supply of rockets, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the militant movement had a legitimate right to rearm itself." Read More
Thomas Friedman wrote in The NY Times "Iran as a key player in Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy. The Clinton team tried to woo Syria while isolating Iran. President Bush tried to isolate both Iran and Syria. The Obama team, as Martin Indyk argues in 'Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East,' 'needs to try both to bring in Syria, which would weaken Hamas and Hezbollah, while also engaging Iran.' So, just to recap: It's five to midnight and before the clock strikes 12 all we need to do is rebuild Fatah, merge it with Hamas, elect an Israeli government that can freeze settlements, court Syria and engage Iran - while preventing it from going nuclear - just so we can get the parties to start talking. Whoever lines up all the pieces of this diplomatic Rubik's Cube deserves two Nobel Prizes." Read More
The London Times published an editorial on "Iran's Nuclear Adventurism... The regime's complicity in terrorism and threatening rhetoric against Israel have been constant features of its diplomacy. In the next few years these destructive characteristics may be buttressed by an Iranian nuclear bomb, giving an Islamist regime tremendous diplomatic leverage in a volatile region." Read More
The Wall Street Journal carried an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu where he said "The arming of Iran with nuclear weapons may portend an irreversible process, because these regimes assume a kind of immortality... [This] will pose an existential threat to Israel directly, but also could give a nuclear umbrella to these terrorist bases." Read More
Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist Geraldine Brooks wrote in the Toronto Star about newly elected President, Barack Obama and "How to talk past Ahmadinejad... Barack Obama has said he is prepared to talk to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At his inauguration, he did something better. He began to talk past him, directly to the Iranian people, who will elect their own new president later this year." Read More
Reuters reported that Iran's "Hamas allies emerged bloodied but unbowed, it gained a foothold in Arab decision-making and its calls for resistance to Israel chimed better with Arab popular sentiment than attempts by Egypt to minimise any benefits for the Palestinian Islamists.... the Iranians will still be satisfied with the returns they have made on a relatively limited investment, analysts say." Read More
Azadeh Moaveni wrote pieces in both the Washington Post and The NY Times ahead of her upcomming book. "Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran." Read More
CNN reported that "When it comes to the sport of wrestling, longtime adversaries Iran and the United States are friendly enemies. A U.S. freestyle men's wrestling team will go to the Islamic republic -- where the sport is widely popular -- for a prestigious tournament in March." Read More
Join us on
Search