Iran To “Pre-Commission†Nuclear Plant This Week – White House: Iran's Nuclear Program “Urgent Problem That Has To Be Addressedâ€
Mon, 02/23/2009 - 19:00 | by uaniadmin<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->The Washington Post reported that Iran's first nuclear power plant "will undergo a critical series of tests starting Wednesday before full-scale operation begins later this year, Iranian state radio reported Sunday. The plant is a highly symbolic facet of Iran's controversial nuclear program. Iranian leaders insist the country's nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the United States, Israel and some European nations have charged that Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201127_pf.html)
AP reported that "The White House says the international community must work together to urgently address Iran's uranium enrichment activities. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday that point is underscored by a United Nations report that said Tehran had amassed enough uranium to make an atom bomb." (http://www.startribune.com/politics/39964447.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU)
In an interview with the NY Times, David Albright said "In as quickly as a few months, Iran would be able to have enough weapons-grade uranium for nuclear weapons. And if a breakout occurred, they would not likely do so at the well-known Natanz enrichment plant." (http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/slot3_20090220.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print)
AP reported that "Iranian authorities have blocked two Web sites promoting the presidential bid of Mohammed Khatami, reformists said Saturday, in a first sign that powerful hard-liners might seek to thwart his challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGSJEAPs_r2T2wxsL5G3t4z-jajQD96G3OOG4)
Reuters reported that "Visiting former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder criticised on Saturday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for casting doubt over the Holocaust, saying the slaughter of 6 million Jews by Nazis was a fact." (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHAF142289)
Reuters reported that "Iran has sold the remaining 315 million shares in Bank Mellat which did not find buyers when a 5 percent stake in the country's second-largest bank was offered to investors last week, a stock market official said on Sunday. About 340 million, or 52 percent, of the 655 million Bank Mellat shares on offer were sold when the bank was floated on Feb. 18 in the Islamic Republic's first part-privatisation of a state bank." (http://in.reuters.com/article/asiaCompanyAndMarkets/idINDAH22678820090222)
AFP reported that "Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani on Saturday told former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that it is impossible to deprive Tehran of nuclear technology for peaceful uses. 'Iran has observed international regulations and depriving Iran of nuclear technology and energy for peaceful purposes is impossible,' Larijani told Schroeder during a meeting in Tehran, according to state broadcaster." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3lUiDL95FRxeWUNoNhsEFaTG74Q0
Reuters reported that "France, set to open a military base in the United Arab Emirates this year, said on Sunday that Iran should take part in a dialogue with Gulf Arab countries to ally their fears over its nuclear programme. France is among world powers trying to exert pressure on Iran to halt its atomic work, which has played into Gulf countries' fears over the non-Arab power's rising influence." (http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKLM125240)
AFP reported that "Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will visit Tehran this week, his second trip to the neighbouring country in almost two years, an Iranian news agency quoted an Iraqi official as saying on Sunday. Talabani is due in Iran on Thursday for a two-day visit, Nazim Omar Dabbagh, the Tehran representative of northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090222/wl_mideast_afp/iraniraqdiplomacy)
Ali Reza Eshraghi, a former newspaper editor in Iran, is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in the NY Times that "If President Barack Obama really wants to improve relations with Tehran, working with Mr. Ahmadinejad may be his best bet. In a speech earlier this month commemorating the Islamic revolution's anniversary, an event normally reserved for anti-American rhetoric, Mr. Ahmadinejad declared Iran's readiness to talk to the United States. The election of a new president in June could slam shut a rare window of opportunity." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/opinion/23eshraghi.html?ref=opinion)
Roger Cohen wrote in The NY Times on Jews in Iran. "The Middle East is an uncomfortable neighborhood for minorities, people whose very existence rebukes warring labels of religious and national identity. Yet perhaps 25,000 Jews live on in Iran, the largest such community, along with Turkey's, in the Muslim Middle East. There are more than a dozen synagogues in Tehran; here in Esfahan a handful caters to about 1,200 Jews, descendants of an almost 3,000-year-old community." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/opinion/23cohen.html)
In the LA Times, Doyle McManus wrote on Pres Obama's policy options on Iran mentioning former UANI Co-Chair, Amb Dennis Ross. "President Obama is working against time to untangle 30 years of enmity and prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but even his own advisors know the chance of success is slim.... Dennis Ross, the former Middle East peace negotiator who is expected to be named as Obama's top Iran advisor, argued for giving diplomacy a chance to work but suggested that containment might have to be the future course of U.S. policy." (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-mcmanus22-2009feb22,0,118591.column)
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