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Iran to start another nuclear plant

The World — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:20:29 +0000

Iran's key nuclear sites

Iran said today it will begin construction of a third nuclear enrichment plant by March of next year. The Islamic republic already has a large enrichment site at Natanz and a smaller one near Qom. Today’s announcement referred to 10 new enrichment plants Iran plans to build. The US and its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to make nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charges. The World’s Katy Clark talks with Greg Thielmann who is an intelligence expert at the Arms Control Association in Washington. Download MP3

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KATY CLARK: I’m Katy Clark and this is The World. Iran said today it will begin construction of a third nuclear enrichment plant by March of next year. The Islamic republic already has a large enrichment site at Natanz and a smaller one near Qom. Today’s announcement referred to 10 new enrichment plants Iran plans to build. The US and its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to make nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charges. Greg Thielmann is an intelligence expert at the Arms Control Association in Washington. Greg, some people may think that Iran already has nuclear weapons, but, technically at least, how far off are they?

GREG THIELMANN: Well, that is one of the questions of the moment, Katy. US Defense Secretary Gates says that Iran could have sufficient fissile material, or the ingredients of nuclear weapons, within a year, and within another year could have weaponized that material. But I’ve spent enough time in the intelligence community to pay very careful attention to words like “could.” We have not been able to document any Iranian production or enrichment of uranium above a 20% level. 90% is required for fissile material.

CLARK: Does the IAEA, though, have complete access to all of Iran’s facilities?

THIELMANN: It does not have complete access and that is exactly the rub. The issue is can the International Atomic Energy Agency assure the UN membership that Iran has no nuclear weapons program? So, right now we are in a dispute between the international community and Iran on making the Iranian nuclear program transparent enough to dispel suspicions that Iran has a parallel nuclear weapons program.

CLARK: Just how wide is the gap between Iran’s current lack of transparency and any perception that they want nuclear weapons? Is it one of these cases where Iran needs to prove that it doesn’t want it because people are just tending to think the worst at this point?

THIELMANN: I think the weight of expert opinion is that Iran, at the very least, wants to develop the capability to be able to acquire nuclear weapons rapidly. And also after the findings of, not just the US, but various foreign intelligence services, that Iran itself for some 18 years had a clandestine nuclear weapons program that was only halted, the US believes, in the fall of 2003. So, the current focus is on whether or not Iran has resumed that clandestine nuclear weapons program.

CLARK: So, I’m wondering then, bringing it back to the announcement today that Iran is going to begin construction on a third nuclear enrichment plant. Does that announcement only confirm assumptions that Iran wants a nuclear weapons program down the road?

THIELMANN: Well, it certainly does confirm it for many people. If the announcement were made in the way that announcements should be made, that is, information on where it planned to construct, providing the blueprints of that construction, an explanation that showed how this plan fitted in with Iran’s overall nuclear energy development program, that would be a major step toward addressing suspicions that these plants are going to be developed at clandestine locations and would be used to make highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons purposes.

CLARK: Greg Thielmann is a former director at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He’s now a senior fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington. Good to speak with you.

THIELMANN: Thank you for the opportunity.

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Clashes at funeral of Iranian dissident cleric

The World — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:05:44 +0000

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Iranian reformists have clashed with police after the funeral of a dissident cleric, opposition websites say. Earlier, tens of thousands took part in a procession for Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri in the holy city of Qom. Clashes reportedly broke out, but the scale of the confrontation is not clear, the BBC reports. Montazeri, who died aged 87 of natural causes in Qom on Saturday night, had decried President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June as a fraud. Marco Werman talks with correspondent Borzou Daragahi, who is just back from a visit to Iran.

BBC coverage
BBC obituary: Ayatollah Montazeri

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World. The funeral of one of Iran’s most influential dissident figures seems to have put new life into opposition protests in the country. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri died on Saturday, and tens of thousands of people attended his funeral today in the Holy City of Qom. Reports from Iran say the security forces clashed with opposition supporters there. Los Angeles Times reporter Borzou Daraghai is back in Beirut just back from Teheran. Borzou, what happened in Qom?

BORZOU DARAGHAI: Well today there was a huge number of people according to witnesses and videotape posted through the Internet. Huge number of people, supporters of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri who descended upon the shrine city from all over the country, many of them his supporters from his home town of Najafabad where you had very rowdy demonstrations yesterday and immediately they took to the streets as the funeral procession began and they chanted very charged political slogans, and they turned this funeral ceremony as they took his black draped body from his humble home they turned it into a loud, boisterous opposition demonstration. Apparently afterward there was some minor clashes between supporters of the supreme leader, hard right-wing loyalists to the Islamic Republic’s ruling establishment, and supporters of Montazeri. But according to our understanding these were not the dominant motifs of the day.

MARCO: I mean it’s kind of hard to tweeze apart from here just what kind of a blow this is to the opposition to have the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri die. I mean, how big a spiritual figure was he for the opposition?

BORZOU: He was a very important figure. He was considered by many to be the most learned, the most senior cleric in the Iranian Shiite clerical establishment. And his passing, it delivers a blow. It takes away some of their clerical legitimacy. On the other hand, he had said his most radical statements about the Islamic Republic and about the Supreme Leader in recent weeks. Some people put it, I mean the guy was 87. He had already made this amazing transformation from one of the architects of the Islamic Republic to one of it’s most strident critics, questioning even the legitimacy of the revolution and in some cases in recent years even basically saying that if he could do it again he wouldn’t have supported this revolution. And so he has made that transformation, eerily, uncannily, there could have not been a more galvanizing point for him to die. The religiously significant seventh day after his death will fall on the peak of the Moharam ceremonies in Iran, the Ashora where men pour into the streets and lament the seventh century martyrdom of the Imam Hussein and this has already been planned as an opposition protest and so this must just make the authorities in the Islamic Republic just shiver with fear.

MARCO: I mean you just left Teheran today Borzou, what is the mood right now?

BORZOU: Well among the opposition it’s surprisingly optimistic. There’s a certain maturity. People are going about their daily lives during the normal course of their days. They’re going to work, they’re pursuing their studies. I talked to many people who were saying that they don’t want to get arrested, they don’t want to get in big trouble because they see this as a potentially years long battle that they’re hunkering down for.

MARCO: Los Angeles Times reporter Borzou Daraghai, thanks very much for your time.

BORZOU: It’s been a pleasure.

Iran rebuked over nuclear ‘cover-up’

The World — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:45:33 +0000

The United Nations nuclear agency, the IAEA, voted today to censure Iran over its nuclear progam. The IAEA condemned Iran for developing a secret uranium enrichment site at Qom (satellite photo). 25 nations – including the US, Russia and China – backed the move. The World’s Katy Clark has our story. Download MP3

BBC coverage
Background Brief: Nuclear standoff with Iran

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. The White House said today the world’s patience with Iran is running out. Today the U.N.’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, voted to censure Iran over its nuclear program, and this time China and Russia joined in on the rebuke. But Iran is already signaling it will resist any pressures, resolutions or sanctions. The World’s Katy Clark has more.

KATY CLARK: 25 nations backed today’s resolution condemning Iran for developing a uranium enrichment site in secret, and they’re demanding that the project be frozen immediately. The move was endorsed by the six countries that have been overseeing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Until now, Moscow and Beijing had been reluctant to strongly condemn Iran’s actions. Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on Iran to treat today’s resolution seriously. Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was also blunt.

GORDON BROWN: This is the world sending a signal to Iran that this is completely unacceptable. That we now know what their level of nuclear ambitions are. That they must desist from them. This is the strongest wording I’ve seen. The next stage will have to be sanctions if Iran does not, as it should, respond.

CLARK: The U.S. Envoy to the IAEA said today that round after round of fruitless talks with Iran could not continue. Today’s censure is not likely to improve Iran’s relations with the rest of the world. But David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security says Iran’s leaders are largely responsible for that.

DAVID ALBRIGHT: They’ve made it clear that they want to build things in secret, for whatever reason. They’ve turned down pretty reasonable offers. And finally, Iran either wants nuclear weapons and wants to limit the transparency over its regime because of that. It doesn’t want to have inhibitions on its ability to have nuclear weapons. Or it so mistrusts the west that no deal is possible.

CLARK: China’s support for today’s vote is especially noteworthy. China has been the most reluctant of the major parties involved in negotiations with Iran to take a tough stance. That’s mainly because of strong economic ties between the two countries. But Albright says voting to condemn Iran’s behavior today was one thing. Getting China to vote for tougher sanctions against Iran in the U.N. Security Council will be a far different matter.

ALBRIGHT: That whole battle is going to have to be fought, and probably have to go through lots of negotiations with China. To get it to accept sanctions, it will probably be weaker in the end than what United States and Europe wants.

CLARK: That is unless China becomes convinced that Iran really does want to pursue a nuclear weapons program. Iran continues to maintain that it only wants to build a civilian energy purposes. Iranians generally support their country’s nuclear program. Not surprisingly, some dismissed today’s news that the IAEA had condemned Tehran’s enrichment activities.

IRANIAN MAN: [In Farsi]

CLARK: This man says that the resolution, like previous resolutions, will not be effective because Iran’s nuclear energy program is truly peaceful. With the unity of the Iranian people, he says, this resolution will remain as ineffective as the previous ones. Perhaps so, but today’s vote by the IAEA board could indicate a new international resolve. President Obama and his European counterparts have given Iran until the end of the year to begin talks on the nuclear stalemate, and the end of the year is fast approaching. For The World, this is Katy Clark.