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Yippers!  :-X

source: Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1101010793582&p=1078113566627)

LONDON – Pentagon officials are said to be discussing possible military action to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat, according to a report in London's Observer. US administration sources are quoted as saying that air strikes – "either by the US or Israel" – to wipe out Iran's fledgling nuclear program would be difficult because of a lack of clear intelligence about where key components are located.

Instead, sources quoted by the paper said the Pentagon is considering strikes in support of regime change, including attacks on the leadership, as well as on political and security targets
.
The new "modeling" at the Pentagon, with its shift in emphasis from suspected nuclear sites to political target lists, is said to be causing deep anxiety among officials in Britain, France, and Germany, who last week appeared to have negotiated a deal with Teheran to cease work that could contribute to a nuclear weapons program. But Washington is said to be skeptical about the deal.
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Not sure if believe this report or not, but it would not surprise one bit.


Also see this discussion about Iran and probably future wars.  http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=4838

Related news...

Iran Honors Nuclear Agreement With Europe

See Entire article at source link.

source yahoo article (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=3&u=/ap/20041122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear)

12:44 CST 11-22-2004 35 minutes ago   World - AP
 

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran announced Monday it has suspended uranium enrichment, and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said he believed all Iran's enrichment activities have stopped, the central part of an agreement with Europe designed to head off possible U.N. sanctions.


The suspension fulfills a pledge Iran made earlier this month and came days ahead of a key meeting of the agency's board to judge Tehran's compliance with the agency's investigation into nearly two decades of hidden nuclear activities.


If the International Atomic Energy Agency rules that Iran is honoring its commitment to suspend enrichment, it will be a setback to U.S. hopes of referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, a step that could lead to sanctions.


Iranian state-run radio made a brief announcement of the suspension Monday, saying it aimed "to build confidence." The suspension included the building of centrifuges used in enrichment and the reprocessing of uranium into the gas spun in the machines.


In Vienna, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said the suspension appeared to be confirmed. "I think pretty much everything has come to a halt," he told reporters.


He said he expected to have a definitive ruling by Thursday on whether Iran has honored the pledge made earlier this month to freeze all activities related to enrichment, a process that can be used in energy programs or to make nuclear weapons.


The United States, which has led the campaign for a harder line on Iraq (news - web sites), accusing it of seeking nuclear weapons, will reserve judgement on the authenticity of the suspension until the IAEA board meeting on Thursday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.


"Iran's nuclear program remains a real concern to the international community," McClellan said.


The European Union (news - web sites) underlined that Iran must offer proof of the halt before European counrties will fulfill their side of the deal — closer economic and political ties.


Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said "a precondition for further discussion with Iran for a Political Cooperation Agreement is verification" that Tehran has stopped enriching uranium.


EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels released a statement saying Iran would have to sustain the suspension if Europe is go ahead and craft a trade agreement.


Iran has been under intense pressure to freeze the activities as a way of reducing international suspicions over its nuclear program.


The United States accuses Iran of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said last week that Washington has intelligence indicating Iran is trying to fit missiles to carry nuclear weapons.

This I do not doubt either. Whenever a problem arises with such a country as Iran the prospects of a strike on the country will be discussed by our government. It is not necessarily the first thing on their agenda but it would be a part of the discussion just as it has been with the situation in N. Korea and just as it was with Iraq for more many, many years before we actually did so.

Something to keep an eye on for sure though.

Thanks for the info, 2T. Keep up the excellant work.

Thanks Pastor!   :)   Sometimes I feel like we as Christians are not alert to what is happening around us in the world during this time.   I personally am finding it harder and harder to break away from world news feeds as they seem to almost be scripted right out of the Bible.

Anyways, glad someone is watching with me.   ;)

Grace and Peace!

Pentagon officials are said to be discussing possible military action to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat,


I'm certainly glad they're keeping it all a secret, like the Israelii strike in 1981 on Iraq's nuclear reactor.  


   ::)

(2T - endtime.com keeps a pretty interesting eye on all of this.  plus online radio you can listen to).

I was thinking the same thing, but we did after all give Iraq fair warning before the second gulf war of what was to take place if they didn't change.  Also, I am not seeing too much mentioned about this elsewhere.  So at this point who knows if its true or not.   According to scripture, there are many verses showing Israel warring with Syria, Lebanon, and Jordon.   I believe these will happen before Gog/Magog.    A strike on Iran would surely involve retalitory strikes on Israel from those three mentioned above.   Like Pastor says, will be keeping a sharp eye on this.


Symphony, I have listened to this program on radio and visited their webiste.   They have a different twist on whats taking place.  They believe we are already in Revelation and about to witness the 6th trumpet.   ???    I'm not quite sure I can see this from what I  understand of prophecy and current events.   They do make an interesting case for it, but there is just too much that doesn't fit IMO.  

Either way, what an exciting time we live in today.

Grace and Peace!

I know what you mean 2T. When I posted some articals, they ended up getting spammed, so I deleleted the threads. So I though I would let someone else come up, with some of the news happening, in the world. I see you are up to bat, ???  going for a touchdown. ??? ;) ;D

Well done
Bob

Iran Says Will Meet EU Nuke Deadline on Monday

Sun Nov 21, 6:49 PM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it would meet the European Union's Monday deadline for suspending uranium enrichment and allay fears it was trying to make a nuclear bomb -- the freeze could spare it from U.N. sanctions.

Tehran promised the EU last week it would freeze enrichment by Nov. 22, in time for Thursday's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board meeting which is due decide whether to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

"We will start suspension of uranium enrichment activities from tomorrow on, as we promised," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference on Sunday.

The United States has led calls for Iran to face sanctions, accusing the oil-rich Islamic Republic of trying to develop atomic weapons behind the veil of a civilian nuclear program.

Iranian exiled opposition groups said Tehran had increased enrichment before the IAEA meeting, an accusation echoed by President Bush.

"We're concerned about reports that show that prior to a certain international meeting, they're willing to speed up processing of materials that could lead to a nuclear weapon," Bush told reporters in Chile on Saturday.

Iran strongly denies the charges and says all it wants to do is generate electricity.

The European Union has tread a middle path, promising Iran better trade and tiesif it stops uranium enrichment, but threatening to back Washington if Tehran does not.

At a meeting with Bush during an APEC  summit in Chile on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been "a marked improvement with regard to Iran." Russia is building a nuclear power station in Iran and has resisted U.S. pressure to stop its help.

"Russia and the USA remain major nuclear powers in the world," Russia's Itar Tass news agency quoted him as saying. "We have common interests in the sphere of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

Iran also rejected Secretary of State Colin Powell accusation that it was working on ways to deliver an atomic warhead on a missile.

"I believe Powell has understood his remarks were false," said Iranian nuclear chief Hassan Rohani. "Such claims are totally baseless."

But Powell said he stood by the charge. "I stick with it," he told reporters traveling with him to the Middle East.

Tehran has been developing a medium-range ballistic missile experts say would be able to hit arch-foe Israel.

http://www.worthynews.com/zone.cgi?http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20041121/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_dc&printer=1

The more coming of Prophecy, to sooner we go. We still have to wait till Russia attacks Israel.
Bob

This Iran crisis has Isa 17:1 written all over it IMO.   A possible chain reaction from a strike on Iran could result in the following, though I am speculating a bit.

These countries are mentioned being at war with Israel.

Syria - Isaiah 17:1, Zechariah 9:1 Zechariah 11:2-3, Jeremiah 49:23-25
Lebanon - Zechariah 11:1 Zechariah 9:2-4
Palestine - Isaiah 17:3 Zechariah 9:5 Zephaniah 2:5 Ezekiel 25:15-17 Isaiah 14:31-32
Jordan - Isaiah 17:2 (Aroer) Zephaniah 2:8-9 (Ammon)

We know these wars will happen, but how they start is not clear.  Of particular interest, is that Isa 17:1 has unequivocally not yet taken place.   And almost assuredly will be the result of a nuclear strike.   As I said in the other thread, Iran decalres it will rain missles on Israel should anyone try to take out its nuclear facility.   You rest assured that Irans good buddies, Syria, and Hezbollah will join in.  If Syria used just one bio warhead, Israel would be forced to use nukes.  They could not rish a second such missle killing hundreds if not thousands of Israelis.

Call me crazy, but I think the current situation in Iran is going to lead to these wars.   SOON!

My reason for saying these will happen first is, Strangely, Syria is NOT mentioned as part of the Magog war.   Why would they not be?  Maybe, because their city is in a ruinous heap?    ;)   I think so!


Grace and Peace!

I myself don't think you are far off base. Your speculation, is very close to what I think. You already know that though.
Go i peace with God.
Bob

More news on Irans Nukes.  Riveting read!

**********************************************
As Palestinian picture improves,
ominous signs about Iranian nukes

WASHINGTON — For Israel, it’s the classic “I’ve got good news, but you might want to hear the bad news first” scenario.
Just when a confluence of unrelated events revived the prospect of peace talks with the Palestinians, Iran’s potential nuclear threat to the Jewish state suddenly seems greater than ever.

In fact, the Iran dilemma is almost the mirror image of new hope with the Palestinians: The prospect of a nuclear-armed, radical Islamic regime suddenly has moved from the “within years” to the “within months” column, differences between the United States and Europe are dogging resolution — and the United States wants Israel to just sit still.

Reports of Iran’s accelerated development of nuclear material, as well as missiles to deliver it, have profoundly unsettled Israelis.

“We believe we know what the real intentions of the Iranians are,” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said last week in Cleveland at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella group of North American Jewish federations. “The real intention of the Iranians is to develop a nuclear bomb.”

The level of agreement over keeping at bay a nation that routinely calls for Israel’s elimination and glorifies suicide bombers reached across Israel’s otherwise fractious political culture.

“Israel cannot, cannot live under the shadow of nuclear Iran and the bomb,” Ephraim Sneh, a leader of the opposition Labor party, said on CNN.

“Israel is very vulnerable,” said Sneh, who was in Washington last week. “All our economic and intellectual assets are concentrated in a piece of 20 and 60 miles. That’s all. Two bombs can turn Israel into a scorched Third World country. We cannot live with it.”

Yossi Beilin, leader of the dovish Yahad party, said the issue hangs over the nation at a time when Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s death, forthcoming Palestinian elections and the Bush administration’s post-election energy present renewed opportunities for peace in the region.

“Iran is a very, very important issue,” Beilin told JTA. “For us it is hovering, it is a problem.”

Israel and the United States were hoping the International Atomic Energy Agency would announce tougher measures at its board meeting Thursday, including more rigorous international monitoring and a trigger mechanism that automatically would refer any violation of Iran’s nonproliferation agreement to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions.

Mindful of this week’s IAEA meeting, the Iranians signed an agreement last week with France, Germany and Britain to temporarily suspend their uranium enrichment efforts.

Iran announced on Monday that the suspension, in effect until Iran works out a long-term agreement with the international community, is now underway.

Instead of assuaging concerns, however, the agreement underscored skepticism about Iran’s intentions. Within days of signing the agreement, a reliable opposition group said Iran was using advanced technology to enrich uranium at military sites and keeping the activity secret, presumably to exempt it from the suspension.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran also said that the country had purchased enriched uranium in 2001 and designs for nuclear warheads in the mid-1990s.

Iran dismissed the claims out of hand, but on Friday European diplomats — some apparently from the same nations that had negotiated the suspension agreement — were telling reporters that Iran was accelerating enrichment ahead of the suspension.

The diplomats were furious with the obvious effort to get Iran as close as possible to weaponization before the freeze kicks in.

President Bush said he found the allegations credible. Attending a meeting of Pacific Rim leaders in Chile, Bush said he considered the reports a “very serious matter.”

Another area of concern for the Americans is the development of missiles needed to deliver the warheads.

“I have seen some information that would suggest they had been actively working on delivery systems,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week.

Iran dismisses the reports as unfounded and compares them to the erroneous intelligence on weapons development that helped draw the United States into war with Iraq.

“The burden of proof is on the shoulder of the person who makes the claims,” Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Monday in an interview on CNN.

The problem with that explanation is that Iran often is the source of the claims. In August, Iran released photos of a new version of its Shihab missile that had a baby-bottle design, as opposed to the usual cone shape.

The design apparently was drawn from Soviet era ICBM nuclear missiles, said Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, since a nuclear device fits better in a baby-bottle shape.

Why would the Iranians allow the release of those pictures?

“They want people to know,” Clawson said.

With Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein out of the way, flexing muscles sends a message that Iran is now a dominant power in the Middle East. That would allow Iran to continue its disruptive involvement in Lebanon, where Israel says Iran has armed Hezbollah terrorists with 13,000 missiles. Hezbollah and Iran also have emerged among the main financiers of Palestinian terrorist attacks in the West Bank.

The revelations late last week only increased skepticism among some on the 35-member IAEA board, and the United States has expressed its determination to impose stiffer standards, especially since Iran reneged on previous deals.

Europeans also are unnerved that the newer Shihab missiles apparently could put major European cities within range.

On the other hand, China and Russia — which as declared nuclear nations have considerable influence at the IAEA — are averse to sanctions. Russia has a financial stake in Iran’s main nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

Furthermore, Mohammed ElBaradei, the IAEA’s director-general, on Monday called Iran’s enrichment suspension a “step in the right direction,” despite skepticism by Israel and others that any real suspension was underway.

Should Iran clear the IAEA hurdle, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) plan to reintroduce their bipartisan “Iran Freedom Support Act” when Congress reconvenes in January. It would allow the president to sanction countries that do business with the Islamic regime and strengthen support for opposition groups.

That likely would have the strong support of the pro-Israel community in Washington, which believes the suspension agreement with Europe is inadequate.

“Iran is intensely working to marry its nuclear and missile programs so that it can deliver a nuclear weapon at the earliest possible date,” said Andrew Schwartz, a spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Nothing in the agreement stops Iran from completing nuclear warhead designs or improving its missiles to enable them to deliver nuclear weapons.”

After this meeting, Bush likely would raise the threat of sanctions when the IAEA board meets again, in about four months.

Israel, meanwhile, is sitting on its hands, not wanting to upend delicate U.S. efforts to build international support. U.S. officials have made clear they do not want Israel to repeat its successful 1981 strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak.

“I don’t see how it would do anything but provoke . . . a conflict between Israel and Iran, and we want to avoid that at all costs, and I think the Israelis recognize that,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “It’s one thing to attack a reactor in Iraq 20-some years ago. It’s something entirely different to take on that challenge now.”

Israelis say they are happy to comply, for now. On the record, they say the window for Iran’s nuclearization is two years; off the record, they say the world is looking at 12 months.

“The complacency of the international community drives Israel, pushes Israel to the corner,” Sneh, a retired general, told CNN. “We don’t prepare a pre-emptive strike, but, gradually, along the axis of time, we are pushed to the corner.”

source: JtaNews (http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Israel+watches+Iran+with+worry&intcategoryid=1&SearchOptimize=Jewish+News)

More Iran News 11-23-2004

source: yahoo news (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=2&u=/nm/20041123/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc_23)


By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States and Iran were headed for a diplomatic showdown at the U.N. nuclear watchdog, with Washington demanding Tehran be threatened with tough action if it resumes atomic work it could use for bombs, diplomats say.

(http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20041123/mdf767580.jpg)


France, Britain and Germany, who spearheaded an EU offer of incentives if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment program, circulated a draft resolution that diplomats at the United Nations (news - web sites) said was unacceptable to both Washington and Tehran.


Washington sees it as too weak and wants to include an "automatic trigger" which makes it clear that resuming any activities related to enrichment -- a process of purifying uranium to fuel power plants or make weapons -- would spark a referral to the U.N. Security Council and possibly sanctions.


"It is still just in the eyes of the Iranians, a suspension," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told CNN television. "A suspension means they can turn it back on at any time. We want it turned off permanently."


But Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told reporters the suspension would remain in place only long enough to provide assurances that Tehran was not diverting to a bomb program and would be reviewed after three months.


"Suspension is a voluntary action. As long as it is leading to ... ensuring the other side that Iran is not going to divert to nuclear weapons, it will be continued," he told reporters.


Diplomats said including an "automatic trigger" clause in a resolution submitted to Thursday's meeting of the U.N. agency would be unacceptable to Tehran and would ruin the Iran-EU deal.


"The Europeans will not allow this," said a Western diplomat close to the backroom talks on the text. "There is an agreement (the EU has) with Iran that must be kept."


See entire article at source link yahoo news (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=2&u=/nm/20041123/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc_23)
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Is it just me, or does this language sound very similar to that used just before the Iraqi war?

The following map gives an overview of the region and Irans nuclear facilities.

Click on the map for close up.

(http://www.ceip.org/files/projects/npp/resources/DeadlyArsenals/maps/iransm.jpg) (http://www.ceip.org/files/projects/npp/resources/DeadlyArsenals/maps/iran.jpg)



Cool Satellite image of Natanz by Space Imaging

http://www.ceip.org/files/projects/npp/resources/images/iran/natanz.JPG

WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS
Iran's nukes 'not
the only target'
Ex-Mossad intel chief says U.S.,
 Israel could strike other areas

Posted: November 25, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Aaron Klein
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com


If the U.S. or Israel attacks Iran, operations would not be limited to the targeting of Tehran's suspected nuclear sites, but could also include attacks against several key military and industrial installations, the former head of Mossad's foreign intelligence told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview.

"From a hypothetical point of view, one shouldn't assume any attack would only target nuclear facilities. Other targets of significance to the Iranians could be attacked, including military bases, oil facilities and certain industrial facilities," said Uzi Arad, former director of Mossad's Intelligence Division and Chairman of Israel's prestigious Herzliya Conference.

"The Iranians shouldn't make the assumption that just because they hide a few nuclear sites they are safe. There are enough targets to exact a very heavy price on Tehran, so much so that it should render their entire nuclear exercise a losing proposition," said Arad.

entire story here:  http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41640


Lets not forget to keep our Leaders and Israel in our prayer as this situation develops.  

Grace and Peace!

Nov. 28, 2004 22:12
Iran toughens nuclear stand
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran toughened its position Sunday in an international standoff over its nuclear program, insisting on using 20 centrifuges for research purposes even if doing so jeopardizes a deal freezing all of Iran's uranium enrichment activities.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tehran was not worried about the threat of UN sanctions - a possible outcome if the deal falls through - telling reporters "referral to the UN Security Council would not be the end of the world."

"The issue of research and development is separate from discussions about suspension," Asefi said at a press conference. "We always had research and development in the past and we will continue that in the future. We will use the 20 centrifuges for research."

Iran insists using the 20 centrifuges purely for research is not banned by a Nov. 7 agreement worked out with Germany, France and Britain on behalf of the European Union to suspend all uranium enrichment and related activities. The European Union disagrees.

The dispute over Iran's interpretation of its deal with the European Union to freeze all activities linked to uranium enrichment stalled an International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting, which was adjourned Friday until Monday.

That was meant to give time for the Iranian government to approve a total freeze of the program - which can produce both low-grade nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material for the core of nuclear warheads - and for delegates to decide on further steps in policing Tehran's nuclear activities.

Asefi said Iran won't give up on that, even if time was running out for a final agreement.

"We are negotiating with Europeans to specify the way we are going to use the 20 centrifuges. ...What is important is the legitimate right of our country and we won't give (that) up," he said.

EU delegates to the Vienna meeting said discussions continued Saturday by phone between British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Hassan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and his country's point man on nuclear matters. But they said the Europeans would not budge on insisting on a full freeze that included the centrifuges.

As the board awaited a formal Iranian response, France, Germany and Britain toned down language in a proposed resolution in an attempt to entice Tehran to sign on to full suspension. The confidential draft, made available to The Associated Press in Vienna, weakened language on how any freeze would be monitored by the agency and was said by Western diplomats to be unsatisfactory to the United States.

It authorizes IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to "pursue his investigations" into remaining suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear activities over the past two decades.

But instead of mandating him to "report without delay" to the board if there are violations, it says only that he should "inform" board members of any irregularities. Still, refusal by Tehran to drop demands to exempt equipment from the enrichment suspension could prompt a much harsher resolution that could include the threat of UN Security Council action.

"We are not worried about referral to the UN Security Council," Asefi said. "But we prefer that negotiations be continued within the framework of the IAEA because otherwise the capabilities of the agency and Europe will be in doubt."

Western delegates to the meeting said the United States - which insists Tehran wants to make weapons and should be hauled before the Security Council - was unhappy with the draft.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1101615860813

Iran Boasts of Victory Over U.S. on Nuclear Case

1 hour, 52 minutes ago

By Paul Hughes

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran boasted on Tuesday it had defeated U.S. efforts to send its nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council while warning that its uranium enrichment freeze would only last for a few months.

Photo
Reuters Photo

Reuters Photo
Reuters
Slideshow    Slideshow: Iran Nuclear Issues

   

"The Americans have been calling for Iran to be reported to the Security Council for a year and a half, now the whole world has turned down America's calls," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told a news conference.

"Despite the U.S. propaganda Iran has not relinquished its right to the (nuclear) fuel cycle and it never will do," said the cleric, who is secretary-general of Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

His comments appeared to undermine European Union (news - web sites) efforts to persuade Tehran to permanently mothball enrichment facilities -- which can be used to make atomic reactor fuel or nuclear bombs -- and were likely to fuel U.S. concerns that Iran secretly plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is solely for electricity generation, on Monday escaped possible U.N. sanctions after agreeing to suspend all uranium processing and enrichment activities.

The EU hopes Iran will make the suspension permanent in return for trade deals and other incentives. But Tehran says the suspension is a voluntary and temporary measure designed to gain international trust.

"The length of the suspension will only be for the length of the negotiations with the Europeans and ... must be rational and not too long," Rohani said.

"We're talking about months, not years," he added.

The United States, which already has a ban on trade and investment with Iran, OPEC (news - web sites)'s second biggest oil producer, has voiced skepticism Iran will stick to the nuclear freeze and says it may take Iran's case to the Security Council on its own.

POSITIVE SIGN

Western diplomats have expressed growing frustration with Iran, which reneged on a similar suspension six months ago and wrangled over each step of negotiations on the current freeze.

But Rohani said Iran's talks with the EU over the nuclear issue were a positive sign to the world.

"This is a historical opportunity for Iran and Europe to prove to the world that unilateralism is condemned, that the world's most complicated matters can be solved by negotiation."

"Negotiations with Europe will be complicated, it won't be easy and will have lots of ups and downs," he added, warning: "If the Europeans do not show honesty, we will leave the talks."

"Europe wants objective guarantees that our enrichment activities won't be diverted to making weapons. How to implement this guarantee will be the most difficult part of the negotiations," he said.

The Iran-EU talks are due to resume on Dec. 15, by which time the two sides must resolve a dispute over 20 enrichment centrifuges which Iran wanted to exempt from the freeze.

Iran says it will not use the centrifuges to enrich uranium -- a process which can make atomic reactor fuel or bomb-grade material. But it wants to use them for other tests and research.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said Iran's nuclear freeze meant talks would resume on a trade and cooperation agreement. The talks have been on hold for more than a year due to the nuclear issue.

Rohani said the world had nothing to fear from Iran's nuclear facilities. "If we had wanted to make a nuclear bomb we would have made one in the last 20 years," he said. (Additional reporting by Amir Paivar and Christian Oliver)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&u=/nm/20041130/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc&printer=1

Iran Refuses to Give Up Nuclear Research-Diplomats
Sun Dec 12, 8:07 AM ET
World - Reuters
By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran intends to use Monday's talks with France, Britain and Germany to ensure it has the right to go on carrying out research with equipment that could be used to develop nuclear weapons, Western diplomats said.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, will meet foreign ministers of the EU's "big three" in Brussels on Monday for talks on details of a deal that would reward Iran for taking steps to assure the world it is not developing an atom bomb.

"Iran plans to insist on its right to conduct R&D (research and development) and to agree to conduct negotiations only on how it will be inspected and not the fact of the existence of R&D," a diplomat who follows the work of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters.

The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear energy program as a front to develop the know-how to make weapons, a charge Iran denies. Washington has pushed the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions but the agency has refused to do so.

The centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants or in atomic weapons, are a sensitive issue for the Europeans, who would like Iran to permanently abandon all work that could produce bomb-grade enriched uranium or plutonium useable in a weapon.

But Iran has made clear that it will never give this up.

"Permanent freezing (of uranium enrichment) is not an option for us," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference. "What we've agreed to is temporary suspension for a short period."

Western diplomats close to the EU-Iran negotiations said that Iran's wish-list for the talks was quite extensive. In exchange for freezing its nuclear program Iran wants benefits in the areas of telecommunications, railways and financing.

The Iranians have said they want to see swift progress in the talks with the EU and an end to restrictions on the sale of sensitive technologies to Iran. The timing could be a problem, since the Iranians want the talks to last months and the Europeans expect them to last years.

DE FACTO RECOGNITION

A resolution passed by the IAEA board of governors on Nov. 29 called on Iran to freeze its nuclear program but mentioned no punitive actions if Tehran resumed work on nuclear fuel. It describes the freeze as "voluntary" and "non-legally-binding."

The resolution had been watered down from an earlier version, which had implied the possibility that Security Council sanctions could be sought if Iran resumed any activity linked to enrichment and called on Iran to provide "unrestricted access" to U.N. inspectors.

These two parts of the resolution were dropped by the EU trio after Iran agreed to relinquish demands that it be allowed to operate 20 centrifuges for research purposes. Diplomats close to the talks said the Iranians agreed not to use the centrifuges but refused to give up their right to research and development

Recognizing Iran's right to research and development, diplomats in Vienna say, amounts to a de facto recognition that Iran has the right to a future uranium enrichment program.

The EU trio is hampered by the fact that Washington refuses to participate in any offer of incentives to Tehran, which Washington believes is only using the negotiations with the EU to avoid U.N. economic sanctions while it forges ahead with plans to develop the capability to produce a bomb.

Some diplomats say the EU plan is doomed without active participation from Washington, which cut diplomatic ties after its embassy staff in Tehran was taken hostage in 1979. (Additional reporting by Amir Paivar in Tehran)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20041212/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc

U.S. STAGES SIMULATED ATTACK ON IRAN

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. Defense Department was said to have completed simulated war games to determine the feasibility of destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The Atlantic Monthly magazine reported in its latest issue that the Pentagon held simulations of a U.S. military strike on Iranian bases and nuclear facilities. The magazine said the recent war games also included a ground invasion of Iran.

The simulation envisioned a three-phase war against the Islamic republic. The first phase was composed of air strikes against bases of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, believed to control Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

U.S. intelligence sources were quoted as saying that such a strike would require one day and comprised the easiest part of any military campaign.
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http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/december/12_13_1.html

U.S.-European discord over Iran is deepening
By Steven R. Weisman The New York Times
Monday, December 13, 2004

WASHINGTON Despite a renewed American effort to repair relations with Europe, a disagreement between the Bush administration and European leaders over how best to persuade Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program has deepened in recent weeks, diplomats on both sides say.

The diplomats said the disagreement focused on what Europeans maintained was the crucial next step in their drive to persuade Iran to move beyond its recently agreed upon voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment activities to the point of abandoning them outright.

Envoys from Britain, France and Germany gained Iran's agreement to suspend a vital part of its nuclear program last month. The accord was later endorsed by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency.

Both the European and Iranian officials who negotiated the accord said it was voluntary and temporary. Permanent cessation is subject to further talks in which economic and political benefits for Iran are to be discussed.

But in recent interviews, European diplomats said that to gain a permanent cessation, the Bush administration must participate in talks with Iran and signal a willingness to be a part of an eventual final accord involving economic incentives and a discussion of security guarantees for Iran.

"We have a deal with Iran that is not perfect," said a European diplomat. "We have to develop it into a permanent suspension. But we will succeed only if we can provide a lot of carrots. We will not obtain a comprehensive deal on Iran without the United States."

A diplomat from a different European country said the "biggest carrot" that could be offered Iran would be a discussion about an eventual normalization of relations with the United States, including possible guarantees that Iran would not be attacked or subverted.

"It would be very helpful if the United States also embraced this view," the diplomat said of the need for American involvement. But he said that when some Europeans recently raised this issue with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and secretary of state designate, they failed to convince her.

A senior U.S. official said the administration was "deeply worried" about the entire European approach because it could lull the United States into a false sense of security.

Any such deal, he said, could easily be subverted or circumvented, much as North Korea did after it agreed in 1994 to freeze its production of weapons-grade fuel at one reactor, only to renege on the accord and embark on what the United States charges is a plan to produce weapons-grade fuel at another, clandestine location.

Another senior administration official said there was also no confidence within the administration in the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iran's compliance even with the accord hammered out by the Europeans.

The official said that the Europeans had agreed to excessive limits on the agency's ability to inspect Iran's facilities and that there was the added problem that Iran might pursue weapons programs at facilities that Western experts had been unable to locate or identify.

European diplomats, responding to these criticisms, said that while their deal with Iran was flawed, it represented the best hope for reaching an accord that would be accepted by the rest of the world, particularly Russia and China, two players with economic ties to Iran.

To get American involvement in the next phase of negotiations, European envoys said they told Iran that if it failed to comply with its agreement, they would join with the United States in referring the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council for possible further actions, including economic sanctions.

To some U.S. officials, the European attitude may be well intentioned but also naive and based on a fundamental misreading of Iran's intentions. What is needed, they contend, is a unified willingness to demand action and to threaten sanctions against Iran.

Bush administration officials add that while bombing Iranian nuclear sites or taking other sorts of military action are not being contemplated now, they are not ruled out for the future.

The European-American differences on the issue show few signs of being resolved soon, despite a trip this week by Secretary of State Colin Powell to three European-American meetings and a planned trip to Europe by President Bush after his inauguration in January.

"The Europeans are barking up the wrong tree if they think the U.S. can bring the Iranians to the table to get an agreement on this," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy and an Iran specialist.

"What is needed," he said, "is for the entire international community - the Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians and the United States - to tell the Iranians to make a deal on this or face the consequences. Right now, what the Iranians say they want from the United States goes far beyond what the administration would be willing to offer."

The Europeans have begun discussion of an array of economic benefits that would accrue to Iran if it headed toward a full cessation of its suspicious nuclear activities.

Among them, according to the Europeans, would be a reaffirmation of Iran's right to have a peaceful nuclear energy program, including access to nuclear fuel on international markets in return for an agreement to return the fuel once it is used. Iranian access to Western high technology and discussing the establishment of the Middle East, presumably including Israel, as a zone free of all nuclear weapons, are also under consideration.

U.S. officials say, however, they are suspicious of any partial deals that do not encompass an end to Iran's support of insurgents in Iraq and to groups that carry out attacks on Israeli citizens, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and militant factions within the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But European diplomats say they are prepared to enter into a discussion of these matters, and also of Iran's repressive practices at home, in what they are describing as "phase two" of their talks with Iran. "Of course, the earlier the United States gets into the talks, the better," said a senior European diplomat, adding that the main incentive to Iran is to end the Western threat of economic and political isolation.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/12/12/news/allies.html

I guess none of the EU intelligentsia were around long enough for the name "Neville Chamberlin" to have meant much.

"A failure to learn from history means that we are DOOMED to repeat it."

Its a loaded powder keg any way it goes from here.   If no action is taken, they will gain their bomb, and threaten  Israel's existance and possibly allowing nukes to fall into the hands of terrorists.   If we do take action, it will further isolate America from the world community and revive the "hate bush and American campaign", and possibly start war in the middle east yet again.   I still think I'd prefer to not allow Iran to have nukes.   That seems like suicide.


Boy does this sound familiar!      

Maranatha!