Iran Nuclear: An interview that Amano missed to read before publishing the latest IAEA's report

ReportIran
10 November 2011
Though rather old but the interview can shed light to many questions raised recently in the report published by IAEA on Tuesday 8th November 2011. 

Interviewed by: Oliver Meier
Conducted on 27 September 2011

Representing Iran at the IAEA: Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh Speaks with Arms Control Today

(Washington, D.C.) -- In the midst of proposals for renewing international talks with Iran over the nuclear issue and ahead of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) quarterly board meeting in which Iran's cooperation with the agency would again come under fire, Arms Control Today (ACT) interviewed Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's representative to the IAEA, about the current impasse.

As Iran's IAEA envoy, Ambassador Soltanieh deals directly with the Iran nuclear controversy and with an agency whose relations with Tehran appear to be increasingly tense. During the IAEA's Sept. 12-16 board meeting, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said he planned to detail suspicions that Iran has been engaged in work to develop a nuclear warhead, potentially bringing the issue to a head at the next board meeting in November.

Ambassador Soltanieh defends his government's cooperation with the IAEA, stressing Iran's greater openness during a recent IAEA inspection, while objecting to the notion of increasing transparency under the threat of sanctions.

He also touches on recent diplomatic initiatives, including an Iranian offer of "full supervision" over its nuclear program by the IAEA for five years if sanctions were lifted, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's claim that Iran can continue to enrich uranium in the future after addressing international concerns.

Finally, the Ambassador provides some additional details on Iran's future nuclear plans, including the decision not to construct more enrichment facilities for the time being, and the rationale behind ramping up the production of 20%-enriched uranium at the new Fordow plant.

The full interview is @ Arms Control Association website

Iran provides basic answers to the questions about its nuclear program

10 November 2011
Tehran Times

Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asghar Soltanieh has offered the (Non-Aligned Movement) NAM critical information about Iran's nuclear program amid a publicity hype following the publication of the report by the IAEA on 9th Novemebr on Iran's nuclear activities.

In a session of the NAM, held upon Iran's request on Tuesday, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh responded to 20 critical questions about Tehran's nuclear program and a host of related issues.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano's latest report on Iran's nuclear activities was circulated among 35 members of the Board of Governors of the agency on Tuesday evening, almost 10 days ahead of the seasonal meeting of the board, due to take place in Vienna on November 17 and 18.

This is a report that you normally do not see in the mainstream media such as BBC and CNN.
See the full report @ Tehran Times

US Ambassador privately admits Iran's nuclear ambition is not for weapon

Wikileaks and The Guardian

26 January 2011

In a classified cable dated 29 April 2009, Ambassador Gregory L. Schulte confirms that Iran had no weapon programme in her nuclear activities. In his cable he says, "Recalling the U.S. Intelligence Community's assessment in the 2007 NIE that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003, France asked about information in DDG Safeguards Olli Heinonen's February 2008 technical briefing which indicated some activities had taken place in 2004. The U.S. responded that the information in Heinonen's February 2008 briefing was consistent with the 2003 weaponization halt assessment, since some activities were wrapping up in 2004."

Experts from the UK, US, France, Russia, China and Germany debate how much progress Iran is making. Most of the talk is about uranium enrichment, the problems Iran is having in getting the centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment plant to work properly.

to see the full cable go @ here

Toward a Negotiated Solution – Solving the Iranian Nuclear Puzzle

by Charles D. Ferguson
Jan 26, 2011

Last week, I spoke at a meeting of the Arms Control Association on the Multilateral “P-5+1” talks with Iran over its nuclear program. How we can improve IAEA monitoring and verification so that we can have sufficient confidence that Iran’s nuclear fuel-cycle activities are not used for weapons purpose?

The panelists included Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center and chair of the Stimson-U.S. Institute of Peace joint study group on Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge; Greg Thielmann, ACA Senior Fellow and former professional staffer of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and official with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; and Daryl G. Kimball, ACA Executive Director will moderate.

To see the full transcript click @ here

Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett on Iran

Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett on Iran in Charlie Rose show

Interviewer and broadcast journalist Charlie Rose put the former CIA analyst on the roundtable to discuss about latest Iran's situation right after the Iranian New Year Nurooz. The two guests strongly support Ahmadinejad. They also indicate that have recently (two weeks earlier) visited Iran and met many people including some Iranian revolutionary Guard officials.


However, Scott Lucas reacted to this programme very harshly and wrote in the comment section:

Sadly, I found little of value in this platform for the Leveretts, and indeed in almost all of their commentary in recent months. For me, this is polemic posing as analysis, distinguished by unsupported speculation, misrepresentations, and frequent distortions.

The Leverett offer little support for their assertions about Iran’s internal politics, some of which are wildly off the mark. Unfortunately, in contrast to the normal excellent of this programme, I found Mr Rose and his researchers ill-prepared to confront the Leveretts' misleading claims.

see the full interview @ Charlie Rose Show

Mebane: Signs of Fraud on Iran Presidential Election

A report by the Michigan Professor

Walter R. Mebane Jr, the election forensics expert who continues to wade through the official vote count from the Iranian elections has his starkest conclusion yet: that there was "extensive ballot box stuffing on Ahmadinejad's behalf."

The title of report is "Note on the presidential election in Iran" and you can find it in 27 pages here.

Mebane, a professor of political science and statistics in the University of Michigan, then goes further, suggesting that "[w]ithout the ballot-box stuffing fraud ... the election outcome should have been at least a runoff between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi." In his latest update on a report on the Iranian election Mebane added"There are suspicious elements here, but there's no solid evidence of fraud."

Mebane concludes that, "Tests such as those considered in this paper can in general only identify places where there may be problems with the votes. In some places the suggestions may be extremely strong (e.g., for recent Russian elections, see Mebane and Kalinin 2009). In general the tests’ best use is for screening election results, not confirming or refuting claims of fraud. A significant finding should prompt investigations using administrative records, witness testimony and other facts to try to determine what happened."

Mebane most striking conclusion is: "The problem with the 2009 Iranian election is that the serious questions that have been raised are unlikely to receive satisfactory answers. Transparency is utterly lacking in this case. There is little reason to believe the official results announced in that election accurately reflect the intentions of the voters who went to the polls."

Find the original report@University of Michigan

Survey of official Iran results casts serious doubt on victory claims

a report by Chatham House
21 June 2009
Authors:
Ali Ansari, Daniel Berman and Thomas Rintoul,

A survey of Iran's election results, published today by Chatham House and the University of St Andrews, raises serious questions about the plausibility of the claimed victory and demonstrates irregularities in the official results.

According to this report:
Even the official statistics - obtained from the Ministry of the Interior - indicate that:

*
votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in two provinces
*
claims that Ahmadinejad swept the board in rural provinces flies in the face of previous results

The plausibility of Mr Ahmadinejad's claimed victory is called into question by figures that show that in several provinces he would have had to attract the votes of all new voters, all the votes of his former centrist opponent, and up to 44% of those who voted for reformist candidates in 2005.

Irregularities are found in conservative Mazandaran and Yazd provinces where votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters.

Professor Ali Ansari said: 'The analysis shows that the scale of the swing to Ahmadinejad would have had to have been extraordinary to achieve the stated result'.

Thomas Rintoul said: 'The claimed results in minority provinces are particularity extreme, the numbers from Ilam, Lorestan and Hormozegan almost defy belief".

Read paper @ Chatham House

Download the report here

CSIS report: An Israeli strike against Iran would lack any success

A report by CSIS in Washington

During the last several months, the Burke Chair has carried out a detailed examination of Iran’s programs involving missile and weapons of mass destruction. The key drafts involved are available on the CSIS web site at:
http://www.csis.org/burke/reports/
A final comprehensive report will be published this summer as CSIS book by the Praeger Press.

In this detailed, 114-page assessment of how Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, conducted by Abdullah Toukan and Anthony Cordesman at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cordesman is a military analyst and a former national security adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.


Haaretz recently dissects this report but according to Haaretz:

“One of the conclusions from Toukan and Cordesman’s study is that it is questionable whether Israel has the military capability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, or even to delay it for several years. Therefore, if the diplomatic contacts the Obama administration is initiating with Iran prove useless, and if in the wake of their expected failure the American president does not decide to attack Iran, it is likely that Iran will possess nuclear weapons in a relatively short time. It seems, therefore, that policy makers in Jerusalem should begin preparing, mentally and operationally, for a situation in which Iran is a nuclear power with a strike capability against Israel.

This is the place to emphasize Israel’s mistake in hyping the Iranian threat. The regime in Tehran is certainly a bitter and inflexible rival, but from there it’s a long way to presenting it as a truly existential threat to Israel. Iran’s involvement in terror in our region is troubling, but a distinction must be made between a willingness to bankroll terrorists, and an intention to launch nuclear missiles against Israel. Even if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Israel’s power of deterrence will suffice to dissuade any Iranian ruler from even contemplating launching nuclear weapons against it.”

Find the report @ CSIS

main report in PDF @ CSIS

In Search of female prisoner 650 in the US custody

Press release:
Press TV Exclusive: First TV interview with Binyam Mohammed on The Agenda show, Thursday 2 April.

Torture victim, Binyam Mohammed has given his very first TV interview since his release from Guantanamo in February. In the interview with Press TV he makes sensational claims about the plight of female detainees caught up in the war on terror.

His dramatic eyewitness account was aired this week on The Agenda, a lively political discussion show hosted by journalist, Yvonne Ridley.

When President Obama took office in January he promised his administration would be the most transparent in US history.

Yet, the British resident and former detainee reveals he is "one hundred per cent" convinced that a female detainee he saw during his captivity in Bagram prison is the elusive Dr Aafiya Siddiqui.

This contradicts the official position forwarded by the US Government that she and her children were not in US custody prior to July 2008.

Press TV’s robust investigations have eventually secured a major retraction from both The Pentagon and the Bagram media centre, after they were originally not so forthcoming.

Mohammed made the comment during a private screening of a Press TV documentary - In Search of Prisoner 650 - which premieres on Sunday, April 5, charting the investigation into the intriguing case of Aafiya Siddiqui.

The Agenda was broadcast on Thursday 2nd April at 9:06 GMT; and repeated on Friday 3rd April at 1:06 GMT and 2:33 GMT.
The footage is available on The Agenda website

The first part of the documentary film In Search of Prisoner 650 will be broadcast on Sunday April 5 at 1:33 GMT, and then repeated at 6:33 GMT, 12:33 GMT and 17:33 GMT. The second part going out on Monday, April 6 at 12:33 GMT, then repeated at 5:33 GMT, 11:33 GMT and 16:33 GMT.

Press TV is on Sky channel 515 or live stream online at www.presstv.co.uk. Agenda info desk: +44 20 8728 6461 and email at theagenda@presstv.com or the agenda@presstv.co.uk