USAF COUNTERPROLIFERATION CENTER

CPC OUTREACH JOURNAL Maxwell AFB, Alabama

Issue No. 782, 9 February 2010

Articles & Other Documents:

Russia Says U.S. Missile Plans Hamper Nuclear Arms Defiant Accelerates Nuclear Program Cuts Talks Iran Enrichment Plans Cast Doubt On Nuclear Program Russia Cool To U.S. Plan For Missiles In Romania - Russia

Tehran Welcomes Nuclear Deal, With Alterations Chinese Envoy Flies To N. Korea To Resume Nuclear Talks: Sources Iran FM Says He Has "Very Good" Meeting With IAEA Lead North Korea’s Kim Reiterates Denuclearization Pledge

Gates Scoffs At Iran Nuclear Claim North Korea Nuclear Envoy Visits China, Talks Closer

Westerwelle Dismisses Iran's Nuclear Offer Russia Starts Building 4th Nuclear Sub To Carry Bulava Missile Iranian President Orders Enrichment Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile Parliament Backs Iran Pres. Decision Over 20% Enrichment The Dream Of Zero

Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant "One Test Away Russia And U.S. Lead Calls To Reduce Nuclear From Operation": Report Arsenals

Iran’s Nuclear Move Prompts New Calls For Sanctions Analysis: Iranian Plan Will Put Nation A Step Closer To Having Material For Bomb China Urges More Talks On Iran Nuclear Plans

Welcome to the CPC Outreach Journal. As part of USAF Counterproliferation Center’s mission to counter weapons of mass destruction through education and research, we’re providing our government and civilian community a source for timely counterproliferation information. This information includes articles, papers and other documents addressing issues pertinent to US military response options for dealing with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats and countermeasures. It’s our hope this information resource will help enhance your counterproliferation issue awareness. Established in 1998, the USAF/CPC provides education and research to present and future leaders of the Air Force, as well as to members of other branches of the armed services and Department of Defense. Our purpose is to help those agencies better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Please feel free to visit our web site at http://cpc.au.af.mil/ for in-depth information and specific points of contact. The following articles, papers or documents do not necessarily reflect official endorsement of the Air Force, Department of Defense, or other US government agencies. Reproduction for private use or commercial gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. All rights are reserved.

RIA Novosti – Russian Information Agency Russia Says U.S. Missile Plans Hamper Nuclear Arms Cuts Talks 06 February 20102 Washington's continued efforts to build a missile defense shield in Europe have complicated nuclear arms reduction talks with Russia, Russia's deputy prime minister said on Saturday. "It is impossible to talk seriously about the reduction of nuclear capabilities when a nuclear power is working to deploy protective systems against vehicles to deliver nuclear warheads possessed by other countries," Sergei Ivanov said at an international security conference in Munich. Russia and the United States are in talks to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1), the cornerstone of post-Cold War arms control, which expired in December with a new deal. Russia on Friday expressed concerns about Romania's decision to host missiles as part of a U.S. missile defense shield to protect European allies from possible Iranian attacks, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded "clarifications." The planned deployment in Romania comes after President Barack Obama scrapped plans for a radar and interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland, which Russia fiercely opposed as a national security threat and a blow on its nuclear deterrent. Moscow threatened retaliatory measures. Ivanov reiterated that Moscow will seek explanations from the United States on the planned deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe. He said Russia unilaterally cut its tactical nuclear arsenals by 75% in the early 1990s, but the United States did respond with a similar move and even failed to withdraw its weapons from Europe. Ivanov said Russia will demand that nuclear weapons be kept on the territory of countries which they belong to. Ivanov, however, confirmed earlier reports that the new bilateral nuclear arms pact could be signed in the first half of this year adding that ratification may take place in the fall. Last week, Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev ordered a speedy completion of the deal. Obama and Medvedev pledged at their first meeting in April 2009 to replace the START I treaty as part of broader efforts to "reset" bilateral ties strained in recent years. MUNICH, February 6 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100206/157794552.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

New York Times February 6, 2010 Russia Cool To U.S. Plan For Missiles In Romania By ELLEN BARRY MOSCOW — Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015, with a top envoy saying that the announcement could directly affect Moscow’s position as negotiations to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, reach their conclusion. Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, said the United States had not fulfilled its promise to consult Russia on developments in the missile defense system. He suggested that the interceptors could pose a threat to Russia’s security, while noting that both Romanian and American officials went out of their way to assure Moscow otherwise. “It seems to be in line with Freud’s theory — it means they have some thoughts that the system could be targeted against Russia, otherwise why would they dissuade us about something we never asked about?” he said. Though the general outlines of the new missile defense plan — including the staging of land-based interceptors in Europe — were made public months ago, Russian officials made it clear that they were taken aback by the announcement of Romania’s role. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said the Russian and American presidents had agreed that the “threats and risks of missile proliferation will be assessed jointly as a first step.” “We expect our American partners to provide exhaustive explanations on those issues in the context of this dialogue,” the Interfax news service quoted Mr. Lavrov as saying at a news conference in Germany, where he traveled to attend the Munich Security Conference. The announcement came at a sensitive moment. At the Munich conference, Mr. Lavrov has meetings planned with Iran’s foreign minister, and he has suggested that Russia may be ready to consider if he is not satisfied with the response in their discussion about Tehran’s nuclear program. And with the Start renegotiation, a central project in the “reset” between the countries, in its final stages, Russian leaders have repeatedly said missile defense remains a stumbling block. Russian analysts said the SM-3 interceptors planned for Romania posed no threat to Russia’s nuclear deterrent, since they target medium- and short-range missiles. But that might change when a second generation of interceptors is put in place in 2018, a possibility that makes Moscow wary, because the United States is under no obligation to share data about the system, said Sergei M. Rogov, director of the Institute for the U.S. and Canada Studies in Moscow. “Here comes the question of transparency,” he said. “Why is the U.S. making a decision again without consulting with Russia?” The announcement is not likely to derail Start negotiations, Mr. Rogov said, but could jeopardize talks that negotiators hoped would follow, including deeper cuts to strategic nuclear weapons. The news from Romania came, he said, amid various signs of “reverse movement” in the “reset”: Start negotiations have dragged on, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rejected Russian calls for a new European security structure, and Poland and Sweden called for Russia to withdraw its nuclear missiles from Kaliningrad. “Additional issues are overloading the ‘reset,’ which is not moving very far or very fast,” Mr. Rogov said. “So I am concerned about it.” Those concerns were underlined when Russia released its new military doctrine, approved on Friday by President Dmitri A. Medvedev. The document, which guides military policy for a decade, identified the American missile defense system as a major threat to Russian security, saying it “undermines global stability and violates the current balance of nuclear forces.” Another central concern of the document was the continued expansion of NATO and the organization’s attempt “to globalize its functions in violation of international law.” Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/world/europe/06romania.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Press TV – Iran Tehran Welcomes Nuclear Deal, With Alterations Saturday, 06 February 2010 Iran's foreign minister says he hopes that an agreement on the nuclear fuel proposal will soon be reached, but with the changes that Tehran seeks. 's Friday message came just days after Iran's President signaled that his country was ready to accept a deal, in what has been seen as a possible breakthrough. "The most important point is the political will. Personally I feel this will is there," Mottaki said during a late-night debate with his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, at the Munich Security Conference. "I personally believe that we have created favorable conditions for such an exchange in the not very distant future," he said, noting that he believed the diplomatic atmosphere had improved recently. The agreement proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would see Iran ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing, then all of it would be returned for use in the Tehran medical reactor, which produces treatments for cancer. The Iranian foreign minister warned that his country would not accept the timeline proposed in the draft, which would require Iran to export its uranium and wait for up to a year before receiving the enriched fuel. "There must be a guarantee for both sides that this (low-enriched uranium) will definitely be given and (highly- enriched uranium) will definitely be returned, this mechanism makes it possible to reach a compromise," Mottaki said. "The best way to guarantee that all stages of the deal would be carried out according to the agreement would be for the supplier to start enriching uranium feedstock now, so that the exchange could take place simultaneously in some months' time," he said. Iran has asked for guarantees since the deal was drafted in October. Western powers, however, have so far refused to appease Tehran's concerns, forcing a break-off in negotiations. The West's two-edged stance on nuclear activity has not helped the negotiations either, with Iran complaining of the unfair privileges that a few certain states have in the UN Security Council that allows them to disregard Iran's legal rights. Tehran says the Security Council has issued unfair resolutions against Iran's civil nuclear program, in contradiction to UN nuclear watchdog regulations that reserve a right for all countries to enrich uranium as part of a peaceful program. It also says that those unwarranted powers have given the West the leverage to turn a blind eye to Israel's and its other violations. During the Friday meeting, Mottaki once again raised that argument, criticizing Europe for showing opposition to Iran's civil nuclear program. He went on to criticize the West for imposing no sanctions on Israel for its development of nuclear weapons. "It is the recognized right of Iran to enjoy a peaceful nuclear program," he said. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117988§ionid=351020104 (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Xinhua News – China Iran FM Says He Has "Very Good" Meeting With IAEA Lead February 6, 2010 MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Despite Western suspicions about Tehran's upbeat remarks about a deal on its nuclear issue, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that he had a "very good meeting" with Yukiya Amano, new chief of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on nuclear fuel swap. "Today I had a very good meeting with Mr. Amano. We discussed and exchanged views on a wide range of issues and the proposal that is on the table," Mottaki told a news conference on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. At issue is a possible scheme on shipping Tehran's low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for higher-grade fuel it could use in a civil-purpose reactor. Mottaki stressed that there is a political will for the swap while modalities and mechanisms to enrich uranium abroad still need to be clarified. U.S. and German officials, however, remain suspicious. While noting "the door for diplomacy with Iran remains open," U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones told the Munich conference that Iran's "puzzling defiance" compels Washington and its allies to a second track of increased pressure. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said at the conference: "Our hand is still reaching out towards Iran. But so far, it's reaching out into the void." "If there is really a new approach to cooperation, then it has to be followed by Iran's concrete actions," he said. "An agreement with the IAEA over Tehran's research reactor would be a confidence- building step. But it would not be a substitute for negotiations to ensure the civilian nature of Iran's nuclear program." http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-02/07/c_13166456.htm (Return to Articles and Documents List)

New York Times February 7, 2010 Gates Scoffs At Iran Nuclear Claim By NICHOLAS KULISH and THOM SHANKER MUNICH — As Iran’s foreign minister met with the chief of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency here, the United States and Germany rejected Iran’s assertion that it was close to accepting an international compromise on its nuclear program. Western officials expressed deep skepticism toward Tehran’s contention that a deal was close for having uranium enriched abroad for Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said that the Iranians presented no new proposal or counterproposal during a meeting on the sidelines of a security conference here Saturday. “Dialogue is continuing,” Mr. Amano said. “It should be accelerated. That’s the point.” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that actions by Iranian leaders did not back up their conciliatory public statements. “Based on the information that I have, I don’t have the sense we are close to an agreement,” he said at the conclusion of talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara. As if to press that point, one of the topics on the defense secretary’s agenda was how Turkey might join a NATO- wide missile defense system, which would be focused on the possibility of an attack from Iran. Mr. Gates was asked to respond to comments made Friday by Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who had told the politicians and military leaders attending the security conference here in Munich that his nation might be close to a deal to have uranium enriched abroad. Mr. Gates scoffed at the statement, saying such public talk of compromise did not match Iran’s dealings with the atomic energy agency or its stance in continuing, multilateral negotiations to make certain that Tehran could never build a nuclear weapon. But Mr. Amano called his meeting with Mr. Mottaki “a very interesting discussion,” adding that “the I.A.E.A. absolutely can play a role as an impartial, good office.” Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, who met with Mr. Mottaki on Friday, said Saturday at the same conference in Munich that his discussions with the Iranian delegation had “not made me change my mind” about Iran’s intentions. Speaking on the very stage occupied the night before by Mr. Mottaki, President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, said that Iran’s “puzzling defiance” compelled “all of us to work together as allies and partners on a second track of increased pressure.” General Jones said, “Indeed, the unprecedented level of international consensus and unity on Iran with regard to its nuclear program demonstrates that Tehran must meet its responsibilities or face stronger sanctions and perhaps even deeper isolation.” But that consensus is not as complete as the United States and its Western allies would like to portray it. China, in particular, has resisted calls for new sanctions, saying it would prefer to continue negotiating. That stance was reiterated in Munich on Friday by China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, who said, “It’s better for us now to concentrate on consultation and dialogue.” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Saturday that he met with Mr. Mottaki for more than an hour the day before and stressed that Iran must cooperate with the atomic energy agency and answer the agency’s pending questions. Russia has been increasingly frustrated by Iran’s recalcitrance. Iran continues to violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Mr. Gates said Saturday in Turkey, and he indicated that it might be time to move toward tougher economic sanctions. “The reality is they have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to comply with the N.P.T. or stop their progress toward a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Gates said. If Iran is serious, the defense secretary said, it should immediately turn over its stated stockpile of low-enriched uranium to the atomic energy agency. The longer Iran continues to enrich that radioactive material, he noted, the value of current proposals as a means to offer security reassurances “is diminishing.” On Saturday at the conference, Mr. Mottaki said that he had “a very good meeting” earlier in the day for half an hour with Mr. Amano about the enrichment proposal. Mr. Mottaki repeated his statement that an agreement was near and said that the agency would play “the major role” in the exchange of fuel. “Now there is the political will among the parties involved for proceeding,” Mr. Mottaki said. In response to critical comments by the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, , about a possible deal, Mr. Mottaki said, “In Iran, there is only one voice about the issue, and that is the exchange of fuel has been accepted and recognized.” Mr. Mottaki continued to insist that, under any deal, Iran would determine the amount of uranium enriched abroad. “It is very common that in business a buyer talks about the quantity and the seller only offers the price,” he said. “We determine the quantity on the basis of our needs, and we would inform the parties about our requirements.” Nicholas Kulish reported from Munich, and Thom Shanker from Ankara, Turkey. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/europe/07gates.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Deutsche Welle – Germany February 7, 2010 Westerwelle Dismisses Iran's Nuclear Offer "Our hand is still reaching out towards [Iran]," Westerwelle said on Saturday, February 6. "But so far it's reaching out into a void. And I've seen nothing since yesterday that makes me want to change that view." These comments came 12 hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki - a surprise visitor at this year's Munich Security Conference - said that he expected a deal between his country and Western powers "in the not very distant future." Westerwelle called for combined efforts world-wide to reduce both conventional and nuclear weapons and stressed that the international community could not accept a nuclear-armed Iran. "That would lead to a destabilization of the whole region," he said. “Further, it would fatally weaken the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.” In order to prove it was actually serious, Germany's vice chancellor said Iran "must take action." Fuel exchange Last year the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposed that Iran ship low-intensity uranium abroad for enrichment, then re-import the enriched variant for use in a medical reactor, used to treat cancer patients, in Tehran. The idea was to give Iran access to peaceful nuclear technology without it enriching uranium at home - a process world powers fear is designed to produce a nuclear bomb. After months of stalling, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said that his country was willing to accept the deal. On Friday, Mottaki said that that was true, but that Iran wanted to change some of the details. On Saturday, the 's new foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, said that she welcomed the fact that Mottaki had decided at the last minute to come to Munich. But she stressed that the IAEA plan and overtures conducted by the US administration "have so far gone without adequate response," warning the Iranian regime that "dialogue takes two." The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) insisited that Iran had brought nothing to the negotiating tabel. "There was not a new proposal," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said shortly after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Threat of military action US Senator , chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a panel discussion at the conference that world leaders needed to be clear with Iran about what is expected of it. "We haven't been clear to this day. Everyone has been running around beating their chest saying Iran, you can't have a nuclear weapon. But we haven't been clear. "I think that's a very waffly way to be trying to control something as serious as this." Fellow US lawmaker, US Senator Joe Lieberman, who heads the Senate Committe on Homeland Security, told the German Press Agency dpa that the world faces a choice between imposing tough sanctions against Iran or launching a military strike. Lieberman was the last speaker of the day on Saturday and obviously frustrated at the Iranian Foreign Minister’s late-night speech on Friday didn't mince his words. "We have a choice here: to go to tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work or we will face the prospect of military action against Iran," Lieberman said. That is because a nuclear-armed Iran would create chaos in the Middle East, send oil prices soaring and shatter any hope of an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. "They should just accept the existing (IAEA) proposal," Lieberman told dpa. Capital punishment Meanwhile, Iran rejected European Union demands for a halt to the execution of opposition demonstrators. Iran's foreign minister said during a debate with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt that Iranians condemned to death in the wake of last year's disputed election and subsequent unrest were “criminals.” Mottaki told an audience at the conference that a “few people” had burned houses and buses last year. “When crime happens, that is not protest,” he said. Bildt urged Mottaki to halt anticipated judicial killings of nine opposition demonstrators who were handed death sentences by Iranian authorities last Tuesday. If Iran went ahead with those executions, EU-Iranian relations would be affected in a "most detrimental" way, Bildt said. Last month, the EU, along with Amnesty International, had condemned the hangings of the dissidents Mohammed Reza Alizamani and Arash Rahmani. Capital punishment is barred across Europe under a Council of Europe convention and is outlawed or no longer practiced by 140 of the 192 UN member nations. Mottaki drew hisses from some in the Munich audience when he insisted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected last June by a margin of 11 million votes. Iranian opposition groups say the election was rigged. An estimated 4,000 people including reformist politicians and journalists were detained during a crackdown. Fresh unrest in December resulted in eight deaths. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5221758,00.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Wall Street Journal February 8, 2010 Iranian President Orders Enrichment By CHIP CUMMINS in Dubai and PETER SPIEGEL in Rome Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's nuclear agency to begin enriching uranium for use in a medical-research reactor, ratcheting up Tehran's defiance over Western demands that it curb its nuclear ambitions. The statement was carried Sunday on state TV as the country celebrates the 31st anniversary of the . It came amid a flurry of announcements in which Mr. Ahmadinejad has attempted to project an image of strength, even as the regime faces the threat of further domestic unrest later this week. It also seemed to contradict Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements last week that Iran was willing to embrace a deal brokered last year by the International Atomic Energy Agency for Iran to ship the bulk of its lower enriched uranium overseas to be further enriched to the 20% purity level needed for its medical reactor. Speaking at a laser-technology exhibition on Sunday in Tehran, Mr. Ahmadinejad called on , head of Iran's atomic agency, who was sitting in the audience, to begin enriching uranium to 20% purity. Mr. Ahmadinejad said Iran "was still open to negotiations on the issue" with the international community, according to state media. Mr. Ahmadinejad and other officials have threatened before to enrich the fuel on their own if a deal with the IAEA fell though. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he believed there was still time for sanctions to work to halt Iran's nuclear program despite the Iranian president's decision. Asked at a news conference in Rome whether he believed the president's order to produce higher-grade uranium made military action more likely, Mr. Gates said that as long as the international community is able to present a united front, sanctions can still be effective. "If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work," Mr. Gates said following meetings with his Italian counterpart. "But we must all work together." Despite that apparent shift by the Iranian government, Mr. Gates has said he didn't believe the two sides were near a deal, a stance he reiterated on Sunday. "The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance on its intentions," Mr. Gates said. "The results have been very disappointing." U.S. efforts to rally members of the United Nations Security Council to support new sanctions have run into obstacles in Beijing, where the Chinese government has shown resistance to the plan. Although he didn't single China out by name, Mr. Gates's call for international unity in the face of Mr. Ahmadinejad's decision appeared aimed at Beijing. "Rather than single any country out, I would simply say I think all of us can do more," he said. Iran has been convulsed by a series of large-scale, often violent demonstrations following contested June 12 elections. Opposition leaders have hijacked a number of state-sponsored holidays by staging antigovernment protests. They have called on demonstrators to pour into the streets of Tehran and other cities on Feb. 11, the culmination of celebrations marking the anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic. Iranian leaders have heightened threats of a harsh crackdown on protests, including hanging two political prisoners late last month and threatening to execute demonstrators who have been detained in earlier antigovernment protests. At the same time, Iran has appeared eager to flex its muscles on the world stage despite recent threats by the U.S. of economic sanctions. Last week, for instance,Tehran unveiled a series of what it described as breakthroughs in its domestic space program. That worried Western officials, who say satellite technology can be used to develop missile-delivery systems. "They are sending a clear message that the regime is strong," ahead of Feb. 11, said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. Sunday's nuclear announcement is the latest, often-contradictory signal from Mr. Ahmadinejad about Iran's willingness to negotiate with Western capitals over its nuclear program. The Obama administration has warned it will push for tough new economic sanctions if Tehran doesn't make progress in nuclear talks. For Washington and other Western powers—which worry Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons—the IAEA-brokered deal was seen as a first step in building confidence between the two sides. It would also deprive Iran of enough fissile material to make a bomb, at least for a time. For Tehran, the deal would be a quick way to obtain enough fuel to keep its medical reactor running. (Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.) But Iranian authorities never approved the deal and have since insisted on various changes. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703427704575050883816233458.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Press TV – Iran Parliament Backs Iran Pres. Decision Over 20% Enrichment Monday, 08 February 2010 Iranian lawmakers have supported a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to domestically enrich uranium to higher levels, saying it was an appropriate response to the growing Western pressure. Ahead of the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, President Ahmadinejad ordered the country's nuclear agency to enrich uranium to 20 percent in order to meet the growing demand of Iranian cancer patients. The Iranian president, who was speaking at the exhibition of Laser Science and Technology Achievements in Tehran on Sunday, said the country was still willing to negotiate a deal on fuel supply for the Tehran research reactor, which is slowly but steadily running out of fuel. If the reactor's fuel completely dries up, there will be heavy consequences for thousands of Iranian patients, who desperately need post-surgery treatment with nuclear medicine. On Monday, Iranian lawmaker Morteza Aghatehrani said the Tehran government will never fear, nor will it ever yield to Western pressure over its civilian nuclear plans. "In about a year, the Westerners will see the [positive outcome] of the President's order," said Aghatehrani. "All they do is level threats against us. This should not terrify us and deter us from the peaceful procedure of our work." Hamid Resayi, another senior lawmaker, said the presidential order to increase uranium enrichment was "the best possible response" to recent claims that Iran had backed down on its concerns over a Western-backed uranium exchange deal. "There has recently been some rumors that the Iranian president has conceded to Western demands over the country's uranium enrichment," said Resayi in an interview with IRNA. "Fortunately, the president has managed to put an end to these claims by issuing the order to begin uranium enrichment to a higher level," added Resayi. His remarks were backed by Esmail Kowsari, a senior member of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. The West has no right to pressure Iran over its uranium enrichment, Kowsari said, adding that "we had warned them that if they refuse to abide by a legal framework in supplying our required, we will take the matter in our own hands." "We need this fuel because there are a myriad of Iranian patients who need to receive radio-medicine and a wide range of treatments that can only be facilitated by the Tehran reactor," he noted. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118178§ionid=351020104 (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Xinhua News - China Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant "One Test Away From Operation": Report February 8, 2010 TEHRAN, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said the country's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr is only one test away from operation, the semi- official Fars news agency reported on Monday. "There remains just one test named Warm Water Test before we can launch the power plant," Salehi told Fars. "We will inject fuel to the heart of the reactor after that ( final test)," Salehi was quoted as saying. Bushehr (plant) has passed an array of tests in the last few months, and the Metal Core Test has been the latest test accomplished, said Salehi. Last month, AEOI announced that the country's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr will come on stream by this autumn. "We will launch the Bushehr power plant in the first half of next (Iranian) year (beginning on March 21)," Salehi told Fars. In November, Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi told Fars that Russians intend to put Bushehr nuclear plant into operation by the end of 2009, and that there are several tests which should be conducted on the plant before it can go operational. The country's 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant was originally constructed in the mid-1970s by Siemens of Germany, but was abandoned with the outbreak of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran and Russia, after reaching an agreement on nuclear cooperation in 1992, signed a contract in January 1995 to finish the construction of the plant, the completion of which has been repeatedly delayed. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-02/08/c_13168489.htm (Return to Articles and Documents List)

New York Times February 9, 2010 Iran’s Nuclear Move Prompts New Calls For Sanctions By ALAN COWELL and THOM SHANKER PARIS — Officials from the United States, France and Russia called Monday for stronger measures against Tehran after Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency that it would begin enriching its stockpile of uranium for a medical reactor in Tehran as early as Tuesday. In Paris, the visiting United States defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, said the Obama administration and the other nations had reached out sincerely to reassure Iran and entice it to negotiate an end to its nuclear program. “All of these initiatives have been rejected,” Mr. Gates said. While “we must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue,” he said, “the only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track. But it will require all of the international community to work together.” Separately, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said, “The only thing we can do, alas, is apply sanctions given that negotiations are impossible.” In Moscow, Konstantin I. Kosachyov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian Parliament, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as urging the international community to prepare “serious measures.” At issue is a proposal for Iran to swap its uranium stockpile for enriched uranium processed into fuel roads outside the country. Iran was initially reported last October to have accepted the proposal, but later backed away. Western officials say Iran has rejected the deal, but Tehran accuses the West of failing to respond to its proposals. Several of the world powers dealing with Iran’s nuclear issue are in favor President Obama’s call for tougher sanctions, but China has said such action could forestall a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis. On Monday, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, delivered a letter to the agency setting out the plan to begin enriching its stockpile to 20-percent purity, news reports said, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally ordered his atomic scientists on Sunday to begin the process. Iran’s nuclear program is one of the most contentious issues between the West and Tehran, which rejects Western suspicions that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. In recent days Iran has sent a perplexing series of conflicting signals about plans that could move the country closer to producing weapons-grade fuel. At a news conference in Paris, Mr. Gates was asked whether the United States had any guarantees that Israel would not attack Iran to halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. He avoided a direct answer. “I think that everybody’s interest is in seeing this issue resolved without a resort to conflict,” he said. “We have to face the reality that if Iran continues and develops nuclear weapons, it almost certainly will provoke nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. And that’s a huge danger.” He expressed hopes that any punishment against the Iranian government be kept to “economic and diplomatic channels.” Iran’s announcement on Monday seemed to take another step toward brinkmanship with world powers led by the United States, which is seeking a broad international consensus on tighter economic sanctions against Iran. The American, French and Russian calls for more stringent measures came hours after Iran made its intentions known to the atomic agency. The White House and European Union also issued a statement Tuesday expressing concern about signs of a renewed crackdown by the Tehran government on protesters around the upcoming anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic. In the strongly-worded statement, the United States and Europe condemned “the continuing human rights violations in Iran” since last year’s disputed elections, maintaining that Iran’s “large scale detentions and mass trials, the threatened execution of protestors, the intimidation of family members of those detained and the continuing denial to its citizens of the right to peaceful expression are contrary to human rights norms.” On the nuclear issue, Iran’s state-run broadcaster Press TV quoted Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization as saying Iran would “start enrichment on Tuesday in the presence of inspectors and observers from the I.A.E.A.” The I.A.E.A. had no immediate comment Monday morning. Both state television in Iran and news agencies reported that Mr. Soltanieh, the ambassador, said he had handed over the letter on Monday. It remains far from clear that Iran has the capability to enrich fuel to the level ordered by Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is apparently seeking to increase pressure on the West to reopen negotiations on providing fuel for the medical reactor on terms more favorable to Tehran. Indeed, Mr. Salehi was quoted by Reuters as suggesting that Tehran’s planned enrichment efforts would be halted if Iran received fuel enriched to 20 percent from abroad. “Iran would halt its enrichment process for the Tehran research reactor any time it receives the necessary fuel for it,” he said. He also said a previously announced plan to build 10 new enrichment plants would begin in the next Iranian year starting on March 21, Reuters reported. Mr. Soltanieh told The Associated Press that the enriched uranium would be used only in the Tehran reactor, whose present supply would be exhausted within a year. “We cannot leave hospitals and patients desperately waiting for radioisotopes,” he said. The developments coincided with new indications on Monday that Iran was seeking to develop a more sophisticated military capability, including a powerful antiaircraft missile system and remotely piloted drones for surveillance and attacks. Iran had been trying to buy S-300 surface-to-air missiles from Russia, apparently to protect its nuclear facilities from airstrikes. Despite strong Western pressure not to supply the missiles, Russia has not given a clear indication of its intentions. The official news agency IRNA quoted the Air Force commander, Heshmatollah Kassiri, as saying that, since Russia had for “unacceptable reasons” not delivered the missiles, “in the near future, a new locally made air defense system will be unveiled by the country’s experts and scientists which is as powerful as the S-300 missile defense system, or even stronger.” The claim reflects continued nervousness in Tehran over potential military attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites by Israel or the United States, which have declined to rule out such action. Press TV reported Monday that Defense Minister had inaugurated two production lines for the manufacture of advanced remotely piloted aircraft to improve its defense capabilities. “The two drones, named Raad and Nazir, are capable of carrying out surveillance, detection and even assaults with high precision,” Mr. Vahidi said. The developments came a few days after Mr. Ahmadinejad appeared to revive hope that Iran might accept a Western deal to swap much of its uranium for medical-reactor fuel that cannot be weaponized, a deal the Iranians had rejected. On Monday, Mr. Soltanieh blamed the West for failing to respond to “our positive logical and technical proposal” to exchange Iran’s uranium for imported nuclear fuel rods. The United States and the I.A.E.A. had proposed the swap because it would deprive Iran of stockpiles that it could convert into bomb fuel, while providing Tehran with fuel rods that would be very difficult to use in a weapon. But as soon as Iranian negotiators brought that deal back to Tehran in October, they met a wall of opposition from the military, from hard-liners, and ultimately from opposition leaders. Until now, Iran has never enriched significant quantities of fuel beyond the level needed in ordinary nuclear reactors, part of its argument that its program is for peaceful purposes. But any effort to produce 20-percent enriched uranium would put the country in a position to produce highly enriched uranium — at the 90 percent level used for weapons — in a comparatively short time, nuclear experts say. Reporting was contributed by Michael Slackman from Cairo, David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper from Washington, Michael Schwirtz from Moscow, and Mona el-Naggar from Cairo. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/world/middleeast/09iran.html?pagewanted=all (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Boston Globe China Urges More Talks On Iran Nuclear Plans February 9, 2010 BEIJING --China has called for more talks in the wake of calls by other world powers for possible sanctions on Iran if it goes through with its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu refused to comment on sanctions Tuesday at a news conference, saying "I hope the relevant parties will step up efforts and push for progress in the dialogue and negotiations." Iran has formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels, which will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons. Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions. http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/02/09/china_urges_more_talks_on_iran_nuclear_plans/ (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Washington Post Defiant Iran Accelerates Nuclear Program By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Iran said Tuesday that it had begun producing higher-grade enriched uranium, marking a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions. Iran couched its announcement in terms of a pressing need for fuel at a 41-year-old, U.S.-built research reactor that produces medical isotopes for an estimated 850,000 kidney, heart and cancer patients. But in reality it means that Iran will be a significant step closer to possessing the raw material needed to build a nuclear bomb. Indeed, Iran does not have the expertise to build the specialized fuel rods needed for the research reactor -- only France and Argentina are expert at it -- so the main consequence of Iran's decision appears to be moving up the enrichment ladder. If Iran tried to fuel the reactor itself, absent international assistance, it would be risky to the reactor and for public safety, according to David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to Tuesday's development by calling for immediate and "crippling" sanctions against Iran, "not moderate sanctions, or watered-down sanctions," Reuters news agency reported. "Iran is racing forward to produce nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told European diplomats. "I believe that what is required right now is tough action by the international community." Iranian officials have acknowledged the difficulty of using homemade fuel to power the reactor. In an interview in December, Mohammad Ghannadi, vice president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that while Iran could try to produce the fuel itself, "there would be technical problems. Also, we'd never make it on time to help our patients." Meanwhile, enriching uranium under the guise of medical needs will get Tehran much closer to possessing weapons-grade material. Iran insists it has no interest in nuclear weapons. But Albright said 70 percent of the work toward reaching weapons-grade uranium took place when Iran enriched uranium gas to 3.5 percent. Enriching it further to the 19.75 percent needed for the reactor is an additional "15 to 20 percent of the way there." Once the uranium is enriched above 20 percent, it is considered highly enriched uranium. The uranium would need to be enriched further, to 60 percent and then to 90 percent, before it could be used for a weapon. "The last two steps are not that big a deal," Albright said. They could be accomplished, he said, at a relatively small facility within months. Iranian state television said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, witnessed the launch of the enrichment process on Tuesday. Iran formally notified the agency of its plans on Monday. It is unclear whether Iran would convert only enough material to run the research reactor for a year. A year's worth of fuel would not be enough for a weapon, but if Iran converted all of its nearly 4,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium, it would have enough material for a bomb. U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis C. Blair told the House intelligence committee last week that "Iran has the scientific, the technical, the industrial capacity to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon in the next few years and eventually to produce a nuclear weapon. The central issue is a political decision by Iran to do so." In Vienna on Monday, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor confirmed that the agency had received a formal note from Iran announcing plans to begin enriching uranium up to 20 percent. "IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano noted with concern this decision, as it may affect, in particular, ongoing international efforts to ensure the availability of nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor," Tudor said in a statement. After receiving the letter from Tehran, the IAEA told member states that it was "seeking clarifications from Iran regarding the starting date of the process for the production of such materials and other technical details," according to a Europe-based diplomat familiar with the nuclear agency's response. The Iranian government took the dramatic action just one week after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to open the door to new negotiations on fueling the research reactor. The IAEA, along with Russia, France and the United States, had offered to provide reactor fuel by using the bulk of the low-enriched uranium produced by Iran, but the negotiations broke down late last year. The countries made the gesture in hopes of reducing Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium -- and because the fuel would be returned in metal alloy rods that could not be turned into weapons material. Ahmadinejad's expression of renewed interest in the deal undercut the U.S. push for new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council. China seized on his statement to say it demonstrated that there was still time for negotiations before new sanctions. The Security Council has passed three rounds of sanctions against Iran for failing to halt enrichment, to little effect. U.S. officials hope a fourth resolution will provide the momentum for even tougher sanctions to be enacted by the European Union and a broad coalition that would include Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Iran's announcement Monday elicited immediate criticism from many countries involved in talks with Iran -- but China made no immediate comment. "The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track, but it will require all of the international community to work together," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday in Paris. China has overtaken the European Union to become Iran's biggest trading partner, according to a new analysis this week by the Financial Times that accounted for trade between Iran and China that appears in official records as goods from the United Arab Emirates. Correspondent Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran and staff writers Craig Whitlock, traveling with Gates, Joby Warrick and Debbi Wilgoren in Washington contributed to this report. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020900396.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

RIA Novosti – Russian Information Agency Iran Enrichment Plans Cast Doubt On Nuclear Program - Russia 09 February 2010 Iran's announcement that it is starting production of 20%-enriched uranium creates doubts about the peaceful nature of the country's nuclear program, Russia's security chief Nikolai Patrushev said on Tuesday. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian power generation. "Iran declares that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and is developing peaceful nuclear technologies. But its actions, including the recent announcement that it started to further enrich uranium to 20%, raise concerns among other states, and these doubts are reasonable," the secretary of Russia's Security Council said. A long-standing dispute over Iran's nuclear activities, which Western powers fear are aimed at building weapons, might result in a military conflict, Patrushev said during a press conference at RIA Novosti in Moscow. "Theoretically, there is [a possibility of war], and a number of states do not rule out military actions," he said. Patrushev's remarks were the first reaction from Moscow to Iran's announcement it was starting on Tuesday production of 20%-enriched uranium at the Natanz nuclear facility. Production of 20% enriched uranium started at 13:00 local time [09:30 GMT] in the presence of the head of the Iranian nuclear agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, and officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Low-grade uranium has been loaded into centrifuges and will be processed through a number of cascades to become 20% enriched nuclear fuel. The Russian security official also said that Iran had failed to provide Russia with full information on its uranium enrichment plans. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, "just did not come" to a meeting with Patrushev, which was scheduled to take place shortly before the announcement. Iran's move to enrich uranium could spur the UN Security Council to agree on a fourth set of sanctions over the country's nuclear activities. Patrushev reiterated that Russia, which along with China earlier opposed to further sanctions against the Islamic Republic, might soften its stance if tensions continue to grow. However, he said, Russia was still in favor of a diplomatic approach. "Everything has its limits, including patience. We are still interested in dialogue, in receiving an explanation of what is going on, but it is not always taking place," he said. Though an agreement on the IAEA-proposed plan seemed to be reached last week, Iran notified the UN nuclear watchdog of plans to produce higher enriched uranium on Monday, saying it could not wait any longer. Under a plan drawn up by the UN nuclear watchdog last October, the Islamic Republic was to ship out its low- enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and subsequently send it to France where it would be made into fuel rods. MOSCOW, February 9 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100209/157821822.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Yonhap News – South Korea 6 February 2010 Chinese Envoy Flies To N. Korea To Resume Nuclear Talks: Sources BEIJING Feb. 6 (Yonhap) -- A senior Chinese official left for North Korea Saturday, apparently on a mission to help resume stalled talks on ending the North's nuclear program, informed sources said. According to the sources, Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's international department, boarded a North Korean Air Koryo plane heading to Pyongyang around 1 p.m. During his four-day trip, he is widely expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong -il and deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Chinese official visited North Korea and met Kim in January last year as part of a regular exchange of visits. Wang's expected meeting with Kim will be closely watched because it may lead to the North's return to the nuclear negotiations, also attended by South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia. North Korea has boycotted the nuclear talks since late 2008, but the North Korean leader told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last year that his country may return to the talks following bilateral dialogue with the United States. A special U.S. representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang in December but Pyongyang has yet to declare its return to the six-party talks. Also Saturday, a special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to North Korea arrived in Seoul and said he would talk with South Korean officials there about ways to resume six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programs when he visits the communist state next week. Lynn Pascoe, under-secretary-general of the United Nations for political affairs, stressed his talks in North Korea will include the "entire" range of issues. A former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, the 66-year-old will take a four-day trip to Pyongyang starting Tuesday. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2010/02/06/25/0401000000AEN20100206002500320F.HTML (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Bloomberg.com February 9, 2010 North Korea’s Kim Reiterates Denuclearization Pledge By Bomi Lim Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said he remained committed to giving up the country’s nuclear weapons program as diplomatic efforts intensified to end a 14-month hiatus in multilateral disarmament talks. Kim yesterday reiterated the “persistent stance to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” China’s state- run Xinhua news agency reported from Pyongyang today. The report came after Kim met Wang Jiarui, who is leading a visiting delegation from the Communist Party of China. Wang delivered Kim a verbal message from Chinese President Hu Jintao, and the two officials had “a cordial and friendly conversation,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier today. Kim didn’t mention if North Korea would return to the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program, which last convened in December 2008. Kim Kye Gwan, the North’s chief negotiator to the nuclear talks, was seen arriving at Beijing’s airport today, South Korea’s Yonhap News agency reported. China is the host country of the negotiations, which also involve Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. United Nations envoy Lynn Pascoe also began a four-day trip to Pyongyang today in the world body’s first high- level visit to North Korea since 2004. Pascoe, under-secretary-general for political affairs, will hold “comprehensive talks on all issues of mutual interest and concern,” the UN said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, traveled to Pyongyang in December when North Korean officials agreed on the need to resume nuclear talks. Kim’s regime has since said it will return to negotiations only after UN Security Council sanctions are removed. The UN tightened sanctions against North Korea last year after its tests of a second nuclear device and missiles. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAFwTc3K9m6Q&pos=9# (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Reuters North Korea Nuclear Envoy Visits China, Talks Closer By Jon Herskovitz and Ben Blanchard Tuesday, February 9, 2010 The apparent shift by North Korea toward returning to six-party talks came a day after the North's leader, Kim Jong- il, pledged again to remove nuclear weapons from the peninsula. Kim has made, and broken, similar pledges before, and analysts say it is unlikely he will ever scrap nuclear arms, which are seen at home as the crowning achievement in his military-first rule. But they say the impoverished North is feeling the pressure of U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last year, as well as a botched currency reform that the South said sparked inflation and rare civil unrest. Kim Kye-gwan, the North's top nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday. "Dispatching Kim Kye-gwan indicates that some sort of understanding is being worked out between China and North Korea on restarting the nuclear talks," said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul. The North quit the talks -- involving China, the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea -- a year ago. China, the North's biggest benefactor, is seen as having the most influence on the reclusive state. During a visit to Pyongyang on Monday, Kim told senior Chinese official Wang Jiarui that North Korea was willing to further step up communication and coordination with China about a resumption of the six-party talks process, said a statement from the Chinese Communist Party's international department. Wang also passed on a message to Kim from President Hu Jintao, inviting him to visit China "when convenient" and calling for the nuclear issue to be "appropriately dealt with," it added. The Chinese statement said Kim had reiterated the North's "persistent stance to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" during the meeting with Wang. The North has said many times it could end its nuclear arms programme if the United States drops what Pyongyang sees as a hostile policy toward it. In another high-profile visit to the country, U.N. Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe was expected to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The destitute North can win aid to prop up its broken economy at the six-way talks if it reduces the security threat it poses to North Asia, which is responsible for one-sixth of the global economy. (Additional reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61707I20100209 (Return to Articles and Documents List)

RIA Novosti – Russian Information Agency Russia Starts Building 4th Nuclear Sub To Carry Bulava Missile 08 February 2010 Russia has started the construction of the fourth Borey-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine designed to carry the Bulava missile, a shipyard spokesman said on Monday. "The work on the sub construction effectively started last year," he said. It was previously reported that construction of the Project 955 Svyatitel Nikolai (St. Nicholas) submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk was delayed from December 2009 until the first quarter of 2010. Russia's newest Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, which is expected to be armed with the new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), is currently undergoing sea trials. The vessel is 170 meters (580 feet) long, has a hull diameter of 13 meters (42 feet), a crew of 107, including 55 officers, a maximum depth of 450 meters (about 1,500 feet) and a submerged speed of about 29 knots. It can carry up to 16 ballistic missiles and torpedoes. Construction costs totaled some $713 mln, including $280 mln for research and development. Two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are in different stages of completion. Russia is planning to build eight of these subs by 2015. Fourth-generation Borey-class nuclear-powered submarines are expected to constitute the core of Russia's modern strategic submarine fleet. The submarine's entry into service could be delayed however by a series of setbacks in the development of the troubled Bulava missile, which has officially suffered seven failures in 12 tests. Some analysts suggest that in reality the number of failures was considerably larger. For example, according to Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer, of the Bulava's 12 test launches, only one was entirely successful. The future development of the Bulava has been questioned by some lawmakers and defense industry officials, who have suggested that all efforts should be focused on the existing Sineva SLBM. But the Russian military has insisted that there is no alternative to the Bulava and pledged to continue testing the missile until it is ready to be put into service with the Navy. Borey-class submarines have been exclusively designed for the Bulava, and redesigning them for the Sineva would be a major setback for the Navy's plans. SEVERODVINSK/MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100208/157811183.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

San Francisco Chronicle India Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile By MUNEEZA NAQVI, Associated Press Writer Sunday, February 7, 2010 NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- India again successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile Sunday that can hit targets across much of Asia and the Middle East, a defense ministry press release said. It was the fourth test of the Agni III missile, the statement added. The first attempt in 2006 failed, but the last two tests were successful. "The Agni III missile tested for the full range, hit the target with pinpoint accuracy and met all the mission objectives," the press release added. India's current arsenal of missiles is largely intended for confronting archrival . The Agni III, in contrast, is India's longest-range missile, designed to reach 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) — putting China's major cities well into range, as well as Middle Eastern targets. India's homegrown missile arsenal already includes the short-range Prithvi ballistic missile, the medium-range Akash, the anti-tank Nag and the supersonic Brahmos missile, developed jointly with Russia. The missile was launched from Wheeler Island off the eastern state of Orissa on Sunday morning. The test appeared unlikely to significantly raise tensions in the region. Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan usually notify each other ahead of such missile launches, in keeping with an agreement between the two nations. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. The two sides began talks aimed at resolving their differences over the Himalayan region of Kashmir and other disputes in 2004. India put the peace process on hold soon after terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, which India blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. India recently offered to restart peace talks, though Pakistan has yet to formally accept. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/07/international/i000738S15.DTL&type=politics (Return to Articles and Documents List)

New York Times OPINION February 8, 2010 The Dream Of Zero By ROSS DOUTHAT MUNICH In many ways, Barack Obama has taken a more cold-eyed approach to foreign affairs than George W. Bush. He’s emphasized realism over human rights, negotiation over regime change, the national interest over the promotion of democracy. But there’s been one great exception to this realpolitik revival: the realm of nuclear strategy. There Obama has been all about idealism. His speeches have committed the U.S. to the pursuit of a “world without nuclear weapons,” and linked the fight against proliferation to the goal of total nuclear abolition. His policy priorities have included a new arms control agreement with the Russians, the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a Nuclear Posture Review, to be released next month, that may limit both the size of the American arsenal and the circumstances in which it could be used. Two decades after the end of the cold war, Obama has put the dream of disarmament back on America’s agenda. The world has noticed. Last week in Paris, the antinuclear “Global Zero” movement staged its coming-out party, with a summit meeting and keynote speech by George Shultz, the former U.S. secretary of state and a late-in-life convert to the cause of abolition. And over the weekend, the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of global power players, convened a panel on the question, “Is Zero Possible?” The panelists, who included former defense officials from Russia, India and Germany, as well as Senator John Kerry, answered unanimously in the affirmative. It’s doubtful that they all believed it. But the fact that they felt obliged to offer lip service to the ideal of disarmament marks an important victory for Obama, and for the antinuclear cause. The only question is whether this is good news for global security. Certainly the United States has room to reduce its nuclear arsenal. As an aspirational flourish amid our negotiations with the Russians, a nod toward the dream of a nuclear-free world may be harmless enough. But the argument for chasing “Global Zero” can also turn dangerously naïve. This is particularly true of the conceit, touted by Obama, that by reducing or eliminating our nuclear stockpiles, we can dissuade other nations from pursuing nuclear weapons of their own. In reality, the reverse is likely true. The American nuclear arsenal doesn’t encourage local arms races; it forestalls them. Remove our nuclear umbrella from the North Pacific, and South Korea and Japan would feel compelled to go nuclear in a hurry. If Iran gets the bomb, the protections afforded by American missiles may be the only way to prevent nuclearization in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. (In the panel immediately following the “Is Zero Possible?” colloquy, the Turkish foreign minister declared that his country has no need of nuclear arms — because, he quickly added, “we are part of the NATO umbrella, so that is sufficient.”) The notion that lesser powers only want nuclear weapons because the United States has so many reflects a peculiar kind of American provincialism. In reality, nuclearization is usually driven by regional concerns — from India’s rivalry with Pakistan to Israel’s fear of Middle Eastern encirclement. So is disarmament, when it happens: South Africa gave up its nuclear capability only after it gave up apartheid, and Brazil and Argentina dropped their nascent programs as part of a broader march toward regional détente. Moreover, even when the fear of American power is a factor in a country’s quest for W.M.D., the fear of our nuclear weapons usually isn’t. Saddam Hussein wasn’t chasing fissile material because he thought the United States would drop an ICBM on Baghdad. For rogue states, the bomb is an obvious way to offset America’s enormous conventional military advantage — and this will hold true no matter how low our nuclear stockpiles go. This doesn’t mean that America shouldn’t enter into reasonable arms control agreements. But linking the antiproliferation agenda to the dream of universal abolition makes an already difficult problem even harder to solve. It’s precisely because the proliferation problem is so difficult, though, that the “Global Zero” movement can feel superficially appealing. The Munich nuclear-abolition panel took place just 24 hours before Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ordered his scientists to forge ahead with uranium enrichment. Faced with yet another round of Iranian brinkmanship, you can understand why Western leaders might prefer to talk about a world without nuclear weapons. By making the issue bigger, more long-term and more theoretical, they can almost make it seem to go away. But when it comes to containing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, the existing American arsenal simply isn’t part of the problem. And if Iran does acquire the bomb, our nuclear deterrent will quickly become an important part of the solution. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/opinion/08douthat.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

New York Times NEWS ANALYSIS February 8, 2010 Russia And U.S. Lead Calls To Reduce Nuclear Arsenals By JUDY DEMPSEY MUNICH — For many years, the Munich Security Conference has been dominated by rivalry and suspicion between Russia and the United States. The suspicion continues to be fueled by Russian hatred of the idea of NATO expansion even further eastward, eventually admitting Ukraine. But at the conference this weekend, the atmosphere was markedly different. On arms control, both sides tried to determine whether it was at all possible for President Barack Obama to realize his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. The debate was free of polemics and recriminations. With North Korea already having acquired nuclear weapons and Iran seemingly determined to acquire them, and with the increase of international terrorism, U.S. and Russia officials said here that they believed the Cold War dominated by two nuclear superpowers was truly over. Publicly, the Americans have taken the lead toward curbing nonproliferation in a remarkable bipartisan consensus. They sent former secretaries of states as well as defense secretaries to Munich — including Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, George Shultz and William Perry — and other leading advocates of arms control. “In a new international landscape, the role of nuclear weapons has changed,” said Richard Burt, chairman of the Global Zero Initiative in Washington and a veteran U.S. arms control negotiator. “For better or for worse, nuclear weapons contributed to stability through deterrence,” Mr. Burt told the Munich audience. “But now there is the competition between the forces of integration and the forces of disintegration, making the world a more dangerous place.” Weapons of mass destruction could fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue states, he added. To curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia said during the weekend that they hoped to conclude a new agreement that would envisage deep cuts in land-based strategic missiles. Such an accord would build on the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as Start II, which called for the elimination of almost three-quarters of the nuclear warheads and all the multiple-warhead land-based missiles held by the United States and the former Soviet republics. Start II was ratified by the U.S. Senate in January 1996 and by the Russian legislature in April 2000. But the Americans and Russians said at Munich that a new strategic arms reduction treaty would be only the first step. “Russia and the United States bear a special responsibility for the disarmament process,” said Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister. “At the same time, it would be an obvious simplification to boil it all down only to Russian-American relations. Nuclear disarmament is a common objective for all parties to the Nonproliferation Treaty.” A conference in May called to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, is important for Mr. Obama as he tries to promote a new global consensus on nuclear nonproliferation. The NPT, which entered into force in 1970, was claimed at the time as one of the most effective tools in curbing the spread of nuclear weapons. The five permanent members of the U.N Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — have signed the NPT, but other nuclear states, including Israel and India, have not. And with Iran and North Korea pursuing their own nuclear ambitions, Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, gave a grim warning. “The NPT risks unraveling unless we do something about the challenges,” Mr. Kerry said at the Munich conference. Mr. Obama wants to go further by having the United States ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, ban the production of fissile material worldwide and give the International Atomic Energy Agency more authority and resources to tighten the NPT regime. Even if the United States and Russia do take the lead in reducing nuclear weapons, however, other nuclear-armed countries may not follow suit. Mayankote K. Narayanan, former national security adviser of India, gave no hint in Munich that India would either sign up to the NPT or reduce its nuclear arsenal. U.S. and Russian officials are not convinced that Pakistan would reduce its nuclear weapons, given its fierce rivalry with India. And it is not clear whether Britain, China and France would react to American and Russian reductions with reductions of their own. The Obama administration is not prepared to wait for their responses. “If we do not change our thinking, we will face the chance of a nuclear weapon attack,” Mr. Kerry said. But neither Mr. Kerry nor Mr. Ivanov said they believed that a world free of nuclear weapons was possible in their lifetimes. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/world/europe/08munich.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)

Washington Post ANALYSIS Analysis: Iranian Plan Will Put Nation A Step Closer To Having Material For Bomb By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Iran's formal notification Monday to a United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will begin producing higher-grade enriched uranium marks a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions. Iran couched its announcement in terms of a pressing need for fuel at a 41-year-old, U.S.-built research reactor that produces medical isotopes for an estimated 850,000 kidney, heart and cancer patients. But in reality it means that Iran will be a significant step closer to possessing the raw material needed to build a nuclear bomb. Indeed, Iran does not have the expertise to build the specialized fuel rods needed for the research reactor -- only France and Argentina are expert at it -- so the main consequence of Iran's decision appears to be moving up the enrichment ladder. If Iran tried to fuel the reactor itself, absent international assistance, it would be risky to the reactor and for public safety, according to David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. Iranian officials have acknowledged the difficulty of using homemade fuel. In an interview in December, Mohammad Ghannadi, vice president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that while Iran could try to produce the fuel itself, "there would be technical problems. Also, we'd never make it on time to help our patients." Meanwhile, enriching uranium under the guise of medical needs will get Tehran much closer to possessing weapons-grade material. Iran insists it has no interest in nuclear weapons. But Albright said 70 percent of the work toward reaching weapons-grade uranium took place when Iran enriched uranium gas to 3.5 percent. Enriching it further to the 19.75 percent needed for the reactor is an additional "15 to 20 percent of the way there." Once the uranium is enriched above 20 percent, it is considered highly enriched uranium. The uranium would need to be enriched further, to 60 percent and then to 90 percent, before it could be used for a weapon. "The last two steps are not that big a deal," Albright said. They could be accomplished, he said, at a relatively small facility within months. Still, Iran did say that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog, could observe the additional enrichment. It is unclear how quickly Iran can begin the work -- and whether it would convert only enough material to run the research reactor for a year. A year's worth of fuel would not be enough for a weapon, but if Iran converted all of its nearly 4,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium, it would have enough material for a bomb. U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis C. Blair told the House intelligence committee last week that "Iran has the scientific, the technical, the industrial capacity to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon in the next few years and eventually to produce a nuclear weapon. The central issue is a political decision by Iran to do so." In Vienna on Monday, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor confirmed that the agency had received a formal note from Iran announcing plans to begin enriching uranium up to 20 percent. "IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano noted with concern this decision, as it may affect, in particular, ongoing international efforts to ensure the availability of nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor," Tudor said in a statement. Since receiving the letter from Tehran, the IAEA has told member states that it is "seeking clarifications from Iran regarding the starting date of the process for the production of such materials and other technical details," according to a Europe-based diplomat familiar with the nuclear agency's response. The Iranian government took the dramatic action just one week after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to open the door to new negotiations on fueling the research reactor. The IAEA, along with Russia, France and the United States, had offered to provide reactor fuel by using the bulk of the low-enriched uranium produced by Iran, but the negotiations broke down late last year. The countries made the gesture in hopes of reducing Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium -- and because the fuel would be returned in metal alloy rods that could not be turned into weapons material. Ahmadinejad's expression of renewed interest in the deal undercut the U.S. push for new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council. China seized on his statement to say it demonstrated that there was still time for negotiations before new sanctions. The Security Council has passed three rounds of sanctions against Iran for failing to halt enrichment, to little effect. U.S. officials hope a fourth resolution will provide the momentum for even tougher sanctions to be enacted by the European Union and a broad coalition that would include Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Iran's announcement Monday elicited immediate criticism from many countries involved in talks with Iran -- but China made no immediate comment. "The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track, but it will require all of the international community to work together," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday in Paris. China has overtaken the European Union to become Iran's biggest trading partner, according to a new analysis this week by the Financial Times that accounted for trade between Iran and China that appears in official records as goods from the United Arab Emirates. Correspondent Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran and staff writers Craig Whitlock, traveling with Gates, and Joby Warrick in Washington contributed to this report. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020801384.html (Return to Articles and Documents List)