Russia and Iran to sign energy "road map"

July 13, 2010

Reuters

Russia said on Tuesday it planned to sign a road map to outline future energy cooperation withIran.

Russian oil and gas majors Gazprom, Gazprom Neft and LUKOIL, have signed billions of dollars worth of deals to help Iran develop its oil and gas fields but most projects are on holding because of sanctions.

The document will be signed on Wednesday when Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi meets his Russian counterpart Sergei Shmatko in Moscow, the oil ministry said without providing details.

At best, analysts said, it will reflect Russia's efforts to walk a safe path between international sanctions and Moscow's wish to maintain ties with a fellow oil and gas power.

"The ministers will discuss the current situation in Russia-Iranian energy cooperation and will outline prospects for future cooperation," the statement said.

"The ministries will study issues linked to the creation of favorable conditions to intensify and make cooperation in the energy sphere between Iran and Russia more concrete," it added.

Russia voted for sanctions in the United Nations Security Council on June 9 that target the Islamic Republic banking and shipping sectors because ofIran's failure to allay fears over its disputed nuclear programme.

"Russian companies are taking a cautious approach to this country at this moment they don't want to engage in politically risky and financially risky projects," Troika Dialog analyst Valery Nesterov said.

"The maximum terms they can offer are oil services contracts which are not especially rewarding as they don't secure additional oil supplies for the companies."

But Russian state controlled companies are unlikely to shut down investment or withdraw completely from Iran, holder of vast untapped oil and gas resources.

Russia's No. 2 oil producer, LUKOIL -- 20 percent owned by U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips -- has decreed a halt to its gasoline exports to fuel-hungry Iran.

But state controlled Gazprom has said it is bidding to develop the Azar oilfield and has expressed interest in Iran's giant South Pars field.

The Kremlin's influence in Tehran is a key lever of influence in its relationship with the United States and the European Union, which fear Tehran is seeking to create a nuclear bomb. Irandenies it is seeking nuclear weapons.

"There is an understanding that Russia needs to engage with Iran at some level," Weafer said. "The last thing the U.S. would actually want is for Tehran to end up only speaking to Beijing because that would limit U.S. back door access to Tehran."

(Reporting by Melissa Akin and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by William Hardy)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66C15020100713

Russia and U.S. downplay spy case; suspect on run

July 01, 2010

Reuters

Russian and the United States sought to shield improving ties from fallout in a Cold War-style espionage case on Wednesday, while a key suspect went missing after jumping bail in Cyprus.

After initially attacking the U.S. announcement of the arrest of 10 spy suspects as "baseless and improper" -- raising the specter of a diplomatic standoff -- Moscow stepped back with more conciliatory comments.

Neither nation wants to undermine fragile improvements in long-strained ties, political analysts said.

"We expect that the incident involving the arrest in the United States of a group of people suspected of spying for Russia will not negatively affect Russian-U.S. relations," a Foreign Ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials echoed Russian hopes that the scandal, which had echoes of the fiction of John le Carre, would not ruin the relationship "reset" initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama and embraced by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"We are going to work as hard as we can to move beyond this," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing on Wednesday.

"It is absolutely evident that the scandal will wind down, as neither side wants a disruption of the 'reset' (of relations)," said Alexander Golts, a Russian military analyst.

A senior Obama administration official said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns had discussed the matter with the Russian ambassador in Washington.

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced it had arrested 10 suspected spies in four locations on the eastern seaboard, where some of them had led seemingly typical suburban lives among unsuspecting neighbors.

SUSPECT SPY ON THE RUN

An 11th suspect, Christopher Robert Metsos, 55, was arrested in Cyprus on Tuesday and freed on bail. Cypriot police said on Wednesday that Metsos was missing and that a warrant for his arrest was being prepared for violating the bail terms.

Metsos had been expected to sign in at a police station in the coastal town of Larnaca but failed to appear, police said.

Metsos was accused of receiving and distributing money to the group, which U.S. officials say collected information on issues ranging from nuclear weapons research to the global gold market and CIA job applicants.

According to the Justice Department, he had received payments from a Russian official affiliated with Russia's mission to the United Nations in a spy-novel style "brush-pass" handoff, and also buried money in rural New York that was recovered two years later by other suspects.

U.S. accusations recalled spy scandals of the Soviet era and the more recent chill in relations with a Kremlin which, during the 2000-2008 presidency of ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin, often accused the West of trying to weaken Russia through espionage.

But analysts said neither nation is in the mood for a new downturn in relations.

Russia is counting on U.S. backing to clinch entry into the World Trade Organization, where it is the largest economy still banging on the doors after a 17-year accession campaign.

That support was high on Medvedev's agenda at a summit with Obama last week that followed a visit to California's Silicon Valley, a hub of U.S. expertise crucial to Russia's uphill battle to modernize its overly resource-reliant economy.

Obama needs Russia on his side for efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program, keep supply lines open to forces in Afghanistan and advance his goal of progress toward a world without nuclear arms.

The relatively mild Russian rhetoric clearly indicated that the Kremlin wants to limit the damage, Golts said.

Putin sent that message on Tuesday, telling ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton that U.S. police were "out of control" and "throwing people in jail." But he then added that they were just doing their job, and said he hoped the spy scandal would not reverse "all the positive gains."

Russian-U.S. ties deteriorated steadily after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Putin vehemently criticized, and hit new lows when Russia sent forces into pro-Western Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.

Signs of new warmth since then include Russia's backing of new sanctions against Iran this month and the major nuclear arms control treaty Medvedev and Obama clinched in April. 

By Conor HUmphries and Steve Gutterman

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T27220100630

Iran says nuclear talks to resume with Brazil, Turkey

June 29, 2010

Reuters

Iran said on Tuesday it would soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil -- a tentative first step back to international negotiations after Tehran was hit with a new wave of sanctions over its disputed nuclear work.

Iran has belittled the U.N., U.S. and European sanctions and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he would return to long-frozen talks with world powers but on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August.

His foreign minister said talks would start before then with the two countries with which it agreed a nuclear fuel swap deal in May -- echoing a U.N.-brokered pact that Tehran backed out of late last year -- and which voted against the U.N. sanctions.

"There were some contacts with the foreign ministers of the three countries (Iran, Turkey and Brazil)," Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. "A joint meeting is on the agenda and we will announce it in the coming one or two days."

Iran has held no substantive talks with world powers since the deal in principle on the fuel swap struck with Russia, France and the United States in October.

The pact would have seen Iran sending 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium (LEU) -- about 70 percent of its stockpile at the time -- abroad in exchange for specially processed fuel rods needed to keep the Tehran medical research reactor running.

In a turnabout, Iran agreed in talks in May with Brazil and Turkey to part with 1.2 tons of LEU. But by then Iran's LEU reserve had doubled in size, devaluing the swap's terms in Western eyes since it would no longer divest Iran of enough LEU to prevent its use for an atom bomb, if refined to high purity.

So the May agreement proved too little too late to prevent a new batch of punitive sanctions from the United Nations, European Union and United States.

Meanwhile, Iran has increased suspicions abroad by launching enrichment up to a level of 20 percent purity, asserting this will yield raw material for making the reactor fuel rods without foreign help -- but at the same time advancing much of the way down the road toward weapons-grade enrichment.

NEW IRANIAN CONDITIONS

Russia, which backed the U.S.-led push for further sanctions but has since complained about the United States and the European Union issuing stricter unilateral measures, said on Tuesday it wanted to get back to talks with Tehran.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted talks between Iran, the United States, Russia and the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency focusing on providing Iran with reactor fuel rods so it would need to escalate enrichment itself.

"In the wake of the Brazilian and Turkish initiative, Russia, along with the United States, approached the director of the IAEA and proposed we arrange a meeting of technical experts from our three countries, including Iran, to discuss the possibility of supplying fuel for the experimental reactor in Iran, so that there will be no need for Iran to enrich the uranium to a level of 20 per cent," Lavrov said.

"I hope very much that Iran will respond positively and that this will help prevent the situation from deteriorating," he told reporters during a visit to Israel, which considers Iran's nuclear campaign an existential threat.

On Monday, Russia complained to the U.N. Security Council about what U.N. diplomats said was Germany's seizure of items bound for a nuclear power plant in Iran, saying such moves were "not in line" with U.N. rules.

On June 19, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that France was ready to talk with Iran at the IAEA "without delay," using the Tehran declaration by Iran, Brazil and Turkey as a starting point [ID:nPAB008398].

The West fears Iran's nuclear work is aimed at developing the means to build bombs because of its history of secrecy and restricting IAEA inspections. Tehran says it will be solely for generating electricity and isotopes for medicine and farming.

Ahmadinejad has called on the major powers to "clarify" three things before talks could resume: their attitude to Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal, their stance on commitments to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and whether they come to the table as Iran's friend or its enemy.

World powers were likely to dismiss such conditions as irrelevant to the main issue -- Iran's refusal to negotiate limits and transparency with respect to its nuclear activity.

"Somehow implying there's a linkage between the Iranian issue and the Israeli issue ... will certainly not make life easier," said a Western diplomat versed in the Iran issue.

"Saying that as a punishment that they only want talks in the third week of August -- this is posturing which we shouldn't take too seriously ... We need to wait for Iran's official response on the (swap) plan and the offer of talks from the EU."

(Additional reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow and Sylvia Westall in Vienna; Writing by Robin Pomeroy and Mark Heinrich; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65S31520100629

Europe could face hundreds of Iranian missiles: Gates

June 17, 2010

Reuters

U.S. intelligence showing Iran likely would have the capability to attack Europe with "scores or even hundreds" of missiles factored into the Obama administration's decision to overhaul missile defenses, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

Citing the growing Iranian missile threat, the United States announced plans last September to integrate sea- and land-based missile defenses in and around its NATO allies in Europe, referred to as the "phased adaptive approach."

"One of the elements of the intelligence that contributed to the decision on the phased adaptive array (approach) was the realization that if Iran were actually to launch a missile attack on Europe, it wouldn't be just one or two missiles, or a handful," Gates said at a congressional hearing.

"It would more likely be a salvo kind of attack, where you would be dealing potentially with scores or even hundreds of missiles."

Gates voiced confidence that upgraded missile interceptors in development "would give us the ability to protect our troops, our bases, our facilities and our allies in Europe."

Gates said having those interceptor systems in place by around 2020 was critical not only because of the missile threat from Iran and North Korea, but because "I think by 2020 we may well see it from other states, especially if we're unsuccessful in stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons."

Earlier in the hearing, however, Gates sought to allay Russian concerns about the new U.S. approach to missile defenses in Europe by playing down the system's ability to counter a large-scale attack from Russia.

RUSSIANS 'HATE IT'

"Our missile defenses do not have the capability to defend against the Russian Federation's large, advanced arsenal. Consequently, U.S. missile defenses do not and will not affect Russia's strategic deterrent," Gates said.

"The Russians know that our missile defenses are designed to intercept a limited number of ballistic missiles launched by a country such as Iran or North Korea," he said.

The Obama administration has held out the possibility that Moscow could take part in the missile defense system in partnership with the United States.

But Gates said: "There is no meeting of the minds on missile defense. The Russians hate it. They've hated it since the late 1960s. They will always hate it, mostly because we'll build it and they won't."

U.S. intelligence agencies have long warned about Iran's growing missile threat and officials say anti-ballistic missile systems should cover all of Europe by 2018.

The multibillion-dollar effort is designed to defend against Iranian missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads, officials say.

According to U.S. estimates, Iran could produce enough bomb-grade fuel for a nuclear weapon in as little as one year but would probably need three to five years to deploy a "usable" one.

(Reporting by Adam Entous and Phil Stewart; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65G5PT20100617

UN atomic watchdog meets on Iran as sanctions loom

June 07, 2010

VIENNA (AFP) — Iran's controversial nuclear drive tops the agenda at a week-long meeting of the UN atomic watchdog starting here Monday as world powers are poised to slap new sanctions on Tehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors was scheduled to convene at 10:30 am (0830 GMT) for a heavy agenda, focussing not only on Iran and Syria, but also wider discussions on nuclear programmes in the Middle East.
But it was Iran that was again set to dominate as the UN Security Council prepared to pass another round of punitive actions on the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activities which the West believes masks a covert drive to build a bomb.
Last week, the IAEA circulated its latest report on Iran, in which it found that Tehran is pressing ahead with its contested uranium enrichment activities -- despite three existing rounds of UN sanctions -- and is now producing enriched uranium at even higher levels of purification.
The report said Iran had produced at least 5.7 kilos (12.5 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium, ostensibly for a research reactor that makes radioisotopes for medical purposes.
But the West fears the material could be ultimately intended for a nuclear weapon, and even the IAEA itself says it remains concerned about the true nature of the activities.
Iran has so far been enriching uranium to levels of no more than 5.0 percent, but started enriching to close to 20 percent purification in February, claiming it wanted to ensure a supply of fuel for the research reactor in case an international supply deal fell through.
The UN Security Council has already ordered Iran to halt all enrichment activities. Thus, the move to higher levels of purification drew wide condemnation because it brings the Islamic republic closer to levels needed to make the fissile material for a nuclear bomb, especially as the West charges that Iran does not have the technology to turn the material into the fuel rods for the reactor.
In an IAEA-brokered deal last October, the United States, Russia and France proposed they take most of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and turn it into the much-needed fuel rods.
But Iran refused to take up the offer and has drawn up an alternative deal with Brazil and Turkey instead.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hQ9pLnwJNiuxz3dcCwTqIMXs3RHQ

UK sets limit of 225 nuclear warheads

May 26, 2010

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters)

Britain announced for the first time Wednesday that it had set a limit on its nuclear weapons stockpile, at 225 warheads, and said it would re-examine its policy on using nuclear weapons.

Britain's new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government said the announcement, timed to coincide with a U.N. nuclear non-proliferation conference in New York, was intended to build trust between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states and to contribute to worldwide nuclear arms reduction efforts.

Britain had until now disclosed only the number of operationally available nuclear warheads for its Trident missile-armed submarine fleet, and had given no figure for the overall stockpile.

"In the future our overall stockpile will not exceed 225 nuclear warheads," Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament.

The ceiling on operationally available warheads would stay at 160, he said. The extra warheads allow for "processing, maintenance and logistic management," officials said.

Hague said the new government would review Britain's policy on when it would consider using nuclear weapons as part of a defense and security review launched by the new government, which took office after the May 6 election.

Britain had long said it would consider using nuclear weapons only in "extreme circumstances" of self-defense, including the defense of NATO allies, but had been deliberately ambiguous over the precise circumstances of use, he said.

POLICY REVIEW

"The time is right to look again at our policy as the U.S. has done," Hague said, making clear his government remained committed to maintaining a "credible minimum nuclear deterrent."

President Barack Obama last month unveiled a new policy restricting U.S. use of nuclear weapons.

Britain and other nuclear weapons states are trying to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to countries such as Iran. Those countries often argue that established nuclear powers are doing nothing to reduce their arsenals as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) urges.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank said Hague's disclosure "brings the UK into line with what the U.S. and France have already done."

"The wider significance is that the Western powers want, as part of their contribution to the nuclear disarmament process, to get all the nuclear weapons states to be more transparent, including Russia and China," he said.

The United States disclosed for the first time this month the size of its nuclear arsenal, saying it had 5,113 warheads.

In 2008, France said it would leave its submarine missile arsenal in place while cutting its stock of air-launched weapons by a third to around 290 warheads.

China and Russia have not revealed their total number of warheads, although Moscow and Washington recently agreed to limit operationally deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550.

Hague's announcement may ease strains within Britain's new coalition government over a decision to spend billions of pounds on updating Britain's nuclear deterrent at a time when the country needs to cut a huge budget deficit.

The center-right Conservatives support plans to build a new nuclear-armed submarine fleet. The center-left Lib Dems, the junior coalition partner, wanted to look at cheaper alternatives but have agreed to opt out of any vote on the issue.

Britain has the smallest arsenal of the five legally recognized nuclear weapons states -- the United States, Russia, China and France. The previous Labor government said it could consider reducing Britain's warheads further as part of a multilateral negotiation.

(Editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100526/wl_nm/us_britain_nuclear_1

Germany, Russia: we support for Iran nuke sanction

June 05, 2010

By VERENA SCHMITT-ROSCHMANN

Associated Press

MESEBERG, Germany — Germany and Russia declared Saturday that the five world powers negotiating with Iran support a fresh set of international sanctions, and Chancellor Angela Merkel said they could pass soon. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a news conference with Merkel that "agreement on the sanctions exists," despite the fact that "nobody wants sanctions."

"We hope the voice of the international community will be heard by the Iranian leadership," Medvedev said through the official German translator. Merkel said sanctions could be passed by the United Nations Security Council "in the near future."

Russia has been traditionally opposed to sanctions for Iran, a longtime trade partner, but in recent months officials have shown less patience with Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium and heed other council demands meant to reduce suspicions over its nuclear aims .

"I am very happy, that we can stand here jointly today and say that this is a joint position not only of the European Union, the United States of America and Russia, but also of China," Merkel said. "That is an important step the international community has made here."

Moscow has recently joined the other four U.N. Security Council members — the United States, China, Britain and France — to tentatively back a draft fourth set of U.N. sanctions against Iran.

"We have always taken a two-way approach, making offers, on the one hand, but, as there are no qualitative changes, on the other hand now the time has come that such sanctions must be adopted," Merkel said.

Medvedev said it is unacceptable "that one continues to act irresponsibly. One has to move toward the partners of the international community and it is only in this way that complicated issues can be solved." Russia's president arrived Friday for a two-day visit to Germany to discuss a range of issues with Merkel.

The West is against an expansion of nuclear nations and suspects Iran is enriching uranium to build a nuclear warhead. Tehran denies this and insists on its right to a peaceful nuclear power program, but has frustrated the West over its failure to prove it.

Associated Press Writer David Nowak contributed to this story from Moscow.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRqjZV1Meppj40hTs8IBOv4DdsQwD9G559800

Iran Disputes IAEA Assertion on Nuclear Equipment

June 4, 2010

Global Security Newswire

Iran yesterday challenged the International Atomic Energy Agency's assertion in a report issued this week that a Tehran laboratory in recent months housed sensitive equipment that could aid in separating weapon-usable nuclear material, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 3).

Experiments conducted at the Jabr Ibn Jayan Multipurpose Research Laboratory were aimed at producing uranium metal from spent nuclear fuel to serve as radiation shielding, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said, adding without providing details that his country possessed a large quantity of depleted uranium. The U.N. nuclear watchdog's statement that the facility had carried out pyroprocessing work was a "misinterpretation," he said.

"The experiments have no relation to pyroprocessing," state media quoted Salehi as saying. "We believe the agency used this false report about a process that has not yet taken place, with the purpose of influencing public opinion."

The U.N. agency's international standing could be undermined by such "mistakes," the official added. The United States and several European powers suspect that Iran's nuclear program is geared toward weapons development; Tehran has consistently denied the assertion.

The Middle Eastern state informed the agency in January that it had pursued pyroprocessing efforts. When the Vienna-based organization sought details, Tehran reversed its declaration and indicated it had never carried out such work. During a visit to the Tehran laboratory in May, U.N. inspectors learned "that the electrochemical cell had been removed" from the facility, the IAEA safeguards report states.

The Iranian official said his country had not transferred any equipment from the site and the agency's assertion was "not correct," AP reported. Iran would provide proof to refute the assertion, Salehi said, failing to state when it would offer the evidence (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Google News, June 3).

The Obama administration yesterday said the U.N. Security Council was likely to adopt a fourth sanctions resolution against Iran next week, despite speculation that the measure could be held up over Israel's violent seizure of a Turkish-registered ship transferring aid to the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We've seen sanctions introduced in the U.N. Security Council that we believe will be voted on next week and approved by the U.N. Security Council," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Washington was working to win adoption of the resolution without support from Brazil or Turkey, two nonpermanent members of the body, high-level U.S. officials said last week. Security Council actions require support from at least nine of the group's 15 member nations, and no veto by any of its permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, June 3).

China yesterday said the United Nations should avoid pursuing any measures that would harm the Gulf nation's populace, China Daily reported.

"The U.N. action should help resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"The vote on the draft proposal does not mean the door to diplomatic efforts is closed," Jiang said, noting that Beijing still stands by an international strategy of using both pressure and dialogue to seek alterations to Tehran's nuclear policies (Ma Liyao, China Daily, June 4).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said his nation would assert itself, even if it becomes subject to further U.N. penalties, AFP reported.

"We are standing in the face of enemies. To defend the rights of the nation, we will pull out any resolutions from the mouth" of the nation's antagonists, he said (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, June 4).

Meanwhile, former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei last week said he was "surprised" that Washington and its allies continued their pursuit of new Iran sanctions after the Middle Eastern nation reached a uranium exchange deal with Brazil and Turkey.

The deal calls for the Gulf nation to store 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium in Turkey for one year; other countries would be expected within that period to provide nuclear material refined for use at a Tehran medical research reactor in exchange for the Iran-origin uranium.

The arrangement appeared similar to another proposal, formulated in October by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that was intended to defer the Middle Eastern state's ability to fuel a nuclear weapon long enough to more fully address U.S. and European concerns about its potential nuclear bomb-making capability. Tehran ultimately rejected the IAEA proposal.

"I was frankly not surprised that the offer came through, I was surprised at the reaction that some countries would continue to say that they want to apply sanctions, because, the Iranian issue, if you remove over half of the material that Iran has to Turkey, that is clearly a confidence-building measure regarding concerns about Iran’s future intentions," ElBaradei told the Jornal do Brazil newspaper.

"The material that will remain in Iran is under IAEA safeguards and seals. There is absolutely no imminent threat that Iran is going to develop the bomb tomorrow from the material that they have in Iran," he added.

ElBaradei also expressed doubt that Israel would attempt military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.

"I can’t read their intention but I hope they don’t because I think it would be madness to attack Iran right now. As I have said before and continue to say now, it could turn the Middle East into a ball of fire, it would not resolve the Iranian issue but it would be an incentive and invitation for Iran -- even if they are not working or developing the ambition to build a weapon -- to develop a nuclear weapon. It could delay an Iranian nuclear program for a year or two but definitely they would come back with a clear mission of developing a nuclear weapon," he said (Jornal do Brazil/Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran, June 3).

Russia yesterday called for further discussion of the uranium exchange plan, the United News of India reported.

"We count on the fact that the countries involved in the project will have a chance in the foreseeable future to discuss all necessary practical aspects linked to the implementation of the fuel swap scheme with the Iranian side," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrei Nesterenko said.

"In our opinion it is good to hold such a meeting under the IAEA aegis," he said (United News of India/New Kerala, June 3).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the three-nation agreement and other elements of the Iranian nuclear dispute by telephone, ITAR-Tass reported today.

"They exchanged views on the situation around the Iranian nuclear program in the context of the work in the U.N. Security Council on the draft resolution on Iran and prospects for the fulfillment of the fuel swap scheme for the Tehran research reactor," the Russian Foreign Ministry said today (ITAR-Tass, June 4).

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was set to travel today to Germany, where he is expected to address the nuclear standoff and other nuclear weapons issues in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, RIA Novosti reported (RIA Novosti, June 4).

Source: http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100604_6379.php

Tehran has enough material for two nuclear bombs, IAEA says

June 02, 2010

Times Online

Iran has amassed enough fissile material to build two nuclear bombs, according to the United Nations atomic watchdog.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA’s) last report before a Security Council vote on proposed new sanctions for Iran also detailed how its inspectors have been denied access to facilities.

It renders obsolete Iran’s efforts to revive a fuel-swap deal which was aimed at delaying the moment it reaches nuclear capability.

The report said Iran has continued to evade questions over evidence of weapons work while improving its uranium enrichment capabilities.

Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium stands at two tonnes, enough to arm two nuclear warheads if enriched further. The country, which has been ordered five times by the Security Council to halt enrichment until weapons questions are addressed, defied the international community to begin enriching uranium to 20 per cent, bringing it closer to weapons-grade fuel. It claims that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only and says that it needs the 20 per cent fuel to make medical isotopes.

It began the higher enrichment process after the collapse of an IAEA deal to ship most of its nuclear fuel stocks abroad in return for 20 per cent fuel rods.

Western countries and Russia backed that deal in the hope that it would delay the moment when Iran amassed enough fuel to be able to build a bomb.

Iran rejected the deal then, but recently revived it with the backing of Turkey and Brazil, offering to ship the material to Turkey in the hope of forestalling any attempt to impose sanctions.

The new report suggests, however, that the amount agreed, 1,200kg (2,650lb), would still leave Iran with enough material for one bomb.

Washington has won the tentative backing of Russia and China for sanctions mostly targeting the Revolutionary Guard, the guardians of the nuclear programme, but has failed to win agreement on more stringent economic restrictions.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7142176.ece

Nuclear giants stockpile fuel while price is cheap

June 01, 2010

Times Online

Some of the world’s biggest energy companies are stockpiling the nuclear fuel used to power reactors as they try to capitalise on rock-bottom uranium prices.

An oversupply of nuclear fuel on international commodity markets has followed five successive years of rapid growth in uranium ore production in Kazakhstan, which has nearly quadrupled its output since 2004.

Raw uranium prices have tumbled to around $40 per pound — almost one quarter of the levels of $140 in 2007.

Ed Sterck, uranium analyst at Bank of Montreal, said that the low price was encouraging nuclear power station operators such as Exelon, of the United States, Germany’s E.ON and EDF, of France, to boost their stocks of nuclear fuel.

The best way to establish the amount of nuclear fuel being held by energy companies is to examine the level of buying activity in the spot uranium market, Mr Combs said. UxC data showed that during the first three months of 2010, about 13 million pounds of uranium was bought and sold in the spot market. That compares with 20 million pounds during the whole of 2007 — or an average of five million pounds per quarter.

“There is a lot of evidence that utilities have been building up their inventories of uranium. It’s cheaper for them to buy it on the spot market than to strike long-term contracts.” Mr Combs said that detailed information about stockpiles held by individual companies was hard to obtain as it is considered commercially sensitive.

Converting raw uranium ore into nuclear fuel is a complex process. Energy companies tend to buy the ore directly from mining companies such as Cameco or BHP Billiton, or from a commodity broker. Then they contract specialist companies such as Tenex, of Russia, or Areva, of France, to process this into nuclear fuel rods that can be placed inside a reactor.

Nik Stanojevic, mining analyst at Brewin Dolphin, said that prices had fallen sharply after output from Kazakhstan increased. It has risen to 13,665 tonnes in 2009, up from 3,719 tonnes in 2004, ansd the country now supplies about 27 per cent of the world’s total mined uranium production — 50,338 tonnes in 2009.

About one third of the world’s total supply of nuclear fuel comes from Russian nuclear weapons that have been decommissioned as part of a disarmament agreement struck with the United States at the end of the Cold War. These supplies are being gradually depleted and are expected to fall away steadily in the next few years.

Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7141390.ece

ANALYSIS - Ahmadinejad loses cool with Russia over sanctions

May 28, 2010

Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

Reuters - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has never shied away from lambasting Iran's foes. Now he has alienated Russia, which has long helped delay or dilute U.N. sanctions aimed at the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

The row between Moscow and Tehran reflects long-simmering tensions that came to the boil on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad berated Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for buckling under what he said was U.S. pressure for fresh sanctions.

The Kremlin swiftly chastised the Iranian leader for "political demagoguery" and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday described Ahmadinejad's tirade as "emotional".

He said Iran had for years failed to respond to Moscow's efforts to resolve the dispute over nuclear work seen by the West as having military purposes, a charge Tehran denies.

"Things have been turning sour for a while," said Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at Scotland's St Andrews University, who suggested that Russia was piqued by Iran's acceptance this month of a nuclear fuel swap deal proposed by Turkey and Brazil -- although Lavrov said it would be a breakthrough if implemented.

"If the deal was do-able now, why not back in October when it would actually have meant something in terms of Iran's enriched uranium stocks?" Ansari asked.

Russia and other world powers backed a fuel swap proposal drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year after Iran declared it needed fuel for a Tehran research reactor with medical uses. Iran effectively rejected the idea.

Responding to word of last week's deal with Turkey and Brazil, Medvedev said a key question was whether Iran intended to continue enriching uranium.

Tehran has since vowed to do so, removing, in Moscow's view, the main rationale for the fuel swap and perhaps convincing the Kremlin that Iran's only motive is to play for time.

Baqer Moin, a London-based analyst, said it was unclear if Ahmadinejad's outburst had the backing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on nuclear policy.

"The Russians don't take Ahmadinejad that seriously," he said, recalling that when Vladimir Putin visited Tehran as Russian president in 2007 he first held talks with Khamenei.

"But if it was not just an off-the-cuff remark -- and if what is coming from the Russians reflects the Russian state -- then it is a major development in the relationship," Moin said.

"It's a bad sign for Iran because they badly needed Russian influence if not to veto, at least to modify, the (U.N. sanctions) resolution as they have done before."

RUSSIA WARMING TO SANCTIONS?

The United States said last week that Russia and China, which have both resisted sanctions against Iran in the past, had agreed to a draft resolution for further punitive U.N. measures.

Ahmadinejad has long taken a defiant line on the nuclear issue, viewed by many Iranians as a matter of national pride. But he initially supported the IAEA's proposal which called for Iran to ship 1.2 tonnes of low-enriched uranium abroad in return for specially processed fuel for its medical isotope reactor.

He then backed away under fire from conservative and reformist critics at home -- only to seal a similar deal with Turkey and Brazil last week. Ahmadinejad called it a "historic opportunity" which U.S. President Barack Obama should seize.

Western leaders said it was a ploy to avert sanctions and failed to allay their fears because Iran had pledged to go on enriching uranium and even if part of its stockpile went to Turkey it would still have enough fuel for one nuclear warhead.

Mahjoob Zweiri, a Qatar-based academic, said Ahmadinejad must have gained high-level backing for the Turkey-Brazil deal.

"He was reflecting the outcome of an internal debate that took place maybe last week," he said. "In one way or another he had a kind of understanding that this deal will be supported."

Zweiri said Iran had not expected Russia to swing behind the West on sanctions. It was already aggrieved at delays to the start-up of a Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr and uncertainty over an order for Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, which could protect Iranian nuclear sites from attack.

The spat between two of the world's biggest energy producers is among their worst since the Cold War.

Though trade ties have grown over the past two decades, Russia is still regarded with deep distrust in Iran after several wars between Persia and the Tsarist Empire, followed by rocky relations with the atheist Soviet Union.

Moin, the London-based analyst, said it was unlikely that either side wanted a real rift, but if tensions between Russia and the Islamic Republic persisted, other issues could surface.

"So far the Iranians have been silent on Chechnya," he said, referring to Russia's violent struggles with Islamist militants in its mainly Muslim-populated Caucasus republic.

"At the end of the day, Russia is weighing its international interests with the West and Iran -- and obviously choosing the West when the crunch comes," Moin said.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-48850420100527

Nuclear treaty talks on brink of failure: diplomats

May 28, 2010

Reuters

Talks on shoring up the global anti-nuclear arms treaty were on the edge of failure on Friday as the United States and its allies clashed with Egypt over a push to pressure Israel to scrap any atom bombs it has.

For a month the 189 signatories of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have been meeting in New York in hopes of agreeing on a plan to shore up the troubled pact, which analysts say has been hit by Iran's and North Korea's atomic programs and failure by the nuclear powers to disarm.

The latest draft of a final declaration for the NPT review conference calls for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to organize a meeting of all Middle Eastern states in 2012 on how to make the region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as demanded by a 1995 NPT resolution.

The creation of a WMD-free zone would eventually force Israel to abandon any atomic bombs it has. The Jewish state, which like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan never signed the NPT, is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it. Israel is not participating in the NPT meeting.

In a radical departure from the previous U.S. administration, President Barack Obama's negotiators had agreed to join the NPT's other four official nuclear powers -- Britain, France, Russia and China -- in backing such a conference while encouraging reluctant Israel to participate.

The five permanent U.N. Security Council members and a group of Arab states led by Egypt are close to a deal that would make the 2012 conference happen, delegates say. But the two sides have reached an impasse on the question of whether Israel should be named in the declaration as a problem state.

The Egyptians insist the declaration must state explicitly that Israel should join the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state, but the Americans are refusing, diplomats said.

LAST-MINUTE COMPROMISE?

One Western diplomat familiar with the talks described the situation as "not looking too hopeful."

He said there was a "stark choice for the Arabs -- name and shame Israel or have a conference in 2012 to move forward the 1995 promise ... toward a WMD-free zone in the Mideast."

"My bet is their (the Arabs') short-term political needs will trump their long-term strategic interest," he said.

Other delegates confirmed the possibility that the NPT review conference would fail to agree on a final declaration because of disagreements on the Middle East question, repeating what happened at the last NPT review conference in 2005.

But diplomats said they hoped the United States and Egypt -- the key players in the Middle East negotiations -- would strike a last-minute compromise that salvaged the conference.

"We've worked so hard for the past month," one diplomat said. "We've got a strong draft that would strengthen all three pillars of the NPT -- disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear energy. It shouldn't be thrown away."

Western diplomats said Israel had reluctantly agreed to attend the 2012 conference but only on condition that it not be "named and shamed" in the final declaration.

Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Tehran's chief delegate, accused the United States of causing the impasse at the NPT talks. Apart from the Middle East WMD-free zone, he said Washington and the other nuclear powers had rejected key demands of Iran and the other non-aligned developing nations.

Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said those demands were for a precise deadline for nuclear powers to disarm, a call for negotiations on a treaty banning the use of atomic arms, and a pledge from the five nuclear powers not to use atomic bombs on states without them, known as a "negative security assurance."

"The nuclear weapon states, particularly the United States, have not cooperated to find a solution for these four main issues," Soltanieh told reporters, adding that the NPT talks had reached a deadlock.

If the nuclear powers refuse to compromise, "they should be blamed for consequences," Soltanieh said, adding that Tehran was prepared to block a declaration that it viewed as too weak. Since NPT meetings make decisions by consensus, Iran has a virtual veto.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q72D20100528

N Korea 'exporting nuclear goods'

May 28, 2010

The Press Association

North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries and overseas criminal networks to avoid UN sanctions, a report has said.
A UN panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea said research indicates that Pyongyang is involved in banned nuclear and ballistic activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
It called for further study of these suspected activities and urged all countries to try to prevent them.
The 47-page report documents sanctions violations reported by UN member states, including four cases involving arms exports and two seizures of luxury goods by Italy - two yachts and high-end recording and video equipment.
The report also details a broad range of techniques that North Korea is using to try to evade sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
These "masking techniques" included providing false descriptions and mislabelling the contents of shipping containers, falsifying the manifest and information about the origin and destination of goods and "use of multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial institutions".
Council diplomats discussed the report by the experts from Britain, Japan, the US, France, South Korea, Russia and China at a meeting on Thursday.
The report's release coincides with heightened tensions between North Korea and South Korea over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship which killed 46 sailors in March.
The council is waiting for South Korea to decide what action it wants the UN's most powerful body to take in response to the sinking, which a multinational investigation determined was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hz6TeBw20mR7FXePW43AVUGB9dTw

'Nuclear Iran poses greater danger to Russia than US'

May 26, 2010

Indian Express


Considered to be the dean of diplomacy in the US, Nobel Laureate Henry Kissinger believes that a nuclear Iran, in the middle term, poses greater danger to Russia than America.


"I would say that in the middle term, a nuclear Iran is a greater danger to Russia than it is to the United States, because it is contiguous, and the restive populations of Russia, which are mostly Islamic, are joining Iran," Kissinger told US lawmakers Tuesday.


"Based on my own conversations with Russian leaders, I'm convinced that they are very concerned about Iran," the former US Secretary of State said in response to a question during a Congressional hearing on the New START (for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) treaty convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


Inked between the US and Russian Presidents, the New START treaty proposes to reduce the nuclear stockpile of the two countries by one third.


Kissinger said despite being well aware of the dangers of a nuclear Iran, the Russians are reluctant to be drawn into a conflict in which they might bear the brunt while the US begins to ease out of it.


"Secondly, their economy creates temptations to benefit from sales to Iran, even while they recognize the long-term dangers. But if present trends continue and if Iran continues to build its nuclear establishment, I don't see how Russia can avoid facing some of the consequences," he said.


Kissinger said the New START treaty is an evolution of treaties that have been made by a series of American and Russian administrations.


"An unconstrained nuclear arms race has appeared too dangerous to leaders of both American political parties and almost every incarnation of Russian leaders over the last 30 years," he said.


Noting that one should not look at this treaty as a means by which Russia can achieve a great advantage over the US, Kissinger said: "The best you can say in that respect is that Russia is trying to mitigate the decline of its global role by a measure of parity with the United States."


Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nuclear-iran-poses-greater-danger-to-russia-than-us/623901/0