Iran makes first move to resolving nuclear issues
Published: 29 September, 2009, 19:56
Edited: 01 October, 2009, 12:00
TAGS: Arms, Nuclear, Middle East
Iran’s envoy to the UN told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon it was ready to admit UN nuclear inspectors to its new uranium enrichment plant. The country is expected to issue a timetable for inspecting the facility.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of parroting Western criticism of Iran’s new uranium enrichment facility instead of waiting for a report from the IAEA.
Earlier, Iran claimed it built its newly-revealed enrichment site inside a mountain to protect it from a possible attack.
Tehran has also held two days of missile tests, adding to current tensions with the West. The missiles tested are capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the Persian Gulf.
Washington has described the firing as provocative, while Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced concern over Iran’s missile tests following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, at the United Nations.
Tehran, however, claims the launches are part of routine military exercises.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has urged that a general discussion on the Iranian nuclear problem begins.
“There’s no need to succumb to emotions, kicking the talks off is the main priority,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
International talks on Iran's nuclear program are due to kick off in Geneva on Thursday.
“Among other things, allegations over the creation of a new uranium enrichment plant need to be investigated. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been granted all the authority required to fulfill that mission,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry also said in its statement.
Later on, Iran expressed readiness to grant access to the new plant, despite an earlier Reuters report claiming that it refuses to discuss the new enrichment plant, citing a representative of the Iranian authorities.
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3 comments
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This whole affair has made the lives of Iranian people much more dangerous. Even at the time of the hostages from the US embassy, Iran was not seen as an actual threat. Now it is very different - many countries will assume that Iran may have a nuclear weapon soon and may have extended the range of their Shahab3 missiles - so those countries will be targetting Iran with a substantial number of nuclear weapons. Count Cash : The snag is, Iran have lied to the IAEA and the UN over and over again. The reason why nobody is that worried about the nukes in Israel, India or even Pakistan is that nobody thinks those countries will use them offensively - but Iran might. It is a damn shame - those Iranians I have met in Europe have typically been well-educated, well-natured people. Sadly, their country is in the hands of a small group of ill-educated, bigotted idiots who have just fixed an election by means of force - necessary because of their mismanagement of a country that should be wealthy.
Iran needs only to stick to its legal obligations, the west is not an international body, it is a western body. Iran owes only transparency to the atomic agency, in line with agreements it has entered into. To be frank to is a pretty pathetic argument that some finer debate on interpretations of rules, can suddenly be demonised as a pretext for military strikes against Iran. We saw the fabrication and lying to the UN in the case of Iraq by the US, to now come with some fine grain legal argument, is so rediculous as to expose the west for what they are, looking for any reason to attack Iran. Russia and China need turn the tables here and show they are world leaders. They need spell out the fact that without fully transparent intelligence that Iran is in the process of working towards the creation of a functioning physics package, then they will not only not support actions against Iran. But will whole heartedly support Iran. In Russia we need start leading, instead of being quiet and reactive.
Usual western hypocracy, where the people of the middle east, other than Israelis are treated as 'nobodies' but then again that has always been the case, that is how the Israelis took the lands from the palestinians in the first place, with your western hypocrits 'empty land' fileld with 'nobodies' ideas. Easy to deal with 'nobodies' isn't it! And yes there is a huge difference when you stand like the US and UK and lie to the UN and then kill, torture and rape to secure 'nobodies' oil in contrast to you having a 'snag' which is an ommision that has not killed a single person; there are lies and there are damned lies, the western hypocracy is a specialist in damned lies with consequences of millions of people dead, tortured or raped. The only solution here is a political one, there is no acceptance of Israel's right to have nuclear weapons. As the UN SC has made clear, they want a nuclear weapon free world. Everybody would be better to work towards a nuclear weapons free middle east with a two state solution and international security guarantees. Even Israel is getting tired of getting green lighted to kill and torture Hamas and civilians, only to find the western hyporits turning away afterwards and baliming them; when all they have done is execute the western greenlighted orders. No even Isreal is getting tired of being the 'nobody' oil weapon.