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NUKEWARS
Iran wants nuclear fuel guarantees, warns against air attack

Iran Guards chief ready to 'annihilate' Israeli warplanes
Tehran (AFP) Nov 22, 2009 - A commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that air defence forces would "annihilate" Israeli warplanes if they attacked the Islamic republic, as the forces began five days of war games. The manoeuvres are aimed at practising responses to simulated attacks on the country's nuclear facilities. "Their (Israeli) F-15 and F-16 fighters will be trapped by our air defence forces and will be annihilated," Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guards' air force wing, told the Fars news agency. "Even if their planes escape and land at the bases from which they took off, their bases will be struck by our destructive surface-to-surface missiles." An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said on Saturday that if Iran is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv.

"If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei's representative in the Guards, Mojhtaba Zolnoor, as saying. The war games were announced on Saturday by Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani, head of army air defence, who said the main aim is to thwart aerial threats against Iran's nuclear facilities -- from reconnaissance to actual assault -- posed by an imaginary enemy. "Due to the threats against our nuclear facilities it is our duty to defend our nation's vital facilities and so these manoeuvres cover Bushehr, Fars, Isfahan, Tehran and western provinces," Mighani said. "Our unit will be in charge of the manoeuvres but there will be units from the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (militia)," he added.

Iran's still non-operational nuclear power plant is in southern Bushehr province while its uranium enrichment plants are in Isfahan and near Tehran. Western governments suspect Iran's nuclear programme is cover for a weapons drive but Iran denies any such ambition. The United States and Israel have never ruled out a resort to military action to prevent Iran acquiring a bomb. Iran has repeatedly held war games and boasted advances in its military capabilities in a bid to show its readiness to counter any threats over its nuclear programme.

US urges Tehran to accept nuclear offer
Halifax, Canada (AFP) Nov 22, 2009 - A senior US official on Sunday urged Iran to "engage" with the West over its nuclear program, after an Iranian military chief warned that an attack on its nuclear sites would be crushed. "We would prefer that the Iranian regime follow through on the opportunity to engage," said Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department. Tehran "asked for engagement with the United States. It has it. Now what is it going to do? Is it going to stand up and say that they're going to take our deal ... or are they going to use some other flimsy excuse to duck," she said. "If persuasion doesn't work, pressure is going to have to be the next line of action," Tauscher warned, suggesting a further round of sanctions against Iran.

Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum, she said the United States continues to have "significant" concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions. But, she added, "I don't believe (military action against Iran) is on the table now." Earlier, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reiterated that Tehran is ready for further talks on supplying fuel for the internationally supervised reactor in the capital. Meanwhile, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that its air defenses would annihilate Israeli war planes if they attacked. He spoke at the start of five days of maneuvers aimed at honing a response to any assault on Iran's nuclear facilities.
by Staff Writers
 Tehran (AFP) Nov 22, 2009
 Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog said on Sunday that Tehran wants a guaranteed supply of fuel for a research reactor as a military chief warned that any attack on its nuclear sites would be crushed.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reiterated that Tehran is ready for further talks on supplying fuel for the internationally supervised reactor in the capital.

"The main issue is how to get a guarantee for the timely supply of fuel which Iran needs," Soltanieh was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

"We are ready to have negotiations with a positive approach, but because of lack of confidence with the West, we need to have those guarantees."

He spoke days after the Islamic republic rejected a deal brokered by the IAEA which proposed that Tehran send most of its stock of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France for conversion into fuel for the research reactor.

However, Iran said it was ready for a simultaneous exchange inside the country of its LEU for nuclear fuel supplied by the West.

Western powers strongly back the IAEA-drafted deal as they fear Iran could further enrich its LEU for use in making atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

A senior US official on Sunday urged Iran to "engage" with the West over its nuclear programme.

"We would prefer that the Iranian regime follow through on the opportunity to engage," Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the State Department, told the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada.

"If persuasion doesn't work, pressure is going to have to be the next line of action," she warned in a reference to possible further sanctions.

But, she added, "I don't believe (military action against Iran) is on the table now."

The United States and Israel have never ruled out military action to prevent Iran acquiring a bomb. Israel is widely suspected to be the Middle East's sole -- albeit undeclared -- nuclear-armed power.

A commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that its air defences would annihilate Israeli warplanes if they attacked.

"Their F-15 and F-16 fighters will be trapped by our air defence forces and will be annihilated," Guards' air wing chief Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Fars news agency as war games aimed at honing a response to any assault on Iran's nuclear sites began.

"Even if their planes escape and land at the bases from which they took off, their bases will be struck by our destructive surface-to-surface missiles."

An aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that if Iran was attacked, it would retaliate against Tel Aviv in Israel.

Enrichment lies at the heart of the Iran nuclear controversy. Enriched uranium can be used to power reactors, but in purer form it can also be used in the fissile core of an atomic weapon.

Soltanieh said that under IAEA rules, member states can enrich uranium to any level.

"There is no limit to enrichment for members of the IAEA. There is no ceiling," he said. "The member countries are however required to declare to the agency their enrichment levels and the agency has to verify it."

He clarified that Iran's main enrichment plant in the central city of Natanz was enriching uranium to five percent purity.

Iran is building a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom. Its disclosure in September triggered outrage in the West, prompting world powers to threaten fresh sanctions if Tehran did not come clean on its atomic project.

Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions for enriching uranium at Natanz.

burs-srm

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NUKEWARS
Iran has 'not responded positively' to nuclear offer: six powers
 Brussels (AFP) Nov 20, 2009
 Major world powers expressed disappointment Friday that Iran has "not responded positively" to a plan for resolving the standoff over its nuclear programme or agreed to new talks. "We are disappointed by the lack of follow-up" to understandings reached when the six powers met with Iranian officials in Geneva on October 1, they said in a statement after a meeting in Brussels. "Iran has ... read more






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