Nuclear Inspectors in Iran: What We're Reading Now
Jan 30, 2012
IRAN
Nuclear Inspectors in Iran
Associated Press - January 29, 2012
Iran’s foreign minister expressed optimism Sunday that a visit by U.N. inspectors to Iran’s nuclear facilities would produce an understanding, despite world concerns that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb Vs Iran
Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes, Wall Street Journal - January 28, 2012
Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.
Iran Hits Back at EU With Own Oil Embargo Threat
Robin Pomeroy and Hashem Kalantari, Reuters - January 27, 2012
Fighting sanctions with sanctions in a trial of strength with the West over its nuclear ambitions, Iran warned on Friday it may halt oil exports to Europe next week in a move calculated to hurt ailing European economies.
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times - January 29, 2012
Broader restrictions on oil exports and banking may damage the economy enough to force Iran to change course. Or maybe the move will just stir anger.
U.S. Shifts Policy On Nuclear Pacts: What We're Reading Now
Jan 25, 2012
IRAN
Sanctions Against Iran Grow Tighter, but What’s the Next Step?
Helene Cooper, New York Times - January 24, 2012
As the Obama administration and its European allies toughened economic sanctions against Iran on Monday — blocking its access to the world financial system and undermining its critical oil and gas industry — officials on both sides of the Atlantic acknowledge that their last-ditch effort has only a limited chance of persuading Tehran to abandon what the West fears is its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Iran says sanctions to fail, repeats Hormuz threat
Mitra Amiri, Reuters - January 25, 2012
Iranian politicians said on Tuesday they expected the European Union to backtrack on its oil embargo and repeated a threat to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if the West succeeds in preventing Tehran from exporting crude.
KOREAN PENINSULA
U.S. still taking cautious approach to North Korea aid
John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times - January 24, 2012
In mid-December, U.S. negotiators came the closest they'd come in two years to resuming humanitarian food aid for millions of undernourished North Koreans.
UNITED STATES
U.S. Shifts Policy on Nuclear Pacts
Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal - January 25, 2012
The Obama administration, in advanced negotiations on nuclear-cooperation agreements with Jordan and Vietnam, has withdrawn a demand that these countries forgo their rights to produce nuclear fuel, senior U.S. officials said.
Q+A: U.N. report on Iran's nuclear program: What We're Reading Now
Nov 07, 2011
IRAN
IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability
Joby Warrick, The Washington Post -- November 6, 2011
Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.
Q+A: U.N. report on Iran's nuclear program
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters -- November 7, 2011
The U.N. atomic watchdog is set to issue a report this week with detailed intelligence pointing to research and experiments in Iran to develop the technology and skills needed to make nuclear bombs, Western diplomats say.
Insight: Has Iran ended Israel's Begin Doctrine?
Dan Williams, Reuters -- November 7, 2011
Menachem Begin did not pull his punches. In 1981, as work neared completion on an Iraqi nuclear reactor that Israel believed would produce plutonium for warheads, the Israeli prime minister dispatched eight F-16 bombers to destroy the plant. Begin later said that the raid was proof his country would "under no circumstances allow the enemy to develop weapons of mass-destruction against our people".
Bracing for the Iran Nuclear Report: Will 'Military Action' Rhetoric Develop its Own Momentum?
Tony Karon, Time -- November 7, 2011
If the proverbial "drumbeat" for war with Iran has grown more insistent in recent weeks, it's about to turn into something akin to the opening bars of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". That's because the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected, in a report on Iran's nuclear program due for release early this week, to suggest that the Islamic Republic's nuclear program may include a "possible military dimension", giving Tehran the means -- possibly with the help of foreign scientists -- to relatively quickly build nuclear weapons should it choose to do so.