Iran informs IAEA of changing uranium enrichment site
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/10/c_13920808.htm
TEHRAN, June 9 (Xinhua) — Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Thursday Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it is going to transfer its nuclear enrichment activities to a new site, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Salehi said the transfer of 20-percent uranium enrichment activities from Natanz site to Fordo site in the central province of Qom has been notified to the IAEA, according to the report.
Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said Wednesday that the enrichment of uranium to the level of 20 percent will be transferred from Natanz site to Fordo site under the supervision of the IAEA, after which Iran will triple its 20-percent uranium enrichment output.
Abbasi said Iran will stop the enrichment process in Natanz after it makes sure that the Fordo site can produce the uranium enriched by three times as its current status.
In September 2009, Iran confirmed that it was building the new nuclear fuel enrichment plant of Fordo near the city of Qom.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday in a press conference in Tehran that the country will never stop uranium enrichment.
About the current status of Iran’s nuclear activities, Ahmadinejad reiterated that the Iranian nuclear train “has neither brakes nor the rear gear,” implying that the country is determined to push forward the program.
The West suspects that Iran’s uranium enrichment may be meant for producing nuclear weapons, which has been denied by Iranian officials.
Egypt accuses Iranian diplomat of spying
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/05/29/egypt.iran.espionage/
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — An Iranian diplomat will be deported within two days after his arrest on suspicion of espionage, Egyptian authorities said Sunday.
“The state security prosecutor detained and questioned Iranian citizen Qassem Hosseini after the Foreign Ministry confirmed he is an Iranian diplomat,” said Aly Hassan, a judicial analyst affiliated with the justice ministry.
The prosecutor, Taher El Khouli, accused Hosseini of trying to organize spy rings in Egypt while working in the Iranian Embassy in Cairo as an undercover operative, Hassan said. Hosseini was arrested in his home, where officials found spying devices banned in Egypt, according to Hassan.
Hosseini asked a group of people to gather information for him about Egypt and the Persian Gulf states, including information about the economy, politics, and military, in return for money, Hassan said.
While Egyptian sources confirm the man was detained on charges of espionage, Iranian sources say he is free and deny he is a spy.
“Qassem Hosseini is currently in his office and doing his work,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency, quoting an unnamed Iranian Foreign Ministry official who spoke to Al-Alam News Network.
Iranian embassy officials in Cairo refused to comment, telling CNN they were inundated with inquiries about the diplomat.
Hassan said the Iranian became active during the January 25 revolution, taking advantage of the security vacuum surrounding the uprising that toppled longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian intelligence apparatus followed Hosseini’s work and learned he was violating diplomatic protocols, Hassan said.
Iran Agrees To Resume Stalled Nuclear Negotiations
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/MarketSensitiveNews.aspx?Id=1620347&SM=1
By RTT Staff Writer
Iran has formally agreed to resume the stalled negotiations with the six world powers on its disputed nuclear program in a letter to the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, state-media reported Tuesday.
“We welcome your return to the negotiations based on cooperation on the common points,” Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was quoted as saying in a communique to the EU foreign policy chief in response to her letter late February proposing another round of talks on the issue.
Jalili called for for talks based on “respect for nation’s rights and avoidance of pressure” and said that “respecting the nation’s rights and refraining from pressure are the two main pillars of cooperation.”
Jalili’s letter was handed over to Ashton by by Teheran’s envoy to the EU. Ashton’s office confirmed receiving the letter and said it was in the process of studying the Iranian response and “will respond in due course.”
The US State Department also confirmed that Ashton’s office received the Iranian response to the offer for talks on Monday, but declined to reveal its contents. Without indicating whether the Iranian proposal would be accepted, State Department Mark Toner said Tuesday that Washington was in consultations with its allies over the Iranian response.
A day earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said that his government was prepared to hold talks with the world powers on its nuclear program and welcomed “the wish of the 5+1 Group to return to the path of negotiations once again.” He has also suggested that the talks be held in Istanbul.
Ashton was authorized by the six world powers to persuade Tehran to resume the nuclear talks that were stalled after Iran refused to accept a UN-proposed deal in October 2009. The six world powers involved are the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Since October 2009, the six world powers led by Ashton have engaged in two rounds of talks with Iran on its disputed nuclear program, once in Geneva in the first week of December 2010 and again in Istanbul in January 2011. Both those negotiations had failed to reach any agreements on the issue.
Iran maintains that its uranium enrichment work is aimed at producing fuel for a medical-purpose reactor in Tehran that produces isotopes, but the West and Israel suspect that Teheran’s claims are just a cover-up for for producing weapon-grade uranium.
Iran has rejected the western allegations linking its nuclear program to atomic weapons development, insisting that it is well within its rights as a member of Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) to seek nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Iran has already survived four sets of sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council following refusal to halt its uranium enrichment.
A deal proposed in October 2009 by the then International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei, envisaged shipping low-enriched Iranian uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then to France for conversion into actual fuel for Teheran’s medical-purpose reactor.
However, the deal was rejected after Iran sought two crucial changes in the clauses, which were not acceptable to the world powers.
US: State Department turns to Twitter to reach Iranians
February 15, 2011 Filed under Ahen
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The site’s blog section aims to introducing expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Blogger who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories. )
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-02-15-statetwitter15_ST_N.htm
Iranian protesters clash with anti-riot police officers during anti-government demonstrations in Tehran on Monday. AP Photo
Ahmadinejad to visit Lebanon’s border with Israel
Lebanese people wait to welcome the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Beirut. Photograph: Salah Malkawi/Getty Images
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/14/ahmadinejad-visit-lebanon-border-israel
(Guardian)-Hezbollah supporters used mosque loudspeakers to rally crowds for a visit by Iran’s president to southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel today. The US and Israel have called his trip intentionally provocative.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon yesterday to a rapturous welcome organised by Hezbollah. Iran is the main patron of the Shia militant group, the most powerful military force in Lebanon.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit Lebanon’s Shia heartland in the south and the Israeli border today, which will emphasise Iran’s support for Hezbollah’s fight with Israel.
Residents of southern Lebanon were heading to Bint Jbeil, a border village that was bombed during the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, to greet the Iranian president.
The village, less than three miles from the border, is dubbed “the capital of resistance” because it was a centre for Hezbollah guerrilla action during Israel’s 18-year occupation of the south, which ended in 2000.
Many students in the south skipped school to await Ahmadinejad.
An Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, criticised the trip today. “Iran’s domination of Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah has destroyed any chance for peace, has turned Lebanon into an Iranian satellite and made Lebanon a hub for regional terror and instability,” he said.
Ahmadinejad’s visit has underscored the eroding position of pro-western factions in Lebanon and suggested that the competition for influence there may be tipping toward Iran and Syria, and away from the US and its Arab allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Iran to free female US hiker
Detained US hiker Sarah Shourd (L) sits with her mother Nora during their first meeting since her arrest, in the Iranian capital Tehran in May 2010.
(AFP) – Iran will soon free Sarah Shourd, one of three US hikers the Islamic republic detained more than a year ago, an Iranian diplomat announced on Thursday.
“I would like to confirm that Iran will be releasing Sarah Shourd very soon,” Bak Sahraei, the second counsellor to the Iranian mission at the United Nations, said in a statement sent to AFP.
Previously, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said “one of the Americans” would be freed at 9:00 am (0430 GMT) on Saturday at Hotel Esteghlal in Tehran, without identifying the detainee.
A ministry official said the release ceremony would be overseen by one of the vice presidents of Iran, but the statements did not elaborate about the reasons for the decision.
Shourd, 31, was arrested along with fellow US hikers Shane Bauer, 27, and Josh Fattal, 27 on July 31, 2009 after straying across the border from neighbouring Iraq.
Her mother Nora told AFP last month that Sarah was being held in solitary confinement despite suffering from a pre-cancerous cervical condition, a lump in her breast and depression.
Vatican ‘may appeal’ to Iran over stoning case
September 6, 2010 Filed under Ahen
Ms Ashtiani's family say they have not been allowed to contact her in prison for two weeks. AFP Photo
The Vatican has said it could appeal diplomatically to Iran to spare the life of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
The statement followed a plea for help from the son of the woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, in an interview with an Italian news agency.
After an international outcry, Iranian officials temporarily halted Ms Ashtiani’s stoning sentence in July.
However, campaigners fear Ms Ashtiani could still be hanged.
The Vatican said it was “following this affair with attention and commitment,” spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
“The Church’s position against the death penalty is well known and stoning is a particularly brutal form of it,” he said.
Fr Lombardi said the Vatican could use diplomatic channels to try to save Ms Ashtiani, but he told Associated Press news agency that no formal request to intervene had been made.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11195287
Iran stoning case lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s relatives arrested
The lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who faced death by stoning, now faces re-arrest and his wife and brother-in-law have also been held by Iran's authorities. Photograph: AP
(Guardian)-Authorities in Iran have issued an arrest warrant for an acclaimed Iranian lawyer and arrested his wife and brother-in-law over his involvement in the case of a woman sentenced to death by stoning.
Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s office in Tehran was ransacked, and he was interrogated in Evin prison for four hours on Saturday over his human rights activities and involvement in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who was convicted of adultery and whose plight in Iran has drawn international attention since her children launched a campaign for her release almost a month ago.
Mostafaei called Sakineh’s stoning sentence “a bogus conviction” and “absolutely illegal” in an interview with the Guardian earlier this month.
He was released, then called back for further questioning before being set free. Authorities then issued an arrest warrant.
When they were unable to find him the authorities arrested his wife, Fereshteh Halimi and her brother Farhad Halimi to try to force him to surrender. However, it is still unclear whether Mostafaei has been arrested or he has managed to evade officials.
“It is ridiculous that they [officials] have taken Mostafaei’s family as ransom, they have somehow taken them hostage. This confirms what Sakineh’s son wrote in his public letter, that there’s no justice in Iran,” said Mina Ahadi, a human rights activist for Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), based in Germany who spoke to Mostafaei after he was interrogated.
“Mohammadi Ashtiani’s sentence is not Mostafaei’s first stoning case, he has defended many others against execution by stoning but it was Sakineh’s story which took world attention and made the Iranian authorities angry,” she said.
Mostafaei initially wrote an open letter about Sakineh’s death by stoning after her sentence was handed down. He then tried to publicise her case by giving interviews to international media and helping her children launch the campaign for their mother’s release.
China objects to US unilateral sanctions on Iran
China objects to US unilateral sanctions on Iran
(AFP) – – China warned other nations Tuesday against taking unilateral actions against Iran’s nuclear programme outside newly passed UN sanctions and denounced the United States for making such moves.
China, under pressure from the United States and Europe, last month voted with 11 other UN Security Council nations for a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment.
The sanctions target Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, ballistic missiles and nuclear-related investments.
Last week, US President Barack Obama signed into law far-reaching new sanctions on Iran that aim to curb Tehran’s fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.
“We have noted the US announcements on unilateral sanctions on Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told journalists.
“China believes that countries should earnestly, correctly and comprehensively implement the sanctions and avoid making arbitrary interpretations that expand the Security Council sanctions.”
Qin reiterated China’s long-standing position that diplomacy and dialogue were the best way to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.
Western governments suspect Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under cover of its civilian nuclear programme, an allegation Tehran strongly denies.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100706/tap-iran-nuclear-politics-us-china-sanct-8d4ea94.html
Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2012, CIA chief warns
Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons, according to Leon Panetta, pictured, the CIA director Photo: GETTY
(Telegraph)-Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons, which it could have prepared and ready for delivery as early as 2012, Leon Panetta, the CIA director, said on Sunday.
Tehran would need a year to enrich the uranium fully to produce a bomb and it would take “another year to develop the kind of weapon delivery system in order to make that viable,” Mr Panetta said.
Sanctions imposed by the United Nations could help weaken Tehran’s government by creating economic problems, but were unlikely to put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Mr Panetta told the ABC network’s “This Week” programme.
Iran is under mounting international pressure over its suspect nuclear programme, which the West fears masks a covert weapons drive. Iran denies the charge, insisting that its atomic programme is for peaceful civilian purposes only.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said the CIA chief’s revelations were “worrying” and criticised Tehran’s secrecy over its nuclear programme.
