Negative Blogs

Iran’s announcement that it has begun enriching uranium to the threshold at which it could set off a nuclear reaction drew a sharp rebuke from President Obama on Tuesday.

“Despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for civilian use, they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization and that is not acceptable,” Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House daily press briefing.

“We have bent over backwards to say we are willing to have a constructive conversation” with Iran about its nuclear program, he said.

He was speaking hours after Iran’s announcement, which followed through on a warning it had issued a day before.

The enrichment was taking place at its Natanz facility under the surveillance of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors, Iran state media said.

An official with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a team of its inspectors was on site.

The United States and its allies think Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical use.

This latest step, Iran said, is being done to meet the demands of the country’s cancer patients.

Obama said the international community had made an offer to supply Tehran with its medical needs and “they rejected it.”

Now the United States and its allies are “developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how alone they are,” he said.

Obama said negotiations on proposed sanctions for Iran “are moving along.”

One of the difficulties of dealing with Iran, Obama said, is that “it’s not always clear who is speaking on behalf of the government” in Tehran.

The European Union said just before Obama spoke that Iran’s latest move decreased international trust in the regime.

Ramping up uranium enrichment “adds to the deficit of confidence in the nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” EU foreign policy representative Catherine Ashton said in a statement Tuesday. “This has already been aggravated by Iran’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful talks.”

Ashton also dismissed Tehran’s explanation that it needs to enrich uranium for medical purposes.

To use the uranium to help cancer patients “requires construction of fuel assemblies for which we do not believe that Iran has either the technical knowledge or the intellectual property rights,” she said.

“As things stand it seems unlikely that on its own Iran will be able to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor,” she said. “We continue to find it difficult to understand why Iran has not taken up the proposed agreement with the IAEA, which would have solved all these problems.”

Russia, a key player in the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, also expressed some frustration Tuesday.

A top Russian security official said that although his country still favors a “political-diplomatic” settlement, “everything has its limits, and any patience may come to an end.”

“Iran asserts that it doesn’t seek nuclear weapons and is developing a peaceful atomic energy program. But the actions it undertakes, including its decision to enrich its low-enriched uranium to 20 percent — those actions are causing other countries to have doubts [about the nature of that program], and those doubts are quite justified,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said in a news conference in Moscow, Russia.

Patrushev also said his Iranian counterpart had failed to show up for a scheduled meeting.

“I was to meet with [Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council],” he said. “The meeting was scheduled for a time shortly before they made their announcement on the 20 percent uranium enrichment. He did not arrive. …

“We are interested in a dialogue, so that [the Iranians] could explain [to] us what’s going on. But this does not always work,” he said.

Tehran saw a relatively unusual outburst of anti-Italian and anti-French sentiment Tuesday.

About 100 people demonstrated outside the Italian and French embassies, shouting “Down with the USA, France, and Italy,” and other slogans, the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome said.

The French Embassy was pelted with eggs and stones, while the Italian Embassy was not, Rome said.

The demonstrations lasted about 20 minutes and were peacefully dispersed by police. It was the first demonstration in Tehran outside the Italian Embassy in a number of years, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

It was not clear why the embassies were targeted, but there were reports during anti-government demonstrations in December that the diplomatic missions took in wounded protesters.

The level to which Iran is enriching the uranium — 20 percent — is considered “highly enriched,” the U.S. National Research Council says on its Web site. That’s the threshold for uranium capable of setting off a nuclear reaction. Iran’s current uranium was enriched to a maximum of 3.5.

State-run Press TV said the country needs 126 kilograms (264 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium to fuel a research reactor, which produces isotopes for cancer patients and is running out of fuel.

Even as tensions rise over Iran’s decision to defy the world on the enrichment issue, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, said the window for nuclear negotiations is still open.

“If they [other countries] come to the conclusion that they had better have a cooperative environment or approach, rather than the language of threat, and they are ready to come to the negotiating table, our proposal is still on the table,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

In October, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany gave Iran a deadline of January this year to accept a deal on sending some low-level uranium out of the country for enrichment.

Tehran did not accept that deal and instead made a counteroffer, details of which have not been disclosed.

In the past, the Iranians have signaled concerns about whether any fuel they send out of the country would be returned.

Soltanieh said Iran had decided to advance its enrichment program because it had waited months for international action.

“For nine months, we have hesitated to do so because we wanted to give the opportunity for the others. We think the framework of the IAEA [is] to have some sort of international cooperation to open a new chapter of cooperation, rather than confrontation.” Home Security Systems.

Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.

Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions.

Iran maintains its nuclear activities are peaceful, and an envoy insisted the move was meant only to provide fuel for Tehran’s research reactor. But world powers fearing that Iran’s enrichment program might be a cover for a weapons program were critical.

Britain said the Islamic Republic’s reason for further enrichment made no sense because it is not technically advanced enough to turn the resulting material into the fuel rods needed for the reactor.

France and the U.S. said the latest Iranian move left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran’s nuclear defiance.

Even a senior parliamentarian from Russia, which traditionally opposes Western ambitions for new U.N. sanctions, suggested the time had now come for such additional punishment

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the State Duma — the lower house of parliament — told the Interfax news agency that the international community should “react to this step with serious measures, including making the regime of economic sanctions more severe.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already announced Sunday that his country would significantly enrich at least some of the country’s stockpile of uranium to 20 percent. Still, Monday’s formal notification was significant, particularly because of Iran’s waffling in recent months on the issue.

Western powers blame Iran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to take Iranian low enriched uranium, further enriching it and return it in the form of fuel rods for the reactor — and in broader terms for turning down other overtures meant to diminish concerns about its nuclear agenda.

Telling The Associated Press that his country now had formally told the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions, Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that IAEA inspectors now overseeing enrichment to low levels would be able to stay on site to monitor the process.

He suggested world powers had pushed Iran into the decision, asserting that it was their fault that the plan that foresaw Russian and French involvement in supplying fuel from enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor had failed.

“Until now, we have not received any response to our positive logical and technical proposal,” he said. “We cannot leave hospitals and patients desperately waiting for radio isotopes” being produced at the Tehran reactor and used in cancer treatment, he added.

The IAEA confirmed receiving formal notification in a restricted note to the agency’s 35-nation board made available to The Associated Press.

Iran’s atomic energy organization informed the agency that “production of less than 20 percent enriched uranium is being foreseen,” said the note.

“Less than 20 percent” means enrichment to a tiny fraction below that level — in effect 20 percent but formally just below threshold for high enriched uranium.

At the same time, the note indicated that Iran was keeping the agency in the dark about specifics, saying the IAEA “is in the process of seeking clarifications from Iran regarding the starting date of the process for the production of such material and other technical details.”

On Sunday, Iranian officials said higher enrichment would start on Tuesday.

At a news conference with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised President Barack Obama’s attempts to engage the Islamic Republic diplomatically and chided Tehran for not reciprocating.

“No U.S. president has reached out more sincerely, and frankly taken more political risk, in an effort to try to create an opening for engagement for Iran,” he said. “All these initiatives have been rejected.”

Morin said France and the U.S. agreed that there was no choice but “to work for new measures within the framework of the Security Council” — a stance echoed by Israel, Iran’s most implacable foe.

Tehran’s enrichment plans are “additional proof of the fact that Iran is ridiculing the entire world,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “The right response is to impose decisive and permanent sanctions on Iran.”

Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead must be enriched to a level of 90 percent or more, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark would be a major step for Iran’s nuclear program. While enriching to 20 percent would take about one year, using up to 2,000 centrifuges at Tehran’s underground Natanz facility, any next step — moving from 20 to 90 percent — would take only half a year and between 500-1,000 centrifuges.

Achieving the 20-percent level “would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium,” said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspected proliferators.

Soltanieh declined to say how much of Iran’s stockpile — now estimated at 1.8 tons — would be enriched. Nor did he say when the process would begin. Albright said enriching to higher levels could begin within a day — or only in several months, depending on how far technical preparations had progressed.

Apparent technical problems could also slow the process, he said.

Iran’s enrichment program “should be like a Christmas tree in full light,” he said. “In fact, the lights are flickering.”

While Iran would be able to enrich up to 20 percent, a senior U.S official told the AP that the research reactor would run out of fuel before enough material was produced. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.

Britain’s Foreign Office said the “enriched uranium could not be used for the Tehran Research Reactor as Iran does not have the technology to manufacture it into fuel rods.”

Legal constraints could tie Iran’s hands as well. A senior official from one of the IAEA’s 35 board member nations senior official said he believed Tehran was obligated to notify the agency 60 days in advance of starting to enrich to higher levels.

The official asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.

The Iranian move came just days after Ahmadinejad appeared to move close to endorsing the original deal, which foresaw Tehran exporting the bulk of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then conversion for fuel rods for the research reactor.

That plan was welcomed internationally because it would have delayed Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapons by shipping out about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile, thereby leaving it with not enough to make a bomb. Tehran denies nuclear weapons ambitions, insisting it needs to enrich to create fuel for an envisioned nuclear reactor network.

The proposal was endorsed by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — the six powers that originally elicited a tentative approval from Iran in landmark talks last fall. Since then, however, mixed messages from Tehran have infuriated the U.S. and its European allies, who claim Iran is only stalling for time as it attempts to build a nuclear weapon. Home Security Systems.

Iranian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the capital Sunday, killing at least four people in the fiercest clashes in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said.

Thousands of opposition supporters chanting “Death to the dictator,” a reference to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defied official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any protests coinciding with a religious observance on Sunday. Iranians were marking Ashoura, commemorating the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved saints.

Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, charges by baton-wielding officers and warning shots fired into the air. They then opened fire directly at protesters, killing at least three people, said witnesses and the pro-reform Web site Rah-e-Sabz.

Witnesses said one of the victims was an elderly man who had a gunshot wound to the forehead. He was seen being carried away by opposition supporters with blood covering his face.

The clashes marked the bloodiest confrontation between protesters and security forces since the height of the unrest in the weeks after June’s disputed presidential election. The opposition says Ahmadinejad won the June election through massive vote fraud and that its leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was the true winner.
Hard money training.

Iran’s president on Tuesday dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and the West for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The United States warned Iran to take the deadline seriously.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also accused the U.S. of fabricating a purported Iranian secret document that appears to lay out a plan for developing a critical component of an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad’s remarks underscored Tehran’s defiance in the nuclear standoff — and also sought to send a message that his government has not been weakened by the protest movement sparked by June’s disputed presidential election. He spoke a day after the latest opposition protest by tens of thousands mourning a dissident cleric who died over the weekend.

Late Tuesday, the Web site of state-run television said Ahmadinejad had appointed a new chief of Iran’s prestigious Art Academy, removing opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from the post.

Mousavi, a presidential challenger who alleged voting fraud, had attended Monday’s funeral procession. There was no immediate comment from Mousavi.

President Barack Obama has set a rough deadline of the end of this year for Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue on the nuclear issue. Washington and its allies are warning of new, tougher sanctions on Iran if it doesn’t respond.

The U.N.-proposed deal is the centerpiece of the West’s diplomatic effort. Under the deal, Tehran would ship most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which would ease the West’s fears that the material could be used to produce a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which denies it seeks to build a bomb, has balked at the deal’s terms.

The international community can give Iran “as many deadlines as they want, we don’t care,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to thousands of supporters in the southern city of Shiraz.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying Iran wants talks “under just conditions where there is mutual respect.”

“We told you that we are not afraid of sanctions against us, and we are not intimidated,” he said, addressing the West. “If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you.”

As the crowd cheered: “We love you, Ahmadinejad,” the Iranian leader lashed out at Washington, vowing Iran will stand up against U.S. attempts to “dominate the Middle East.”

The U.S. responded sternly. “It is a very real deadline for the international community,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the international community was “united in its resolve that Iran must either answer the questions that we have about its nuclear aspirations or face additional pressure.”

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with the Associated Press and APTN it was “premature” to discuss possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran, but added that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany “are considering a wide range of alternatives.”

In Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the chances of finding a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran were “never very significant” and that in the “worst case,” France will bring up the issue of new sanctions on Tehran.

In a separate interview with ABC News, Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. of forging the document that appears to describe an Iranian work plan for developing a neutron initiator, a key component in detonating a nuclear bomb.

“They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government.” He said the accusations that Iran seeks a weapon has “turned into a repetitive and tasteless joke.” The comments were aired Monday night.

The memo was first reported in the British newspaper Times of London. U.S. officials have said it’s unclear whether the document is real.

In his speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad also shrugged off Iran’s continued political turmoil since the disputed June election. Large street protests have continued despite a fierce government crackdown. In the latest, tens of thousands turned out for the funeral of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Sunday, and chanted slogans against the country’s rulers.

Ahmadinejad said the West mistakenly believed that Iran “has been weakened.”

“The people of Iran and the government of Iran are 10 times stronger than last year,” he said. “I want the whole world to know it’s impossible for Iran to allow the United States to dominate the Middle East.”

Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said there was a fissure in Iranian society and the U.S. is concerned about a crackdown on the opposition.

“The government is pushing by the various means that are available to it, including the use of various security forces, to kind of put this genie back in the bottle. And it is increasingly difficult for them to do that,” he said. Hard money training.

The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday his probe of Iran’s nuclear program is at “a dead end” and that trust in Tehran’s credibility is shrinking after its belated revelation that it was secretly building a nuclear facility.

Mohamed ElBaradei’s blunt criticism of the Islamic Republic — four days before he leaves office — was notable in representing a broad convergence with Washington’s opinion, which for years was critical of the IAEA chief for what it perceived as his softness on Iran.

Iran also came in for censure from another quarter at the opening session of the IAEA’s 35-nation board, with the introduction of a resolution taking Tehran to task on a broad range of issues linked to international concerns that it may be seeking to make nuclear weapons. Significantly, diplomats at the meeting said the resolution was endorsed not only by Western powers — the U.S., Britain, France and Germany — but also by Russia and China.

For strategic and economic reasons, Moscow and Beijing have sided with Tehran in the past. They have prevented several Western attempts to slap new U.N. sanctions on Iran for its nuclear defiance or succeeded in watering down their severity.

They did not formally endorse the last IAEA resolution critical of Iran in 2006. Their backing for the document at the Vienna meeting Thursday thus reflected broad international disenchantment with Tehran.

It also appeared to signal possible support for any new Western push for a fourth set of Security Council sanctions, should Tehran continue shunning international overtures meant to reach agreements that reduce concerns about its nuclear ambitions. Hard money training.

He was by turns caring and contentious, a man quick to say “I am blessed” in casual greeting yet one who seemed to stew in discontent that he could not always keep to himself.

Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, suspect in the assault that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and hurt 30, salved the emotional wounds of troops returning from war even as he objected to his own looming deployment to Afghanistan, where he was to counsel soldiers suffering from stress.

But Hasan argued with fellow soldiers who supported U.S. war policy, say those who know him professionally and personally. He was a counselor who once required counseling for himself because of trouble he had dealing with some patients, said a former boss.

Authorities on Friday seized Hasan’s home computer, searched his apartment and took away a Dumpster as the 39-year-old Army major lay in a coma in the hospital, attached to a ventilator.

There are many unknowns about the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Most of all, his motive.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, in July, Hasan worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan’s interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a “mostly very quiet” person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

“He swore an oath of loyalty to the military,” Grieger said. “I didn’t hear anything contrary to those oaths.” Hard money training

All 168 people on board a passenger plane were killed when the aircraft crashed in northwestern Iran, according to Iran’s government-owned Press TV.

Ten members of the country’s youth judo team were aboard the plane, according to Tabnak, a Web site associated with opposition politician Mohsen Rezaie.

The plane “disintegrated into pieces,” said Col. Masood Jafari Nasab, security commander of the city of Qazvin, close to the crash site.

Video of the crash site showed a huge crater in the earth scattered with charred pieces of the plane and tattered passports.

The Russian-made Tupolev plane went down near the village of Jannatabad near Qazvin at 11:33 am on Wednesday, the station reported.