http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182494,00.html

Quote :

"VIENNA, Austria — Iran will immediately retaliate if referred to the U.N. Security Council next week by forging ahead with developing a full-scale uranium enrichment program, a senior envoy said Monday. The comments by Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, a senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflected Iran's defiance in the face of growing international pressure over its nuclear program. Enrichment can be used in electricity production but it also is needed in making uranium-based nuclear weapons. Separately, Iran's top nuclear negotiator planned to travel to Moscow on Tuesday for a high-level session as talks intensified surrounding a proposal to have Iran's uranium enriched in Russia, then returned to Iran for use in the country's reactors — a compromise that would provide more oversight and ease tensions. Ending a 15-month commitment, Iran removed IAEA seals from equipment Jan. 10 and announced it would restart experiments, including what it described as small-scale enrichment — a move that led key European countries to call for an emergency session of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency's board of governors Feb. 2. The Europeans also began drafting a basic text for a resolution calling for the Security Council to press Tehran to reimpose its total freeze on enrichment and "to extend full and prompt cooperation to the agency" in its investigation of suspect nuclear activities — though it stops short of asking the council to impose sanctions. Soltaniyeh, in comments to The Associated Press, warned against referral, suggesting such a "hasty decision" would backfire. Whether Iran's suspension of its full-scale enrichment program remains in effect "depends on the decision of Feb. 2," he said. Asked if that meant Iran would resume efforts to fully develop its nascent enrichment activities if the board votes for referral at that meeting, he said, "yes." Iran insists its nuclear ambitions do not go beyond wanting to generate fuel, but concerns are growing its main focus is trying to make nuclear weapons — something more than three years of IAEA investigations have failed to prove or disprove. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, meanwhile, rejected a request by the United States and several other member nations for a full report on the agency's investigation into Iran's nuclear program, signaling his resistance to ratcheting up pressure on Tehran. In a letter dated Friday, Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA, asked ElBaradei to prepare a written report on the "status of IAEA efforts to investigate indications of an Iranian nuclear weapons program" and on other activities Washington says are a cover for such a program. Supporting letters from the other countries also asking for a special report were dated Monday. In a written reply dated Monday, ElBaradei said "a detailed report" would only be available in March, the next scheduled meeting of the IAEA board. Instead, he offered an "update brief" for the Feb. 2 meeting, to be read by a deputy. The exchange in the letters, which were made available to AP, reflected differences between ElBaradei and the United States and its key allies over the handling of the Iran nuclear issue. Diplomats close to the agency — who demanded anonymity for divulging confidential information — said the IAEA chief was unhappy about the push for a special board meeting and would have preferred to wait until the scheduled March session, when he hopes to end a more than three-year probe of Iran's nuclear dossier. Iran repeatedly has said it is willing to offer guarantees that its nuclear program won't be used to manufacture weapons. But it has so far refused to give up what it calls its clear rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov encouraged Tehran to adopt a position that would help ease tensions. "We count on discussing with you the so-called nuclear problem, around which the situation is currently being heightened," Lavrov said at the start of a meeting with Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari. "We hope that our Iranian friends will choose a position that helps to ease tension and renew negotiations." Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, will meet in Moscow with top Russian officials, including Russia's Security Council head Igor Ivanov, the council's press service said. Ivanov visited Iran last year. Russia, which has veto power in the U.N. Security Council, has close ties with Tehran and is building Iran's first nuclear power reactor, but has been moving closer to the Western position on Iran and is reluctant to let the issue cause a major rift in its relations with the United States and Europe. "

1/23/2006 1:09:30 PM

HEEEER WE GOOOOO!

1/23/2006 1:10:07 PM

commence the shit hitting the fan

1/23/2006 1:10:09 PM

fuck ummm, lets fuck them up like the iraqi's

1/23/2006 3:43:45 PM

Just let israel do it. Did you see Munich? The Mossad kicks ass! GO JEWS!

Oh where's salisburyboy, I'm sure this is a zionest conspiracy

[Edited on January 23, 2006 at 3:45 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2006 3:44:36 PM

yeah there we go a holy war!

1/23/2006 3:45:12 PM

note to self:
get laid before the world ends

1/23/2006 5:43:08 PM

meh.

no biggie

Quote :

"In a written reply dated Monday, ElBaradei said "a detailed report" would only be available in March, the next scheduled meeting of the IAEA board."

its not that urgent.

1/23/2006 5:49:15 PM

Quote :

"abonorio: Did you see Munich? The Mossad kicks ass! GO JEWS!"

ehe

1/23/2006 5:58:14 PM

i've been hearing that GWB may be making some major statements about iniatiatives to start a wordwide enrichment uranium enrichment and distribution thing. I've been hoping to see a big news event pop up about that, but haven't yet.

This kind of stuff recently comming from Iran certainly pushes the issue and could help to push some stuff through, I'm watching this one really closley.

1/23/2006 5:58:54 PM

"fuck ummm, lets fuck them up like the iraqi's"

iraq was a continuation of his daddy's work, little chance will send troops to iran /cynic

1/23/2006 6:12:06 PM

Quote :

"Just let israel do it. Did you see Munich? The Mossad kicks ass! GO JEWS!"

haha, a bunch of amatuers i thought.

1/23/2006 7:46:20 PM

If Netanyahu wins in March, you better believe that Israel will bomb the shit out of that Iranian enrichment facility before they get to weapons-grade capabilities.

Then all hell will break loose.

1/23/2006 7:52:18 PM

thats the whole point. Such things could be kept secret if they were really planning on using it against the emperor and lord vador (err...i mean israel and the US)

1/23/2006 7:54:16 PM

aha

its so easy to keep thousands of giant, precisely manufactured centrifuges spinning for years a secret. Especially when you don't have the capabilities to make them on your own, or the know-how to operate them.

1/23/2006 7:56:58 PM

actually, it is. just like osama's big plan to get the US to invade so he can fight them on his own turf as they did the soviets. didn't work exactly as he planned but was still his intention. plus they didn't have the KGB assisting them...

1/23/2006 7:58:15 PM

Quote :

"actually, it is."

powerful argument. Go back to chit-chat with your whiny bullshit.

1/23/2006 7:59:22 PM

actually, i won't.

1/23/2006 8:01:43 PM

i vow to punch golvoko in his skinny ass neck if i ever see him in public again.

1/26/2006 6:39:50 AM

Big deal.

Even if Iran started out with the materials today and was allowed to continue unimpeded, they'd still be a decade away from having a nuke. Throw in all the impeding that the Israeli warplanes are about to drop on Iran, and you'll see why this sucks, but isn't something to be too worried about.

1/26/2006 6:51:53 AM

TYPICAL AMERICAN

1/26/2006 6:57:39 AM

Yeah, building up the raw materials for a nuclear weapon are pretty hard. It's nothing that can be done quickly.

First you gotta enrich the uranium, then you gotta extract the isotope, gotta find really pure graphite, research and perfect the explosive lenses.. i mean, this stuff takes a lot of time and a lot of smart people. The US threw a ton of resources at the beginning of the nuclear weapons program, and it took over two or three years (I can't remember the exact time, but I'll look it up if anyone throws a hissy fit) once the processing facilities in Tenn. were completed to get enough material to build the trinity bomb, little boy and fat man.

It'll be a long while before Iran can do anything too dangerous.

1/26/2006 7:42:29 AM

Quote :

"Even if Iran started out with the materials today and was allowed to continue unimpeded, they'd still be a decade away from having a nuke. Throw in all the impeding that the Israeli warplanes are about to drop on Iran, and you'll see why this sucks, but isn't something to be too worried about."

yeah i got that much from watching that interview on the daily show too haha

1/26/2006 8:02:05 AM

Being best friends with a guy who wrote a research paper for a seminar on nuclear weapons helps, too...

1/26/2006 8:23:10 AM

that could do it...

1/26/2006 8:51:27 AM

i keep having dreams about ww3. thx iran

1/26/2006 9:42:33 AM

Hasn't anyone read? Russia has volunteered to do the enrichment for them to make sure no weapons grade stuff gets made. This is everyone's way out and a guarantee of it never happenning again because russia is going to set up a permanent organization to do this for anyone, anywhere, that wants to build a nuclear reactor but doesn't want to be referred to the UN for nuclear proliferation.

This is the way out for everyone! If they take it then everyone saves face and no war is necessary.

1/26/2006 9:44:45 AM

funny to me that one of the world's most oil-rich countries claims that they NEED nuclear reactors for power...

hello? mcfly?

1/26/2006 10:06:49 AM

true dat...DOUBLE TRUE

1/26/2006 10:12:27 AM

If the US would drop it's support of Israel, none of this would be a problem. I honestly cannot understand why we support that country. I say no aid to them or any other country. What has Israel ever done for us? If they want to enrich uranium for nuclear power, let them. I see no reason why they shouldn't have nuclear power.

1/26/2006 10:17:52 AM

Quote :

"What has Israel ever done for us?"

Mr. Sharon baked me a cake once. It was nice.




Israel is going to bomb Iran before this becomes any problem, preventing the need for us to go and do it.

1/26/2006 10:29:02 AM

YES, LET'S TRUST RUSSIA WITH A NUCLEAR FACILITY.

OH WAIT.

1/26/2006 10:58:28 AM

WWIII is taking too long to start

thank the Lord Hamas just won those elections

1/26/2006 12:19:02 PM

Marko makes me sad and also afraid of the world ending.

1/26/2006 12:26:29 PM

Eh, you might very well survive doomsday. Check out this link:

http://www.ki4u.com/survive/doomsday.htm

1/26/2006 12:46:27 PM

of course i'll survive

someone's gotta hang out to get pitchforked by the Antichristl on Earth after the Rapture

1/26/2006 12:48:42 PM

Is that like the Aztec antichrist?

1/26/2006 1:00:00 PM

How will Iran getting a few nukes cause WWIII, anyway?

1/26/2006 1:01:33 PM

by using The Archduke Franz Ferdinand Method

1/26/2006 1:02:23 PM

A) Who's gonna nuke us? Russia? China? France? Come on...

B) We're smarter than those damn 20th century Europeans.

1/26/2006 1:04:06 PM

i say we pull out, and nuke the site from orbit.

its the only way to be sure.

1/26/2006 1:18:09 PM

Quote :

"Is that like the Aztec antichrist?"

eheh

1/26/2006 1:48:36 PM

what LoneSnark said

+

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=378159


=

1/26/2006 1:53:42 PM

Quote :

"i say we pull out, and nuke the site from orbit. its the only way to be sure."

I loled.

I see what you did there.

1/26/2006 4:10:23 PM

Quote :

"Franz Ferdinand"

isn't that a kick ass band??????1

1/26/2006 5:05:08 PM

^No, it blows.

1/26/2006 5:08:08 PM

Quote :

"B) We're smarter than those damn 20th century Europeans."

What makes you say that?

[Edited on January 26, 2006 at 6:00 PM. Reason : I wouldn't expect a history major to make the "more technologically advanced = smarter" mistake.]

1/26/2006 5:59:51 PM

'Coz dem Europeans were crazy bastards spoilin' for a fight. And they didn't completely understand what they were getting themselves into.

But we'll see, I guess. I don't see WWIII coming anytime soon, though.

1/26/2006 6:11:55 PM

Simple yes or no question.

Do you think we knew what we were getting into in Iraq?

1/26/2006 6:30:51 PM

Simple yes or no question.

Do you think we would know what we were getting into if we invaded China?

My sources say yes.

1/26/2006 9:56:36 PM