Iran Comes Clean

by Jack O'Lantern Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:39

Iran today said it had suspended uranium enrichment as part of a deal negotiated with several European Union countries which, for their part, have agreed to suspend disbelief.

"It's like going to a stage play," said an unnamed French official familiar with the negotiations. "In the theatre we know that the people on stage are just actors but, for the sake of entertainment, we suspend disbelief. It's make believe and we all feel good about ourselves."

In addition to freezing uranium enrichment, Iran also announced it would destroy its stockpiles of sand.

by Michael Fri Nov 26, 2004 11:19

Until they've disarmed their genocidal weapons systems they can't talk. Germany? Don't get me started about Germany and genocide.

by SwedishChef Fri Nov 26, 2004 11:53

A retired Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Amnon Shahak, has declared, “all methods are acceptable in withholding nuclear capabilities from an Arab state.”

Israel began its search for nuclear weapons at the inception of the state in 1948. As payment for Israeli participation in the Suez Crisis of 1956, France provided nuclear expertise and constructed a reactor complex for Israel at Dimona capable of large-scale plutonium production and reprocessing.

The United States discovered the facility by 1958 and it was a subject of continual discussions between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers. Israel used delay and deception to at first keep the United States at bay, and later used the nuclear option as a bargaining chip for a consistent American conventional arms supply. After French disengagement in the early 1960s, Israel progressed on its own, including through several covert operations, to project completion. Before the 1967 Six-Day War, they felt their nuclear facility threatened and reportedly assembled several nuclear devices. By the 1973 Yom Kippur War Israel had a number of sophisticated nuclear bombs, deployed them, and considered using them. The Arabs may have limited their war aims because of their knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons. Israel has most probably conducted several nuclear bomb tests.

A bright flash in the south Indian Ocean, observed by an American satellite on 22 September 1979, is widely believed to be a South Africa-Israel joint nuclear test. And in June 1998, a Member of the Knesset accused the government of an underground test near Eilat on May 28, 1998.

They have continued to modernize and vertically proliferate and are now one of the world's larger nuclear powers. Using “bomb in the basement” nuclear opacity, Israel has been able to use its arsenal as a deterrent to the Arab world while not technically violating American nonproliferation requirements.

The government of Israel recently ordered three German Dolphin Class 800 submarine, to be delivered in late 1999. Israel will then have a second strike capability with nuclear cruise missiles, and this capability could well change the nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Israeli rhetoric on the new submarines labels them “national deterrent” assets. Projected capabilities include a submarine-launched nuclear missile with a 350-kilometer range.

What is the chain of decision and control of Israel's weapons? How susceptible are they to misuse or theft? With no open, frank, public debate on nuclear issues, there has accordingly been no debate or information on existing safeguards. This has led to accusations of “monolithic views and sinister intentions.”

Would a right wing military government decide to employ nuclear weapons recklessly?

by - Fri Nov 26, 2004 11:59

"recently placed an order"..."to be delivered in 1999".
like hello, its 2004 common era, and there are less than thirty working days till christmas.
This is a news site with a lot of opinion facility.
you publish news, and you can comment on it. news happened yesterday, or last week.
News sometimes is older, in which case it's "new information". Using your google to find something five years old then cutting and pasting it in your comment, is a waste of time and not terribly clever.
here's some news - the € goto 1.33$ in the last 24 hours but it's slipped.

by Capitan Nemo Fri Nov 26, 2004 15:11

Israeli and American officials have admitted collaborating to deploy US-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Israel's fleet of Dolphin-class submarines, giving the Middle East's only nuclear power the ability to strike at any of its Arab neighbours.

Israel's seaborne nuclear doctrine is designed to place one submarine in the Persian Gulf, the other in the Mediterranean, with a third on standby. Secret test launches of the cruise missile systems were understood to have been undertaken in May 2000 when Israel carried out tests in the Indian Ocean.

by Capitan Pugwash Fri Nov 26, 2004 15:15

Israel is prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. It regards the Islamic regime as its greatest threat.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already sent Israel's three Dolphin-class nuclear submarines to the Gulf of Oman within striking distance of Iran.

German built, each has recently been fitted with the latest US Navy "over the horizon" software. Called Promis, it allows the submarines to destroy with pinpoint accuracy targets in Iran up to 900 miles away.
Each submarine carries 20 Cruise missiles. They also have 200kg warheads, each containing 5kg plutonium.

by Tyler Durden Fri Nov 26, 2004 15:28

Israel according to the imprisoned dissident Vanuna has possessed fully functioning nukes for decades now.
Israel has never dropped the bomb on the Syrians, Egyptians, Iraqis or Iranians because since they came into possession of them the Arabs have been shit scared to launch a full military invasion.

Iran is trying to built nukes.
The mullahs have declared their intention openly to incinerate Israel and that Allah willing in the future they may develope the technology to attack the United States.

by Ray Fri Nov 26, 2004 15:36

"The mullahs have declared their intention openly to incinerate Israel and that Allah willing in the future they may develope the technology to attack the United States."

put up or shut up

by Noel Fri Nov 26, 2004 18:27

Remember the parade of Shahabs?
With the conciliatory messages daubed on them?
Forgotten already?

Just to jog your memory.
"We will crush America under our feet'"
"Israel must be wiped off the map."

by Avner Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:17

Disarming Israel of its nuclear weapons is key to achieving lasting peace in the Middle East, Mohammed ElBaradei, International Atomic Energy Agency, said Monday.

"This is not really sustainable, that you have Israel sitting with nuclear weapons capability there while everyone else is part of the non-proliferation regime," Baradei told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Recently there has been much more interest in Iran and Saudi Arabias putative nuclear weapons programmes which are obviously a response to Israel's position of regional dominance. UN sources have said recently that "There's obviously a lot of restlessness in the Middle East. Regional insecurity tends to produce a quest for a nuclear umbrella. The Saudis have the money and could provide it to Pakistan."

Since the early-mid 1960s, the CIA understood and presumed that Israel was determined to develop nuclear weapons. By late 1966 the CIA circulated reports that Israel completed the development phase of its nuclear program, and was only weeks away from having a fully assembled bomb. Such information was never shared with the inspection teams that visited Dimona, nor was it accepted by the State Department.

The late discovery of Dimona is one of the colossal blunders of American intelligence. (In comparative terms, this failure was more severe than the failure to identify the Indian test in 1998.) Israel and the Bomb revisits this intelligence failure. By late 1966 Israel completed the development phase of the nuclear project. In 1967 prior to the Six-Day War Israel had achieved a rudimentary nuclear weapons capability, and during the tense days of the crisis in late May it placed that capability under "operational alert." By the eve of the war Israel had two deliverable explosive devices.

Despite this the United States never pressed Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT); it also ended the visits at Dimona. In return, Israel is committed to maintaining a low profile nuclear posture: no testing, no declaration, no acknowledgment. With these "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" understandings nuclear opacity was born. Those understanding persist today.

Israel is prepared to go to any lengths to suppress debate on the nuclear issue including kidnapping, intimidation, censorship and long-term imprisonment of those prepared to speak out on the issue. The most notable victims have been Mordechai Vanunu and Avner Cohen.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/avnercohen.html
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_2334.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1044402,00.html

by Ali H. Thu Dec 02, 2004 20:04

Israel said it would dismantle its own huge arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It also said it would withdraw to the green-line, dismantle the apartheid wall and all settlements. In a final stunning move it also said it would allow the right of all Palestinian refugees to return granting them full citizenship rights in the new multi-racial state of Palestine and agreed to pay reparations to all those displaced, killed or disabled during its wars with its neighbours, in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt and during its long occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza.