U.N. inspectors find plutonium:
U.N. inspectors have found traces of plutonium, of possible use in atom bombs, at an Iranian nuclear waste site as Tehran pursues a nuclear program despite the risk of sanctions, an IAEA report said on Tuesday.Stating the obvious:
The International Atomic Energy Agency report, obtained by Reuters, also said the U.N. watchdog still could not confirm Iran's nuclear intentions were entirely peaceful given its continued stonewalling of IAEA inquiries dating to 2003.
IAEA inspectors detected bits of plutonium in samples of particles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) taken earlier from containers at the Karaj atomic waste facility near Tehran. In larger amounts, plutonium and HEU can detonate atom bombs.
A U.S. diplomat accused Iran seeking a clash on the nuclear issue. "Iran is looking for a confrontation with the world," U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Gregory Schulte said in an interview with Al Arabiya television.Well, duh!
But according to Iran, the world's OK with them joining the nuclear club:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would soon celebrate completion of its nuclear fuel program and claimed the international community was ready to accept it as a nuclear state.
Iran has been locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The United States and its European allies have been seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
"Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations," Ahmadinejad told a news conference.
"Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle," he said. He did not elaborate.
China, Russia and France (and now maybe Britain) may be OK with it but I don't think that Israel is too happy about it:
"The U.N. resolution said very clearly in July, stop the enrichment or face sanctions," said Livni. The deadline expired August 31. "And here we are in November, and still we are talking about the next resolution for 'soft sanctions.'"Yeah, that'll happen. Now that America has proven bin Laden right, I don't expect us to take on anymore terrorist nations. We are too much of a paper tiger to do that.
Asked in a radio interview on Monday about Israel's tipping point regarding Iran, Livni said, "There are those who think the red line is the day [Iran] gets the bomb," said Livni. "We don't think that. The critical day for us is the day that they master the technology."
Israeli experts have said it would be much more difficult for Israel to mount a military strike against Iran than it for Israel to bomb Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981.
Iran has spread its nuclear sites across the country, and many of them are underground. They also say the U.S. is much better equipped than Israel to mount such a military operation.
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