Front page feed and News feed

International nuclear inspectors said Iran had increased its capabilities, but their report suggested that Tehran had not passed a “red line” that could incite military action.

Iran has reiterated its opposition to US plans to establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from the country in 2014.

ABC News
Iran's Supreme Leader Tightens Grip After Disqualifying Two Top Presidential ...
TIME
For the cleric who runs Iran, there's no such thing as a pleasant surprise, especially on election day. Ayatullah Ali Khamenei was not pleased when a librarian named Mohammed Khatami was swept into the President's office in 1997, leading a wave of ...
Iran presidential campaign begins without two big namesWashington Post
Iran's Ahmadinejad Looks to Outsider OptionsABC News
Ahmadinejad says aide's disqualification from Iran presidential race is act of ...Fox News
Los Angeles Times -Aljazeera.com -The Guardian
all 346 news articles »

The Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reiterated the peaceful nature of the country’s nuclear energy program, saying that Tehran is determined to continue its cooperation with the IAEA.

Iran and India have reached a basic barter trade deal, enabling New Delhi to purchase the Iranian oil in exchange for the Indian textile products.

Iran has strongly criticized the United States for making “baseless remarks” about the country’s electoral process and interfering in its domestic affairs.

Bloomberg
Iran Is Seen Advancing Nuclear Bid
New York Times
International nuclear inspectors reported on Wednesday that Iran had increased its nuclear production while negotiations with the West dragged on this spring, but the new information suggested that Tehran had not gone past the “red line” that Israel's ...
Iran pushes ahead with nuclear plant that worries WestReuters
Iran paves over suspected nuclear-related testing site despite UN protestsWashington Post
Iran expands nuclear program, UN agency saysFox News
Voice of America -Bloomberg -ABC News
all 95 news articles »

Iranian presidential candidate Mohammad Gharazi says he will form a cabinet to subdue inflation in the country if he wins the June 14 vote.

Iran’s principlist presidential contender Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf says focusing on economy and job creation to rectify the country’s economic situation will top his agenda.

IAEA reports Iranian heavy water reactor approaching completion but Tehran stays well under red lines set by Israel

While the presidential election campaign gets underway in Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency has produced its latest quaterly report on the country's nuclear programme, which does so much to shape the backdrop to Iranian politics - and not in a good way.

The IAEA Safeguards Report has been leaked, as tradition dictates, and is available online here courtesy of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

The most important single indicator that tells us how close to a conflict we might be, shows there is still breathing room for talks when the elections are over. The report says that Iran's stockpile of 20% enriched (a half-way house between low enriched uranium for nuclear power stations and weapons grade stuff for bombs) is now 182kg, which is up 15kg from the last report three months ago but still well below the 240-250kg that would be enough to make an initial warhead, if the Iranians decided to go for making nuclear weapons. That threshhold is where Binyamin Netanyahu lay down Israel red lines before the UN General Assembly last September.

The Iranians have made a total of 324kg of this medium enriched uranium, but continues to process much of what it makes into oxide fuel, which is less of a proliferation concern, so it is not counted as being part of the critical stockpile.

The rest of the report, however, makes clear that there is plenty more to worry about. It goes into particular detail about the heavy water reactor under construction in Arak. That has not been in the spotlight much until now because the uranium enrichment programme has been seen as a far more direct route to making a nuclear weapon.

It still is. The Arak heavy water reactor, when operational, could produce plutonium if the spent uranium fuel was reprocessed, and plutonium can be used to make smaller, even more powerful nuclear warheads than weapons-grade uranium. To make it, however, Iran would need to build a reprocessing plant and there is so far no sign of that. But the reactor is getting closer to completion. A huge reactor vessel has arrived at the site but has yet to be installed, but a lot of other things have been put in place.

[T]he following major components have been installed at the IR-40 Reactor: the containment overhead crane; the moderator and primary coolant heat exchangers, circuit piping and purification systems; the moderator storage tanks; and the pressurizer for the reactor cooling system.

The Iranians predict the reactor, which they say is for research purposes, will be operational by the third quarter of 2014. Most observers don't think they will make that deadline. There is still a lot of stuff to be built, like the control room, the mechanism for refuelling the reactor and the cooling pumps. Still, by next year, if work proceeds at the current pace it is easy to see Arak become an serious source of international friction.

The report also notes that IAEA inspectors have not been allowed to visit the production plant - which will supply the deuterium oxide (heavy water) for the reactor to function - since August 2011, and since then the agency has had to rely on satellite images.

The IAEA goes into more detail that usual about its disagreement with Iran over when the government is supposed to tell the agency about new nuclear facilities. Under the original IAEA rules, a country only had to tell the agency about a new plant six months before nuclear material was due to be delivered for the first time. This was called Code 3.1. In the 1990's a modified Code 3.1 was introduced which said a new facility had to be reported as soon as the decision to built it had been taken.

In 2003, Iran agreed to the new Code 3.1, but in 2007, it suspended its implementation, and now refuses to abide by it. You can read more about it here.

This is important because of the suspicion that Iran could be building secret facilities. If tomorrow it was discovered that Iran had built a new underground enrichment plant like the one revealed at Fordow in 2009, Tehran would argue it was completely in its rights as it was not bound by the new Code 3.1. Thus the refusal to agree to the new code increases suspicion that there might be a parallel covert nuclear programme under construction. This uncertainty is heightened by the fact that various Iranian officials have announced in recent months that Iran is building four new research reactors, ten new enrichment plants and 16 new nuclear power stations, without saying where any of these facilities are located.

All this, along with a complete lack of progress on agreeing guidelines for the IAEA's investigation into Iran's alleged past weaponisation work, adds up to a fairly negative report. It's not bad enough to get the war drums beating again, but sufficiently worrying to underline the importance of reaching some kind of compromise on the Iranian programme soon after the election is over.

• Iran
• Nuclear weapons
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Julian Borger
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Telegraph.co.uk
Exclusive: Glencore, Trafigura deals with Iran may have skirted sanctions - UN
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Metals swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura could have been a way of skirting international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, according to a confidential ...
UN report finds Iran violates sanctions using front firmsTelegraph.co.uk

all 4 news articles »

China has voiced support for the participation of Iran in the upcoming international conference to discuss the crisis plaguing Syria, Press TV reports.

Iranian principlist presidential candidate Ali Akbar Velayati says he will modernize the national aviation industry if he receives enough votes to win the June 14 election.

Iran president denounces aide's disqualification from election
Los Angeles Times
TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday denounced as unjust the supervisory electoral body's disqualification of his top aide from next month's presidential poll and said he plans to appeal to the nation's supreme leader, ...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pledged to follow up on the Guardian Council (GC) disapproval of his top aide, Esfandiyar Rahim Mashaei.

Press TV
US Congress moves to tighten sanctions on Iran
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved legislation on Wednesday seeking to impose tighter sanctions on Iran, the latest congressional effort to slow development of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.
Iran policy reaches day of reckoningWashington Post (blog)
'Cooperation in Iran's interest to clarify peaceful nuclear intent' - IAEA chiefRT
West reached impasse over Iran's nuclear program: Iranian MPPress TV
Jerusalem Post
all 70 news articles »

Bloomberg
Iran pushes ahead with nuclear plant that worries West
Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. In another ...
Iran paves over suspected nuclear-related testing site despite UN protestsWashington Post
Iran expands nuclear program, UN agency saysFox News
Sanctions Alone Won't Stop Iran's Nuclear PushBloomberg
ABC News -Voice of America -BBC News
all 84 news articles »

Global monitors say Iran's human rights situation is poor and unlikely to improve amid a climate of political uncertainty and growing external pressures. But activists urge continued international scrutiny of Iran's violations.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman has dismissed Saudi Arabia’s false allegations that the Islamic Republic has links to a spy cell recently arrested in the Kingdom.

Iran Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has called on unsuccessful presidential hopefuls and those approved to stand in the race to respect the law and the Constitution in the wake of next month’s vote.