Stop Fundamentalism, 20 February, 2008 - The main Iranian opposition organization, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is based in Paris, revealed today new details of the Iranian nuclear weapons development facilities and what was specifically called Iran’s “nuclear warhead project” at a press conference held in Brussels.

The information disclosed included details of locations of all development sites involved, and names of officials and experts participating in the project.

Reza Shafa
A new classified report has just recently been prepared by the Iranian regime's foreign policy experts for the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) on the possibility of a new UN Security Council resolution on Iran.

There is every indication that the Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council plus Germany favor a new tougher sanction regime against the mullahs. In their upcoming meeting in New York next week, the world powers will discuss the new resolution.

Nima Sharif
Mr. ElBaradei, in a surprising remark, has invited the international community to accept the fact that Iran has now achieved nuclear know-how and can produce enriched uranium at industrial levels.  Such remarks, from someone at ElBaradei’s position, are unconstructive and can not help in any way but to embolden the Iranian regime to continue its defiance.

The International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) recently-published report stresses that not only has the Iranian regime defied the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1696, 1737 and 1747 calling for the immediate suspension of its uranium enrichment program, it has also started up and expanded the production of its centrifuges. The Iranian mullahs have utilized at least 1,300 centrifuges to enrich uranium on a much larger scale.
 

Joseph Omidvar
Once again the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted on a resolution asking Iran to halt its nuclear activities. It gave Iran 60 days to execute the contents of the resolution.

Iran promptly rejected the resolution. Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's Foreign Minister said: "Suspension of uranium enrichment is not an option for Iran."

Just hours before ratification of the resolution, Tehran's Friday prayer leader, Imami Kashani, who speaks for the ruling clerics stated: "If the UN Security Council ratifies ten more resolutions, we will not suspend uranium enrichment."

Even if we neglect the reliable intelligence and evidence regarding the clandestine activities of the Iranian regime to build nuclear weapons, and if we ignore specific findings by IAEA's chief Mohammed ElBradei regarding the existence of activities undeclared to the nuclear agency for 20 years, Iran's disregard for the Security Council resolutions and its defiance to repeated calls by the international community for negotiations is sufficient to conclude that the Iranian regime is determined to acquire nuclear weapons.  Obviously, a county with large gas and petroleum reserves (second in the world) should not insist on uranium enrichment just for nuclear energy in the face of international opposition and censure.

New Europe, the European Weekly, Feb 18-- A group of Members of the European Parliament met with the Iranian resistance movement in Strasbourg on February 14 to discuss plans to change Iran from within. 

As the situation in Iraq deteriorates, the prospect of the Americans being able to open a second front against the highly-militarized Iranians would be disastrous, MEP Struan Stevenson from the UK, vice president of the EPP-ED Group and co-chair of the Friends of a Free Iran Inter-group, told the meeting, adding that Iran is supporting insurgents in neighboring Iraq. 

Radio Farda, Nov 10 – The Reuters news agency, citing nuclear experts said: “When the heavy water reactor of Arak is completed, the Iranian regime will be able to get enough plutonium to produce 2 atomic bombs every year.”

Stop Fundamentalism, Nov 13 – Iranian top officials express concern over imminent sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council.

“If the current draft resolution is ratified by the Security Council, Iran will reconsider its cooperation with the IAEA,” said Ali Larijani, Iranian nuclear negotiator.

Dariush Qanbari, member of Parliament’s Security Commission stated, “The wording of the resolution does not indicate limited sanctions and the Americans have imposed their will in this draft.”

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Oil prices held steady Tuesday after Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tehran was ready for "serious negotiations" over its disputed program but left open the question of whether it would suspend uranium enrichment.

TEHRAN, Aug 18, 2006 (AFP) - Top Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the United States Friday not to seek confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear program and to learn from the war in Lebanon.

"We expect America to have learned enough (from the Israel-Hezbollah war) not to enter another game and upset the security of the region," Rafsanjani said in his Friday prayer sermon carried live on state radio.

TEHRAN, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday to stand by the country's nuclear work, insisting the UN Security Council cannot deprive Iran of its "rights", state news agency IRNA reported.

"The Iranian people stand by their rights with solidarity. They cannot deprive Iran of its undeniable rights with these sessions and paper-shuffling," he said in remarks aimed at UN Security Council members.

The West, led by the United States, suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies those charges, saying its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.

WASHINGTON, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - The United States will move quickly for UN Security Council action on sanctions against Iran if Tehran refuses to halt uranium enrichment by the end of the month, a senior State Deparment official said Thursday.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rejection this week of a UN resolution demanding that Iran suspend all uranium enrichment activity by August 31 was "not surprising."

He said the UN Security Council will take up sanctions under resolution 1696 if the deadline is not met.

"We would want to move very quickly," he told reporters, adding that the United States would press for a decision in the first part of September.

PARIS, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's ambassador to Paris reaffirmed Thursday that international calls for his country to halt uranium enrichment were "not acceptable", after Tehran said it would be prepared to discuss a freeze.

"The suspension demand is one that has absolutely no legal basis. It is a political demand that is not acceptable by our public opinion or by parliament," Iran envoy Ali Ahani told French radio RMC.

PARIS, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's ambassador to Paris reaffirmed Thursday that international calls for his country to halt uranium enrichment were "not acceptable", after Tehran said it would be prepared to discuss a freeze.

"The suspension demand is one that has absolutely no legal basis. It is a political demand that is not acceptable by our public opinion or by parliament," Iran envoy Ali Ahani told French radio RMC.

"We do not believe in nuclear weapons at all because we do not think they can guarantee our security, but we insist on the use of these technologies for peaceful ends," he said.

Reuters, August 16 - Iran will hit Tel Aviv with its medium-range missiles if attacked, said an influential senior cleric yesterday.

"If they [United States and Israel] militarily attack Iran ... They should be afraid of the day when our missiles with 2,000km range will hit Tel Aviv," Ahmad Khatami told state television.

Voice of America, August 8 – Gregory Schulte, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, says that Iran is trying to maximize its gains from the current Lebanese crisis to remain indifferent to United Nations’ recommendations and mandates. However, Mr. Schulte says such methods will not get anywhere.

American Forces Press Service, August 7 - The activities in the Hezbollah-Hamas battle space are being manipulated by Iran, directed by Syria and executed by Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior U.S. military official, speaking on background, said today.

Iran’s prominence in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, the official said, points to the problem a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the region and world. Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah and its moves to gain influence in Shiia areas of Iraq and other areas of the Middle East and Persian Gulf are designed to gain time for the Iranian nuclear program, and also to increase Iranian regional power, he explained.

Der Tagesspiegel Weekly, Aug. 6, Germany – The Iranian regime continues its activities of enriching uranium using lasers. According to a Russian engineer who works in an institute abroad for advancement of nuclear reactors, the regime in Tehran has received technical assistance regarding this matter from Russia since March 2004.

This assistance is given in a program called “Laser System for Separation of Heavy Isotopes”… The laser method has appreciable advantages that are very important for the Iranian regime, one of them being its small need for space and energy but a higher yield of uranium 235 and plutonium 239…

Phil Hazlewood

LOS ANGELES, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday called for a "complete renaissance" of the global approach to tackling extremism, with as much emphasis on "soft" power as military might.

In a keynote policy speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, Blair pledged to continue to work to halt hostilities in Lebanon -- where he was still hopeful of a settlement -- and in the wider Middle East.

"But once that has happened, we must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us," he said.

"There is an arc of extremism now stretching across the Middle East and touching with increasing definition countries far outside that region.

Som Patidar
St. Petersburg, Russia, July 16 (AHN) - In the first session of the G8 summit leaders from the world's top industrialized nations Sunday, pledged to ensure reliable access to low-enriched Uranium for use in nuclear power plant.

Nicole King
The United Nations Security Council says it will impose sanctions on North Korea if the country doesn't discontinue its missile tests. But North Korean officials say they have no plan to stop the tests and the resolution is an attempt to isolate the country.

Stop Fundamentalism, July 15 – Iran’s state-run news agency, Mehr News, reported today that Iran will not accept the preconditions set forth by 5+1 countries for nuclear talks.

Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said today to a crowd in northwestern Iranian city of Mashad that, “The precondition to freeze Iran’s nuclear activities is definitely unacceptable and the European deadline will not be met.”

Stop Fundamentalism, July 12 – Iran’s foreign minister, Manucher Mottaki, rejected any preconditions for Tehran to accept offers from the 5+1 countries and said, “If we were to suspend enriching uranium, there were no need for negotiations and no need for an incentive package.”

Larijani who was speaking on the state-run television, channel 2, cautioned the ‘G8’ Countries and said, “I emphasized in my talks with some of the country officials, specially those countries that are members of the G8 group and will be meeting on July 15 to talk about Iran’s subject  there that making a decision about Iran there, without the out presence of Iran, can damage the progress we have made all along.

Stop Fundamentalism, July 12 - As the international community awaits the outcome of talks between Solana, the General Secretary of European Union and Ali Larijani, Tehran’s nuclear negotiator, on Tuesday, Larijani announced after the meeting that the negotiations will take a long time to produce any results and invited the international community to be patient.

Stop Fundamentalism, July 12 – Kuwait announced Tuesday that it has stopped negotiations to buy drinking water from Iran.  Developments regarding Iran’s nuclear dossier and the situation in Iraq have been listed as possible causes of these measures.

Stop Fundamentalism, July 5 - In apparent anger at the Iranian exiled opposition leader Maryam Rajavi’s visit to the European Parliament, Iran once again did not show for crucial nuclear talks with the European Union on Wednesday.

Javier Solana, head of European Union’s foreign policy, who delivered EU’s incentive package to Tehran last month to encourage this country to suspend its nuclear development program, said on Wednesday that the meeting was postponed to Thursday.

"I was surprised to hear that Ali Larijani has decided at the last minute to postpone his trip to Brussels as previously agreed with him to take place today," Solana said in a statement reported by Reuters.

Olivier Knox
WASHINGTON, July 5, 2006 (AFP) - The United States has strongly condemned North Korea's "provocative" launch of several missiles that posed no immediate threat to US territory but warranted a diplomatic counter-offensive.

BRUSSELS, July 5, 2006 (AFP) - The EU's top diplomat and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator hold potentially pivotal talks here Wednesday on whether Tehran might be prepared to curb its nuclear ambitions.

The talks between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and negotiator Ali Larijani are expected to explore whether Iran is ready to accept a package of economic and political incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment.

Ali Larinani

Larijani was due to brief Spanish officials about Iran's position before discussing with Solana a package of incentives drawn up the main world powers in return for halting sensitive nculear fuel work, the television said.

SEOUL, (AP) -- North Korea stepped up its anti-U.S. rhetoric yesterday, accusing Washington of mounting military pressure on the regime and vowing to respond to any pre-emptive U.S. attack with an "annihilating" nuclear strike.

TEHRAN, July 4, 2006 (AFP) - Iran could give its response to an international offer aimed at ending a nuclear standoff around August 6, chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted as saying Tuesday.

"Our negotiations with the Europeans will be on Wednesday, but it is only the beginning of the talks and our definite response to their proposals will be ready around middle of (the Iranian month of) Mordad," or around August 6, Larijani was quoted as saying on state-run television.

UNITED NATIONS, June 29, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday rejected calls from major powers to give a speedy answer to proposals to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

MOSCOW, June 30, 2006 (AFP) - A meeting of G8 foreign ministers this week showed that the United States is ready to mute its criticism of Moscow on questions of democracy in exchange for Russian support on the Iranian nuclear issue, a leading broadsheet said Friday.

TEHRAN, June 30, 2006 (AFP) - A top Iranian cleric reiterated Friday that the Islamic republic will not hold negotiations with arch-foe the United States on its controversial nuclear programme.

BRUSSELS, June 30, 2006 (AFP) - The United States "expects" Iran to respond next week to an international offer to defuse the nuclear standoff between Tehran and the West, the number three in the US State Department said Friday.

Nick Coleman
MOSCOW, June 29, 2006 (AFP) - Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries stepped up pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme at a meeting here Thursday, as Moscow sought to prevent next month's G8 summit becoming a magnet for criticism of Russia's democratic credentials.

TEHRAN, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday he saw "no use" in negotiating with the United States and again signalled that Tehran was unwilling to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

VIENNA, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani is not likely to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana this week, despite an informal deadline of the end of month to respond to an offer of talks over its nuclear program, diplomats said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - The White House said Tuesday that it did not consider Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's rejection of a proposal for nuclear talks as the Islamic Republic's final word on the offer.

UNITED NATIONS, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday urged Iran to expedite its response to an offer of incentives made by world powers in exchange for halting uranium enrichment, a UN statement said.

MOSCOW, June 28, 2006 (AFP) - The European Union warned Iran on Wednesday against delaying a response to a proposal on resolving the international standoff over the country's controversial nuclear programme.

"Iran should not play for time and we expect Iran to come back soon to the Vienna package," the European Union's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said during a visit to Moscow. "Iran has to show it is serious about it."

The package drawn up by the five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany promises incentives and multilateral talks if Iran agrees temporarily to halt uranium enrichment.

Stop Fundamentalism, June 27 (TEHRAN) – The Iranian regime’s leader Ali Khamanei said today that he sees no benefit in talking to United States.

Khamanei was speaking at a meeting with the visiting President of Senegal in Tehran.

The United States had offered prior to the presentation of the 5+1 incentive package by Solana on June 6 to Iran that if this country would accept the package and suspend uranium enrichment, the US would join the talks between Tehran and the European Countries.

Dancers performed the “nuclear dance” at the ceremony when Iran Ahmadinejad announced the completion of Iran’s nuclear production cycle. Dancers performed as they held up capsules of uranium hexafluoride during a ceremony in Mashad, Iran.

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following this invitation, the Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra announced that it will perform a presentation called “Peaceful Nuclear Energy” by Behzad Abdi, an Iranian composer, during the upcoming “Government Commemoration Week” in Tehran.

The production manager of the Tehran Philharmonic said, “A guest conductor, Loris Tjeknavorian, will present the piece during three nights in Tehran.”

During recent months Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iranian regime has been using the Iranian media to turn the nuclear crisis into the top issue of the country.  This has created foolish scenes at times such as the “Nuclear Cake Dance” picture when Iran announced its completion of uranium enrichment cycle. 

Dancers performed the “nuclear dance” at the ceremony when Iran Ahmadinejad announced the completion of Iran’s nuclear cycle. Dancers are performing as they hold capsules of uranium hexafluoride during a ceremony in Mashad, Iran.

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In line with this invitation, the Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a presentation called “Peaceful Nuclear Energy” by Behzad Abdi, composer during the “government week” in Tehran.

The production manager of the Tehran Philharmonic said, “A guest conductor, Loris Tjeknavorian, will present the piece during three nights in Tehran.”

During recent months Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iranian regime has been using the Iranian media to turn the nuclear crisis into the top issue of the country.  This has created foolish scenes at times such as the “Nuclear Cake Dance” picture when Iran announced its completion of uranium enrichment cycle. 

Stop Fundamentalism, June 26 – All the partners are agreed that Iran should respond in weeks, not months, and that the precondition should be that the Iranians suspend enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, White House Spokesman, Tony Snow commented on how much time Iran has to respond to the West’s incentive package offer, at a press briefing on June 23

Also In Budapest, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said on the same issue, “There are a lot of issues on the table. There are human rights; there's terrorism. The series of issues that separate Iran from the international community are not limited to the possibility of developing a nuclear weapon.”

TEHRAN, June 25, 2006 (AFP) - Iran's oil minister has warned that the country would use oil as a weapon if its interests are attacked, state television reported Sunday.

"If the country's interests are attacked, we will use all our capabilities and oil is one of them," Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said on Saturday, the television reported.

TEHRAN, June 25, 2006 (AFP) - Iran said Sunday it was still going ahead with its plan to host a conference questioning the Holocaust, with the event now scheduled for later in 2006.

The controversial idea emerged after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the systematic slaughter of an estimated six million Jews during World War II as a "myth", and the event was initially set for early this year.

"It is going to be held in (the month of) Aban," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters, referring to the Iranian month which starts on October 23.

Asefi also said there was nothing wrong with the idea, saying that the delay in the timing of the event was because "in Aban the weather in cooler".

TEHRAN, June 25, 2006 (AFP) - Iran repeated on Sunday that it will not suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks on its disputed nuclear program, state television reported.

"The suspension of enrichment is one step backward. We think Europe should negotiate without preconditions... which only cloud the negotiating atmosphere," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

"Instead of setting preconditions that are both unreasonable and baseless, we should negotiate," he added.

On June 6 Iran was presented with an international proposal promising incentives and multilateral talks if it agrees to temporarily halt uranium enrichment activities -- at the heart of fears the hardline regime could develop nuclear weapons.

Iran will never suspend nuclear program

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The Iranian Embassy in Vienna said Tehran's deputy nuclear negotiator had been misquoted in a German translation of a speech he gave on Thursday that raised the possibility of Iran stopping uranium enrichment as a result of negotiations.

Stop Fundamentalism - ISNA, an Iranian state-run news agency reported on June 8 that the Supreme Commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary commented on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic sought to become “the top power in the region within the next two decades.”

“The country is facing an extraordinarily critical and difficult set of circumstances and needs greater security and defense than it did before”, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said to the media.