IAEA // Current

Documents linking Iran to nuclear weapons push may have been fabricated

Remember how the administration lied about Saddam having WMD's? Well guess what. Everything they ever tell you about any... more

jh64487
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Obama and global security

J. Schell: Obama has echoed a hard line against Iran; will his actual policy be a break with Bush? Part 2 of 2 The Obama... more

Vierotchka
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ElBaradei: Iran far from acquiring nuclear weapon

Babak Yektafar: ElBaradei's statement will not change minds of those who want to confront Iran. International Atomic... more

Vierotchka
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Pak China Civilian Neuclear Programme does not require NSG Approval

Pak-China civilian nuclear cooperation programme would not require any approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

tanveerdogar
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Iran may limit IAEA access to nuclear sites: MP

Iran's parliament may limit the UN watchdog's inspections of the country's nuclear sites following a new UN resolution against Tehran over its atomic programme, a senior Iranian MP said on Tuesday.

"Iran had generously allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency access to prove its good will but soon the level of the agency's access to our nuclear facilities will be revised," Mousa Ghorbani told the state news agency IRNA.

"There are discussions in parliament to apply some new limitations on cooperation with the IAEA," said the conservative MP, who is a member of the presiding board of the house.

"The issuing of a new resolution by the (UN) Security Council has raised the question of how long we should continue a useless cooperation with the agency," he said.

The Security Council on Saturday adopted a fifth resolution urging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, the process at the centre of fears about Iran's nuclear programme, as the enriched product can be used to make atom bombs.

The IAEA has been investigating Tehran's nuclear activities for the past six years, but has so far been unable to determine whether they are purely peaceful as the government claims.

The UN watchdog said in a report this month that Tehran refused to provide access to documentation, individuals or sites which could reveal the true nature of its activities.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday urged Iran to "implement all the transparency measures ... required to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme at the earliest possible date."

Iran stopped applying the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that gives inspectors broader access to its nuclear sites after the nuclear case was referred to the UN Security Council in 2006.

Despite three sets of UN Security Council sanctions the Islamic republic has vowed to press on with its controversial enrichment work, insisting the nuclear programme is solely aimed at peaceful ends.

Iran's parliament may limit the UN watchdog's inspections of the country's nuclear sites following a new UN... more

bansheewail
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1 response

1 month ago

EU warns Iran is close to making nukes

According to text of an EU report on Iran's nuclear program released to reporters ahead of it's official delivery to the... more

abbym0308
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17 responses

1 month ago

North Korea removes UN watchdog seals from nuclear reactor

North Korea has moved a step closer to restarting its nuclear programme after removing a UN watchdog's seals from its Yongbyon reactor.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the agency's board that Pyongyang had said it would reintroduce nuclear material within a week. Analysts have said North Korea would need at least several months - and probably more - to restart the largely dismantled complex.

On Monday, North Korea asked the IAEA to remove seals and cameras from Yongbyon, its main atomic complex, after vowing to restart the facility, effectively reneging on a nuclear disarmament deal with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

At six-party talks last year, Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear programme in return for aid from the US, and in November it began dismantling the Yongbyon plant.

North Korea announced last month that it had stopped dismantling its nuclear facilities because of America's failure to fulfil a promise to remove it from the US state department's list of states that sponsor terrorism.

Amid reports that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, might be seriously ill, North Korea seemed to harden its position on Friday last week, saying that it no longer wanted to be removed from the list. "We can go our own way," a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying.

South Korea today called on North Korea to stop moves to restore its Yongbyon plant and urged its neighbour to return to disarmament talks.

"We express major concern about the North's continued move to restore its Yongbyon nuclear complex," a South Korean official said. "We call on the North to immediately restart the steps to disable it and return to talks on a verification mechanism."

Diplomats and experts said North Korea's decision to restart its nuclear programme was yet another example of its brinkmanship rather than a pressing threat.

The US envoy for North Korea, Christopher Hill, this week downplayed Pyongyang's hardened stance, describing it as part of the "rough and tumble" of negotiations. He said North Korea's actions came at a tough time in the negotiating process amid intensifying efforts to get it to agree to a mechanism on verifying its nuclear programme.
North Korea has moved a step closer to restarting its nuclear programme after removing a UN watchdog's seals from its... more

bansheewail
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2 responses

1 month ago

North Korea nuclear seals removed

The UN's atomic watchdog says it has removed seals and surveillance cameras from North Korea's main nuclear complex at... more

riffhard98
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1 month ago

IAEA: NKorea plans to activate Yongbyon reactor

VIENNA, Austria - North Korea plans to start reinserting some of the plutonium-producing nuclear material into its Yongbyon reactor within a week, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said Wednesday.

The move is a further sign that the North is making good on threats to restart a nuclear program that allowed it to conduct a test explosion two years ago.

"The DPRK has ... informed the IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time," Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency told IAEA board.

He also said that — acting on a North Korean request — his inspectors removed all agency seals and surveillance equipment from the reactor and its immediate area, in "work that was completed today."

The North Koreans "further stated that from here on the IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant," said an IAEA statement citing ElBaradei.

North Korea in recent days had already signaled it would break out of a six-nation disarmament-for-aid deal, announcing that it was making "thorough preparations" to start up Yongbyon.

The accord hit a snag in mid-August when the U.S. refused to remove North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism until the North accepts a plan to verify a declaration of its nuclear programs it submitted earlier.

The Yongbyon reactor was under IAEA seals in December 2002 when the North decided to order IAEA inspectors out of the country and restart its mothballed nuclear activities, after a deal committing the U.S. to help Pyongyang build a peaceful nuclear program unraveled.

It subsequently quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty in January 2003 and announced it had nuclear weapons a little more than two years later.

A U.N. official who demanded anonymity for divulging confidential information said other nuclear sites in North Korea remained under IAEA purview. She also said agency seals remained on the spent fuel rods that were removed from Yongbyon under the terms of the deal.

(More at link)VIENNA, Austria - North Korea plans to start reinserting some of the plutonium-producing nuclear material into its Yongbyon... more

riffhard98
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1 month ago

Iran: secret nuclear bomb? Blocking IAEA probe

"A UN inquiry into intelligence allegations of secret atom bomb research in Iran has reached a standstill because of Iranian... more

arcticspirit
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11 responses

2 months ago

India's nuclear plans bombed

A plan, brokered by the U.S., to allow India to trade nuclear supplies was stopped by a group of nations who supply nuclear materials.

urlspotter
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0 responses

3 months ago

Syria blocks visit by International Atomic Energy Agency

Syria has blocked a new visit by International Atomic Energy Agency experts seeking to follow up on intelligence that Damascus... more

GeoffNI
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0 responses

3 months ago

UN nuclear watchdog back in Iran

The deputy head of the UN nuclear agency has arrived in Tehran for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme. Six world... more

HiImGuss
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3 responses

3 months ago

Plutonium leaks at Austrian plant

There has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria. UN nuclear monitors... more

unclepete
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10 responses

4 months ago

UN approves India-US nuclear deal

UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has backed a controversial nuclear deal between India and the... more

riffhard98
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1 response

4 months ago

The Bush Administration's Secret Biowarfare Agenda

When it comes to observing US and international laws, treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since 2001, it's:

-- spurned efforts for nuclear disarmament to advance its weapons program and retain current stockpiles;

-- renounced the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and asserted the right to develop and test new weapons;

-- abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) because it expressly forbids the development, testing and deployment of missile defenses like its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and other programs;

-- refuses to adopt a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) that would prohibit further weapons-grade uranium and plutonium production and prevent new nuclear weapons to be added to present stockpiles - already dangerously too high;

-- spends more on the military than the rest of the world combined plus multi-billions off-the-books, for secret programs, and for agencies like the CIA;

-- advocates preventive, preemptive and "proactive" wars globally with first-strike nuclear and other weapons under the nihilistic doctrines of "anticipatory self-defense" and remaking the world to be like America;

-- rescinded and subverted the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) to illegally develop new biowarfare weapons; in November 1969 and February 1970, Richard Nixon issued National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDM) 35 and 44; they renounced the use of lethal and other types of biological warfare and ordered existing weapons stockpiles destroyed, save for small amounts for research - a huge exploitable loophole; the Reagan and Clinton administrations took advantage; GHW Bush to a lesser degree;

-- GW Bush went further by renouncing the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that prohibits "the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons....;" on May 22, 1990, GHW Bush signed it into law to complete the 1972 Convention's implementation; what the father and Nixon established, GW Bush rendered null and void; "Rebuilding America's Defenses" is his central policy document for unchallengeable US hegemony; among other provisions, it illegally advocates advanced forms of biowarfare that can target specific genotypes - the genetic constitution of individual organisms.

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Much more at link.When it comes to observing US and international laws, treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since... more