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Iran Rejects European Offer to Exchange Light-Water Reactor for Heavy-Water Facility
Iran yesterday rejected a European offer to build a light-water nuclear power reactor in exchange for Tehran abandoning construction of a heavy-water reactor at Arak, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 11). “We welcome such proposals but we will not under any circumstances replace our heavy-water research reactor,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “We will continue working on our heavy-water reactor.” Given that much of Iran’s nuclear program consists of uranium enrichment facilities, European officials have said they cannot understand why Iran would want a plutonium-producing heavy-water reactor, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 13). The U.S. intelligence community is scheduled in the coming weeks to complete two reports on Iran — an update of the expansive National Intelligence Estimate on the country and a document focusing solely on Iran’s WMD capabilities to be circulated only among the most senior officials, the Washington Post reported Saturday. “It will reassess the timeline for getting nuclear weapons, reassess Iran’s motivations and what it would take to make them give up fissile material capability,” said one official. The last published U.S. intelligence report on Iran, from November, said “Iran continued to vigorously pursue indigenous programs to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,” according to the Post (Linzer/Pincus, Washington Post, Feb. 12). Meanwhile, pilotless U.S. surveillance drones have been flying over Iran for nearly a year using radar, video, still photography and air filters to pick up traces of nuclear activity, U.S. officials told the Post. Iran has formally protested the flights, according to Iranian, European and U.S. officials. The United States replied with a denial that manned U.S. aircraft had crossed Iran’s borders, a U.S. official said. Iranian civilians first sighted the drones in late December, fueling speculation within the population that Iran was being visited by UFOs, according to the Post. “By coaxing the Iranians to turn on their radar, we can learn all about their defense systems, including the frequencies they are operating on, the range of their radar and, of course, where their weaknesses lie,” said Thomas Keaney, of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Iran’s national security officials ordered their forces three weeks ago not to turn on their radar or make contact with the drones. “The United States must have forgotten that they trained half our guys,” an Iranian official said (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Feb. 13). Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) yesterday urged the Bush administration to join Germany, France and the United Kingdom in negotiating with Iran, the Los Angeles Times reported. “This is a case where we’re … on the sidelines,” Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News. “The three European countries that are negotiating with the Iranians are saying, ‘Look, we’ve got to get in the deal with them. We can’t just sit on the sidelines.’” “Nothing [the Europeans are] going to be able to do is going to be involved with us unless we’re willing to get into some kind of an agreement that results in a verifiable arms control agreement,” Biden said. He said if talks failed, Iran could be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. If both those moves failed, however, he said the United States would only have two unappealing options. “You accept them as a nuclear power, which I’m disinclined to do, or you invade, which we are not really particularly capable of doing right now,” Biden said (Ken Silverstein, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 14). Elsewhere, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned yesterday that Iran would be referred to the Security Council if it resumed uranium enrichment, AFP reported. “If Iran behaves in an unreasonable way, if for example it restarts enrichment ... then that would lead to the Security Council,” he said. Fischer is scheduled to meet his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharazi, Wednesday in Berlin, said the German Foreign Ministry (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 14).
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