Global Security Newswire

Iran rejected key terms of an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal for enriching the nation's uranium in its official response to the plan late last month, a U.S. nonproliferation official told Politico yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 8).

U.S. officials did not suggest they were considering Iran's proposed changes to the plan, which sought to defer the Middle Eastern state's ability to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon by refining a large portion of its low-enriched uranium in other countries for use at a Tehran medical research reactor. Tehran, which has insisted its nuclear program has no military component, has only offered to give up small quantities of its low-enriched uranium at a time in simultaneous exchanges for pre-enriched medical reactor fuel.

"The Iranians have been saying different things for weeks, but what matters is whether they will accept the IAEA's proposed [Tehran research reactor] deal, which they agreed to in principle on Oct. 1 but then walked away from. They know what they need to do to satisfy the international community's concerns and to date they have not done so,” said one administration official.

Talks on the matter appear to be under way again, even after Iran missed the U.S. deadline of the end of 2009 to accept the agreement, according to Politico.

"My understanding is that they (U.S. officials) have not given up on the [Tehran research reactor] deal. They need it. So if there was a chance of salvaging something. … They still want to get a deal," a Washington source involved in Iran strategy added yesterday. "As long as under no situation over the next year there is enough LEU to produce a bomb, whether Iran ships out the fuel in one, two or three batches, is just a logistical issue."

An agreement could be unveiled in "the very near future," according to one source (Laura Rozen, Politico, Jan. 11).

Iran indicated Saturday that the other participants in the uranium negotiations -- France, Russia, the United States and the U.N. nuclear watchdog -- had not yet answered Tehran's counteroffer.

"We are waiting to receive a practical response from the Vienna group and then announce our views," Iran's Fars News Agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying (Fars News Agency I/Tehran Times, Jan. 10).

A high-level legislator in Tehran yesterday ruled out exchanging the uranium outside Iran, the Xinhua News Agency reported. An Iranian government spokesman last week had indicated the country was willing to trade the material in a third-party country.

"Iran's stance that the (nuclear) fuel swap must take place in Iranian territory will not change," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee (Xinhua News Agency/China View, Jan. 11).

Meanwhile, the United States has prepared plans for responding to possible developments in Iran's nuclear program, U.S. Central Command head Gen. David Petraeus told CNN.

"It would be almost literally irresponsible if Centcom were not to have been thinking about the various 'what ifs' and to make plans for a whole variety of different contingencies," Petraeus said.

Iran has reinforced defenses and augmented the underground portions of its nuclear sites, but "they certainly can be bombed," he said. "The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear."

Petraeus said his country has not set specific time lines for carrying out such plans, but "there's a period of time, certainly, before all this might come to a head, if you will" (Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Jan. 10).

Elsewhere, Iran has settled on locations for all 10 of its planned uranium enrichment sites, the Fars News Agency reported Saturday.

The head of Iran's Nuclear Safety Organization discussed where to located the new facilities when he met with Iranian Atomic Energy Organization representatives, Iranian state media quoted Mohammad Karami-Raad, a lawmaker on the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, as saying. The officials also addressed physical defense and safety issues, he said (Fars News Agency II, Jan. 9).

In Abu Dhabi, the top UAE and German foreign officials urged Iran to help resolve concerns over its disputed nuclear work, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We are very concerned about Iran's nontransparent behavior with regard to its nuclear program. That is based on its lack of cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). We want more active cooperation from Iran. That would be in the interests of the world, the region and Iran itself," said UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan.

"We hope that Iran will behave so cooperatively that sanctions will not be necessary," he said, noting that the U.N. Security Council could consider imposing additional economic penalties on Iran. "We in the United Arab Emirates as a neighbor state are particularly affected by what Iran is targeted by but also everything it does" (Deborah Cole, Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Jan. 10).

In Jerusalem, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he wanted the Senate to soon consider legislation that would allow President Barack Obama to cut off U.S. business with petroleum suppliers that trade with Iran, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2009; Diaa Hadid, Associated Press I/ABC News, Jan. 10).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, though, brushed off the latest sanctions threats during a speech Saturday, AFP reported.

"They issued several resolutions and sanctioned Iran. ... They think Iranians will fall on their knees over these things but they are mistaken," Ahmadinejad said.

"We are not interested in conflicts (but) you are continually demanding things," he said, addressing Washington and other Western governments.

"They should not think they can put up obstacles in Iranians' way ... I assure the people ... that the government will wholeheartedly defend Iran's rights and will not back down one iota," Ahmadinejad said (Hiedeh Farmani, Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Jan. 9).

The United States could respond to Tehran's nuclear intransigence with new penalties on the nation's Revolutionary Guard, but some officials have expressed concern that the elite military organization's extensive involvement in the nation's economy might cause new sanctions to unintentionally punish ordinary Iranians, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

"U.S. sanctions will have no negative effect since the Guard organization is self-sufficient. Everything they need is here in Iran," said Kazem Jalali, another member of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee. "The Americans know that the Guard Corps is a defender of the values of the Islamic revolution. So the Americans aim to target its core."

"You can't see a single project above $10 million that is not executed by the Guard or one of their organizations. Some of our leaders now fear that (the Guard) will take everything into their hands," added Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, an analyst with the Tehran-based Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies (Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, Jan. 10).

Iran's nuclear program is increasingly seen within the country as a "sacred value," reducing the likelihood that Tehran could bargain substantively over the effort, Newsweek reported (Sharon Begley, Newsweek, Jan. 8).

The head of the Taiwanese firm Heli-Ocean Technology admitted Friday to selling Iran an undisclosed number of dual-use pressure transducers through a company in neighboring China, AP reported.

"This equipment is likely for its [uranium] gas centrifuge program," said David Albright, head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (Debby Wu, Associated Press II/New York Times, Jan. 8).