| THE HANDSTAND | 2ndWINTER2011 November-December |
iran clarifies the nuclear
dispute
Iran shows first response to IAEA
report
Tue Nov 22, 2011 
Iran's envoy to the
Vienna-based IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh Iran's envoy to
the International Atomic Energy Agency says the country's
refusal to participate in the Middle East nuclear
disarmament conference is in response to the new IAEA
report and Israeli nukes.
Iran on Monday snubbed a two-day UN atomic agency
conference on establishing a Middle East free of nuclear
weapons in the Austrian capital city after IAEA Director
General Yukiya Amano's report claimed, without any proof,
that Tehran had engaged in activities related to
developing nuclear weapons before 2003 and that these
activities “may still be ongoing.”
The Iranian envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, Ali Asghar
Soltanieh, said Israel's nuclear weapons were another
reason for not attending the meeting, ISNA quoted him on
Tuesday as saying in an interview with the Arabic-language
Al-Alam news channel.
He added that this is Tehran's “first response”
to the “inappropriate” IAEA report.
"The Zionist regime [of Israel] is secretly pursuing
covert nuclear activities which are a matter of concern
for the international community,” the Iranian envoy
added.
“As long as the Zionist regime does not join the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and refuses to
cooperate with global organizations, such conferences are
useless and cannot be successful," he added.
Israel is the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the
Middle East with over 300 nuclear warheads. Tel Aviv has
rejected all global demands to join the NPT and refuses
to allow the IAEA inspectors to monitor its nuclear
facilities.
Despite international objections to the Israeli military
nuclear program, the United Nations and its nuclear
regulatory agencies have never taken serious steps to
censure or impose sanctions on the Israeli regime.
The US, Israel and their allies accuse Iran of pursuing a
military nuclear program and have used this allegation as
a pretext to convince the UN Security Council to impose a
fourth round of sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has categorically refuted Western allegations,
saying that as a signatory to the NPT and a member of the
IAEA, it has the right to acquire and develop atomic
technology for peaceful purposes.
SF/HGH/IS
Iran to Remain Signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT)
Tue Nov 22, 2011
Member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy
Committee Fatemeh Alia said a meeting regarding Iran's
membership in the NPT was held on Tuesday which was
attended by head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization,
Fereydoun Abbasi, and representatives of Iran's Foreign
Ministry.
She added that at the beginning of the session, Abbasi
explained details of the recent anti-Iranian report by
the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
Yukiya Amano, which disregarded the viewpoints of the Non-Aligned
Movement, Majlis official news agency, ICANA, reported.
“We finally reached the conclusion that Iran should
remain a signatory to the NPT in order to be able to
defend its rights,” the lawmaker said.
Amano's latest report on Iran's nuclear program was
circulated among 35 members of the Board of Governors on
Tuesday, November 8, ahead of the seasonal meeting of the
board, scheduled to be held in Vienna on November 17-18.
In his report, Amano claimed Iran had engaged in
activities related to developing nuclear weapons before
2003, adding that these activities “may still be
ongoing.”
Iran has dismissed the report as "unbalanced,
unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and
under political pressure by mostly the United States."
The US, Israel and their allies accuse Iran of pursuing a
military nuclear program and have used this allegation as
a pretext to convince the UN Security Council to impose
four rounds of sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has categorically refuted Western allegations,
saying that as a signatory to the NPT, it has the right
to acquire and develop atomic technology for peaceful
purposes.
SS/HGH
Amano on wrong track regarding Iran
Tue Nov 22, 2011
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano is on the wrong track regarding Iran's nuclear program.
“Today, Iranian and world public opinion wants to know why the IAEA provided other countries with confidential information in violation of its obligations,” Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.
He also questioned the connection between the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists by Israeli-backed agents and an Amano report in which the names of scholars were mentioned.
“Unfortunately the IAEA director general is taking the wrong path and is discrediting the legal authority of the agency through his politicized behavior,” Mehmanparast stated.
“The most significant duty of the international Atomic Energy Agency and Amano is [nuclear] disarmament… towards which no measures have been taken and every year the countries which advocate human rights spend huge sums of money on boosting and upgrading nuclear weapons,” he explained.
Mehmanparast dismissed US allegations that Iran provided the regime of Libya's late dictator Muammar Gaddafi with chemical weapons and said that Iran is a victim of the chemical weapons that the US and other Western countries supplied Iraq with such weapons during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war in the 1980s.
He described the allegations as psychological warfare and said Western countries, particularly those who on the one hand advocate human rights and on the other hand arm their puppet regimes with nuclear weapons are behind all organized crimes in the world.
MRS/HGH/IS
Iran slams West hypocrisy on N arms
Thu Nov 24, 2011
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lashed out at the Western powers for maintaining “vast” nuclear arsenals and hurling allegations against the Islamic Republic over its civilian nuclear program.
“They themselves have stockpiled thousands of atomic bombs, but accuse our nation” of seeking a nuclear weapon, Ahmadinejad said during his speech for a gathering in the town of Pakdasht, south of capital city, Tehran.
Ahmadinejad reiterated that the “civilized” Iranian nation does not have any need for nuclear arsenals and argued,”They (the Western powers) tell us to prove you have no bomb. How can we prove something which basically does not exist? Those who level the accusations should substantiate [the claim],” ISNA quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
The remarks come against the backdrop of the latest report by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano which was released on November 8.
Later on November 18, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a controversial US-sponsored resolution against Iran's nuclear program that was strongly refuted by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member nations.
Moreover, the resolution failed in its attempt to report Iran to the UN Security Council or setting a deadline for Tehran to comply.
The IAEA report on Iran was dismissed by Tehran as "unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure by mostly the United States.”
ASH/GHN/MA
Iran to offer nuclear products,
services
Fri Nov 25, 2011 
The head of Iran's
Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun Abbasi (file photo)
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has
announced that the Islamic Republic would be exporting
nuclear energy-related services and products in the near
future.
“Our country has achieved complete self-sufficiency
in many nuclear [-energy related] areas and is ready to
offer [relevant] training and build centrifuges in other
countries,” IRNA quoted Fereydoun Abbasi as saying
on Thursday.
He added that the Islamic Republic had managed to carry
out all processes related to the generation of nuclear
energy, including production of yellow cake and
enrichment of uranium, domestically, using the services
of Iranian scientists.
“We are currently fully capable of processing [uranium-rich]
ore into yellow cake and enriching uranium up to 20
percent,” Abbasi added.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies
accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its
nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for
the imposition of sanctions on the Islamic Republic as
well as to call for a military attack on the country.
Iran, however, maintains that, as a signatory to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA,
it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes.
The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's
nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence of
diversion in Iran's civilian nuclear program.
HMV/AS/HN
All the above reports
are from www.pressTV.com