Iran
5/15/2007 | Iran
Iran 'steps up nuclear programme'
BBC NEWS
Ahead of a report to the UN Security Council, the IAEA said Iran had solved past problems and is now capable of making fuel for nuclear reactors. The findings come after a short-notice inspection by the agency at Iran's main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday. The West suspects Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge it denies.
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5/14/2007 | Iran, Iraq
Iran warns U.S. over strike threat
CNN.com
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The Iranian president said Monday Iran will retaliate if the U.S. strikes the country militarily. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said Iran had agreed for the benefit of the Iraqi people to meet with the U.S. in Baghdad to discuss security in Iraq. "They (the U.S.) cannot strike Iran," he said at a press conference during a two-day visit to the UAE. "The Iranian people can protect themselves and retaliate." The Iranian president's comments followed those by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney who said on Friday from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf that the U.S. and its allies would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and dominating the region.
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5/9/2007 | Iran
Iran Compromises on Nuclear Talks
Time
(VIENNA, Austria) — Iran agreed Tuesday to a compromise on the agenda text of a global conference called to consider ways to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, taking a surprise turn under pressure from allies to end a weeklong deadlock preventing talks. Tehran's decision saved the meeting from a likely collapse, allowing delegations to move on to their main purpose — beginning to lay the ground work for a 2010 conference that is to review and possibly revise the pact to make it more effective in curbing the spread of nuclear arms.
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4/27/2007 | Iran, Iraq
Was Tehran Behind an Iraq Raid?
Time
When unknown gunmen abducted and killed five American soldiers from a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Karbala in January, suspicion immediately fell on an elite Iranian paramilitary outfit called the Quds Force. The attack certainly bore signs of elaborate planning and professional execution: Nine to twelve fighters wearing U.S.-style military uniforms slipped onto the base driving sport utility vehicles, apparently duping guards at the gate. Once inside, the gunmen opened fire and threw grenades, killing one American soldier before seizing four others and speeding away. The entire operation was completed in roughly 20 minutes.
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4/19/2007 | Iran
Iran warns would-be attackers
CNN.com
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iran's army will "cut off the hand" of any attacker and is at the ready to fulfil its defensive duties, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday during an annual military parade. Iran is embroiled in a row with the West over its nuclear ambitions. The United States, which says Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb, has said it wants a diplomatic resolution to the standoff but has not ruled out military action if that fails. "The army stands against any aggressor and will cut off its hand," the president said in a televised address before a parade involving troops, tanks, missiles and other military hardware.
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4/15/2007 | Iran
Iran Seeks Two More Nuclear Plants
CNN.com
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Sunday it is seeking bids for the building of two more nuclear power plants, despite international pressures to curb its controversial program. Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization in charge of power plants, said the plants would be light-water reactors, each with the capacity to generate up to 1,600 megawatts of electricity. Each plant would cost up to $1.7 billion and take up to 11 years to construct, he told reporters during a news conference at his office.
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4/10/2007 | Iran
Iran Has Shares in French Nuclear Facility
Sunday Herald
WESTERN GOVERNMENTS have been accused of "stunning hypocrisy" after it was revealed that Iran has a 10% stake in the world's largest uranium enrichment plant in France. All the time that Britain, France and the US have been pressing the Iranian government to cease enriching uranium, the Islamic republic has been reaping multimillion pound dividends from its shareholding in Eurodif, an international enrichment plant at Pierrelatte in southern France. Because of its involvement, Iran has also been learning more about the latest enrichment technology. It claims that it only wants to enrich uranium to improve its performance as a fuel in nuclear power stations, but Western nations are worried that it will be used to make nuclear bombs.
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4/9/2007 | Iran
Iran Set to Announce Nuclear Plans on Monday
Reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president has promised to disclose news about Iran's nuclear program when he visits its uranium enrichment facility on Monday where the West says Iran is mastering the skills needed to make atomic bombs. Iran has rejected U.N. demands to halt enrichment, a process than can make power plant fuel or material for warheads, and has instead vowed to expand what it insists is peaceful atomic work. Diplomats speculate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could announce that Iran has installed more centrifuges, the machines used in the enrichment process, at the Natanz facility in central Iran. But Iranian officials have been tightlipped. "If you wait 24 hours, you will all find out," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a Sunday news conference when asked what the president would announce. Journalists will accompany the president with senior officials from Iran's Atomic Energy Organization to the site about 200 km (125 miles) south of Tehran. Ahmadinejad, who said in February he would announce "great" nuclear achievements in the days to April 9, is expected to hold a news conference. Sunday's Jam-e Jam newspaper wrote: "The installation and start up of 3,000 centrifuges and the injection of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas will be announced by the president." UF6 gas is fed into centrifuges as feedstock.
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4/8/2007 | Iran, Iraq
Officials: Iraqi Prime Minister Barred From Iranian Airspace
FoxNews.com
BAGHDAD — Iran refused to allow the Iraqi prime minister to fly across its airspace as he was traveling to Tokyo, members of the delegation traveling with Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press early Sunday. The delegation members said al-Maliki's plane was diverted on Saturday night to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where al-Maliki stayed in the airport for more than three hours while his government aircraft was refueled and a new flight plan was filed. Two members of the delegation told AP about the incident by telephone from Dubai. A government official in Baghdad confirmed their account. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
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4/7/2007 | Iran, Radical Islam, Terrorism
Iran: Sailors' Press Conference 'A Show'
Breitbat.com
Iran's state television said the British military "dictated" to its sailors what to say in a press conference on Friday. The former captives told reporters they were pressured while in custody to admit to being in Iranian waters. In its news report on the sailors, Iranian state TV said they held a "pre-organised" press conference in which "the British sailors only read from pages dictated to them." "They made statements completely different from what they had said in Iran and claimed that they were in Iraqi waters when detained," the TV newsreader said.
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4/5/2007 | Terrorism, Iran
House Democrats Offer Plan to Ban Use of 'Global War on Terror'
FoxNews.com
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner blasted a Democrat-backed plan on Wednesday to ban the use of "global War on Terror" and "long war" in the 2008 defense budget bill. A memo sent to Democratic staffers on the House Armed Services Committee instructed the aides not to use the specific phrases, the Military Times newspaper reported. • Click here to read the memo. Erin Conaton, the committee's staff director, sent out the 15-page memo titled "Style Guide for Defense Authorization Report." "When referencing military operations throughout the world, please be as specific as possible. Please avoid using colloquialisms such as, 'the war on terrorism, or the 'Long War' Please do not use the term 'global war on terrorism,' " according to the memo. Late Wednesday afternoon, a source told FOX News that the panel had sent out a revised version making it clear that there was “no political intent behind” the wording.
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4/5/2007 | Iran
Iran Sets Free 15 Britons Seized at Sea
New York Times
LONDON, Thursday, April 5 — Iran on Thursday morning released the 15 British sailors and marines it seized at sea nearly two weeks ago, resolving a diplomatic impasse with what Iran’s president called a “gift” to the British people.
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4/3/2007 | Iran
Exclusive: Iran Nuclear Bomb Could Be Possible by 2009
ABC News
Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium in the last three months, adding some 1,000 centrifuges which are used to separate radioactive particles from the raw material. The development means Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009, sources familiar with the dramatic upgrade tell ABC News. The sources say the unexpected expansion is taking place at Iran's nuclear enrichment plant outside the city of Natanz, in a hardened facility 70 feet underground.
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4/1/2007 | Terrorism, Iran
Hostages Face A Daily Terror
New York Post
April 1, 2007 -- A POTENTIAL clash of civiliza tions hangs over the heads of the 15 British sailors illegally seized by Iran. As the world watches and waits, the naval personnel have been captive in Iran now for eight days - during which time they've been paraded on television and forced to write dubious "confession" letters. Iranian naval boats nabbed the 14 servicemen and one servicewoman March 23 as they patrolled in disputed waters off the coast of Iraq. The Iranian government accuses them of having drifted into Iranian territory, a charge the British government has flatly denied.
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3/30/2007 | Iran
How Britons Were Conned By Iranian Gunboat Trick
Times On Line
The British sailors and marines being held by Iran were ambushed at their most vulnerable moment, while climbing down the ladder of a merchant ship and trying to get into their bobbing inflatables. Out of sight of their warship and without any helicopter cover, their only link to their commanders was a communications device beaming their position by satellite. That went dead as they were captured. One theory is that it was thrown overboard to prevent the Iranians getting hold of the equipment and the information it contained.
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3/29/2007 | Terrorism, Radical Islam, Iran
Ahmadinejad's Hostage Parade
Drudge Report
The release of kidnapped British sailor Faye Turney is on hold after Iran accused Britain of having an "incorrect attitude". The hostage crisis also took a sinister new turn as a hate mob in Tehran demanded that the 15 captured British Navy personnel be hanged. Protesters waved placards demanding "15 British aggressors must be executed" outside the foreign ministry.
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