NEWS,16.11.2012

Road closures in Israel indicate military build-up

The Israeli army said today it was closing three roads that lead to, or border the Gaza Strip, in an indication of a probable military build-up in the area.Shortly before, political sources said Defence Minister Ehud Barak was seeking government approval to mobilise up to 75,000 reserve troops for Israel's Gaza campaign, in a sign of preparations for a possible ground offensive.Western governments are watching Egypt's response to the attacks for signs of a more assertive stance towards Israel since an Islamist came to power in the Arab world's most populous nation.President Mohamed Mursi is mindful of anti-Israeli sentiment among Egyptians emboldened by last year's Arab Spring uprising but needs to show Western allies his new government is no threat to Middle East peace.His prime minister, Hisham Kandil, visited Gaza today in a demonstration of solidarity after two days of strikes by Israeli warplanes targeting Gaza militants."We see what is happening in Gaza as blatant aggression against humanity," Mursi said in comments carried by Egypt's state news agency. "I warn and repeat my warning to the aggressors that they will never rule over the people of Gaza."I tell them in the name of all the Egyptian people that Egypt today is not the Egypt of yesterday, and Arabs today are not the Arabs of yesterday."The Egyptian foreign minister also spoke to his counterparts in the US, Jordan, Brazil and Italy on Friday to discuss the situation in Gaza, a statement from the foreign ministry said.Mohamed Kamel Amr spoke to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the necessity of cooperation between the US and Egypt to end the military confrontations. Amr stressed the necessity of Israel ending attacks on Gaza and a truce being rebuilt between the two sides, the statement said.Mursi's toppled predecessor Hosni Mubarak was a staunch US ally who upheld a cold but stable peace with Israel.The new president has vowed to respect a three-decade peace treaty with the Jewish state. But ties have been strained by protests that forced the evacuation of Israel's ambassador to Cairo last year and cross-border attacks by Islamist militants.More than 1000 people gathered near Cairo's al-Azhar mosque after prayers, many waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags."Gaza Gaza, symbol of pride", they chanted, and "generation after generation, we declare our enmity towards you, Israel"."I cannot as an Egyptian, an Arab and a Muslim just sit back and watch the massacres in Gaza," said protester Abdel Aziz Nagy, 25, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.Protesters were marching from other areas of Cairo towards Tahrir Square, the main rallying point for last year's uprising.

Iran ready to double nuclear work in bunker -IAEA

Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a United Nations report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course.It also showed Iran's stockpile of its most sensitive nuclear material grown and was getting closer to an amount that could be sufficient for a nuclear weapon.The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of US President Barack Obama, which raised hopes for a revival of nuclear diplomacy with Iran following speculation that Israel might attack the nuclear facilities of its arch-enemy soon.But the UN watchdog's findings underlined the tough task facing world powers seeking to pressure Iran to curb atomic activity they fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies."The report paints the picture of Iran's continued lack of cooperation with the IAEA, and details its continued enrichment and installation of centrifuges in violation of UN Security Council resolutions," a senior Western diplomat said.The Islamic state has put in place the nearly 2800 centrifuges that the Fordow enrichment site was designed for and is poised to double the number of them operating to roughly 1400 from 700 now, according to the confidential IAEA report."They can be started any day. They are ready," a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA's investigation said.If Iran chose to dedicate the new machines to produce higher-grade uranium, it could significantly shorten the time required for any bid to build an atomic bomb. Iran says it needs to refine uranium to make reactor fuel.In another potentially worrying development for the West, Iran appears to have virtually stopped converting this uranium into making civilian reactor fuel since the previous report.As a result, the stockpile of uranium gas refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent increased by nearly 50 percent to 135 kg, the latest report said, still below the level of 200-250 kg experts say would be sufficient for an atomic bomb if refined further."This puts added pressure on the West's diplomacy with Iran, which has to operate on a tighter schedule," said research fellow Shashank Joshi at the Royal United Services Institute.Israel has recently signalled that an attack on Iran was not imminent - after months of talk that it might be on the cards soon by pointing to Iran's decision earlier this year to use part of its 20 percent uranium for civilian purposes."As Iran's 20% stockpile approaches around 240 kg, the Israeli sabre-rattling will resume,"

French PM tries to reassure Berlin

France's German-speaking prime minister has offered a worried Berlin reassurances his government would reduce the deficit and prevent France from becoming the next victim of the euro crisis by applying a new economic model.Jean-Marc Ayrault, making his first visit to Berlin since Francois Hollande became president, told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that France would find its own way to reduce spending and boost economic growth and jobs, rather than copying Germany."My challenge, the government's challenge, is to reform what isn't working, to correct what is too weak, but to keep the profound values that make France what it is," he told a joint news conference after talks with the conservative chancellor."The job that is under way is constructing the new French model," said Ayrault, a Socialist.A  report that Merkel's finance minister had asked the German government's economic advisers to consider preparing policy recommendations for France has stirred outrage in Paris.But Merkel said she would never dare to evaluate the decisions of the French government and added diplomatically: "We want a strong France just as France wants a strong Germany, so that together we can become a strong Europe."Ayrault also held a 20-minute meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who emerged saying Germany and France did not "grade" each others' economic policies.But it was clear French pride had been stung. Ayrault told a conference in Berlin organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that his host country Germany also had its problems."The German population is ageing quicker than the French, which poses problems for pensions and social security," said the French premier."This sort of understanding for other countries' problems I expect it for my own country too."Paris is under intense pressure to improve French economic competitiveness relative to Germany and southern European countries that have implemented painful reforms to bring down their own debt in the face of a crippling three-year crisis.German officials are worried that without bolder reforms, France could get sucked into the crisis which has forced bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland in what would be a crushing setback for the bloc's efforts to stem the turmoil.In response to calls by industrialist Louis Gallois for cuts in labour charges to reverse decades of industrial decline, the French government has now announced plans to grant companies 20 billion euros in annual tax credits to lower labour costs.Ayrault cited this as one example of the "courage" France's Socialist government was showing on economic reforms.His knowledge of Germany and its language may have been one of the reasons for his appointment. Relations between Merkel and the new president are often contrasted with the close partnership - especially on the euro crisis that she enjoyed with Hollande's conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.Hollande criticised Merkel's focus on austerity for the euro zone during his election campaign and the new Franco-German leadership couple have not got off to the best start."The main thing is to build a personal relationship," Ayrault said, adding that although the two governments belonged to opposing political factions, their relationship had to be "ueberparteilich" the German word for non-partisan.Ayrault and Merkel both rejected suggestions that the French premier's plans to meet Germany's centre-left opposition Social Democrats on Friday - less than a year before federal elections when Merkel will seek a third term undermined this ideal."The important thing is for us to work together well," said Merkel.

NEWS,10.01.2012

Iran nuclear work at bunker is confirmed

Diplomats confirmed a report that Iran has begun uranium enrichment at an underground bunker and said the news is particularly worrying because the site is being used to make material that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation’s main enriched stockpile.
The diplomats said that centrifuges at the Fordo site near Iran’s holy city of Qom are churning out uranium enriched to 20 percent. That level is higher than the 3.5 percent being made at Iran’s main enrichment plant and can be turned into fissile warhead material faster and with less work.
The move was expected, with Tehran announcing months ago that it would use the Fordo facility for 20 percent production. Iran began to further enrich a small part of its uranium stockpile to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010 at a less-protected experimental site, saying it needs the higher grade material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical radioisotopes for cancer patients.
But with the time and effort reduced between making weapons-grade uranium from the 20-percent level, the start of the Fordo operation increases international fears that Iran is determined to move closer to the ability to make nuclear warheads — despite insistence by the Islamic Republic that it is enriching only to make reactor fuel. Its dismissal of findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency of secret experimental work on a nuclear weapons program also worries the international community.

Iran recently threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an important transit route for almost one-fifth of the oil traded globally. Tehran also has been angered by the West’s efforts to sanction Iran over its nuclear program, including a possible ban on European imports of Iranian oil.
Fordo’s location increases concerns.
The facility is a hardened tunnel and is protected by air defence missile batteries and the Revolutionary Guard. The site is located about 20 miles north of Qom, the religious nerve center of Iran’s ruling system. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Iran’s nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, as saying Sunday that “the enemy doesn’t have the ability to damage it.”
Built next to a military complex, Fordo was long kept secret and was only acknowledged by Iran after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.
Two diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential and based on an inspection of Fordo last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
They said 348 machines were operating at Fordo in two cascades — the linked up configuration needed to enrich. Two other cascades were nearly assembled but not working, they said. The centrifuges appeared to be the standard old-generation machines in use at the main enrichment site at Natanz and not advanced, more efficient prototype versions. About 8,000 centrifuges are operating at Natanz, where five years of enrichment have turned out enough material for several nuclear warheads.
The Fordo startup was first reported Sunday by the daily Kaynan, a hardline newspaper close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all important matters of state. Abbasi was more circumspect, saying Saturday that his country will “soon” begin enrichment at Fordo.
It was impossible to reconcile the two reports. But the diplomats speculated that they could be a further reflection of divisions within Iran’s ruling circles about how upfront the nation should be with nuclear activities that are drawing increasingly severe international penalties beyond four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Iran — which claims it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and research — has sharply increased its threats and military posturing against stronger pressures, including U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s Central Bank in attempts to complicate its ability to sell oil.
A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard force was recently quoted as saying Tehran’s leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil route, if the country’s petroleum exports are blocked. Revolutionary Guard ground forces also staged war games in eastern Iran in an apparent display of resolve against U.S. forces just over the border in Afghanistan.
Iranian officials have issued similar threats, but this was the strongest statement yet by a top commander in the security establishment.
“The supreme authorities ... have insisted that if enemies block the export of our oil, we won’t allow a drop of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in countering such threats,” Revolutionary Guard deputy commander Ali Ashraf Nouri was quoted as saying by another newspaper, the Khorasan daily.
Adding to Iran-U.S. tensions, Iran’s state radio reported Monday that a Tehran court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death.
Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. Under Iranian law, Hekmati, a dual U.S.-Iranian national has 20 days to appeal. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan, has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested.
In an interview broadcast Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran is laying the groundwork for making nuclear weapons someday, but is not yet building a bomb. Panetta reiterated U.S. concerns about a unilateral strike by Israel against Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying the action could trigger Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces in the region. “We have common cause here” with Israel, he said. “And the better approach is for us to work together.”
Panetta’s remarks on CBS’ “Face the Nation” reflect the U.S. administration’s long-held view that Iran is not yet committed to building a nuclear arsenal, only to create the industrial and scientific capacity to allow one if its leaders to decide to take that final step.
President Barack Obama approved new sanctions against Iran a week ago, targeting the central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.
The U.S. and Israel have said that all options remain open, including military action, should Iran continue with its enrichment program.