Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 9.11.2005:

UN Inspectors 'Powerless to Stop Atom Bomb Plans in Iran'

Con Coughlin, The Telegraph UK:

The former head of the United Nations inspection team that is investigating Iran's nuclear programme has called on the Security Council to give it greater powers so it can determine whether Teheran is trying to build an atomic bomb. For the past six years Dr Pierre Goldschmidt, a Belgian nuclear scientist, has been in charge of the inspectors sent by the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, to investigate Iran's nuclear programme. ...

"It is reaching the point where it is beyond critical," Dr Goldschmidt told The Sunday Telegraph in his first interview since retiring from the IAEA in July. "The IAEA can only work on the basis of the facts that are presented to it, and there have been many serious omissions by the Iranians. The Iranians are exploiting all the loopholes in the international agreements. As to why they are doing this you can draw your own conclusions."

Dr Goldschmidt believes that to deal effectively with Iran, IAEA inspectors need to be given greater powers than they currently have.

"As it stands, the investigating authority of the agency is too limited with regard to Iran. To do its job properly it needs to have more authority than is currently available to it."

In particular, he wants the inspectors to be given the power to interview any Iranian scientist they choose. The inspectors should also have the freedom to visit any military institutions to inspect and take environmental samples, and should be provided with all the original documents relating to Iran's nuclear programme. ...

He took issue, however, with the way Mohammed El Baradei, the head of the IAEA, had handled negotiations with Iran in the past two years. "El Baradei says that any judgement about Iran should be made on their intentions. My view is that we should look at the indications, not the intentions, and then decide. READ MORE

A Must Read!

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• Iran Press News reported that political prisoners Valiollah Fayz-Mahdavi and Hodjat Zamani, joined their fellow activists, Bina Darab-Zand and Behrooz Javid-Tehrani on their hunger strike.
• Iran Press News reported that Ahmadinejad, will be leaving Tehran for New York City on Tuesday. He will arrive in New York on Wednesday morning and bring with him an entourage.
• Iran Press News reported that the Dezfool Sugar Factory workers marched 448 miles from Dezfool to bring their protest to Tehran.
• Iran Press News reported that the Deputy Governor of Kurdistan, Jamshidi, was killed in a car crash along with one of his children. This is the second government official in Kurdistan who has presumably been killed in a car accident, in the past two weeks.
• Iran Press News reported that Iranians are dying of thirst in the port city of Kenaarak.
• Iran Focus reported that the chancellors of ten of Iran’s prestigious universities have resigned in protest against the policies of the new radical Islamist government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Iran Focus reported that some 200 special units of the State Security Forces (SSF) moved into different locations across the Iranian capital on Saturday.
• Iran Focus reported that a handshake between British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and one of Esfandiar Rahim Masha'ie, new Vice-Presidents, has aroused much anger and indignation among Iranian exiles, who say he has a long history as a torturer and executioner of political dissidents in Iran.
• Jim Saxton, The Washington Times published Jim Saxton's: Fighting Terror Four Years On. Another must read.
• Louis Charbonneau, Reuters reported that a joint EU and U.S. effort to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council is meeting fierce resistance.
• The Telegraph India reported that Hijab and chador notwithstanding, Iranian women have carved out a space for themselves in society.
• Iranian.ws reported that Ahmadinejd urges Iranian youth to support regime.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the Supreme Leader appointed Major General Ataollah Salehi to the post of general commander of the Army.
• The NY Times reported that Iran said today that it would not suspend its nuclear activities and contended that there would be serious consequences if its case were sent to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.
• And finally, The Scotsman interviewed Ahmad Batebi, Tehran's 'most wanted' political dissident. A must read.