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Posts Tagged ‘Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’

Breaking: IAEA Confirms Iran Working on Construction of Nuclear Warhead For Placement in Missile Delivery System

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

IAEA Confirms Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Claim of Substantial Uranium Enrichment Capacity and Raise Fears of Iran's Work on Nuclear Missile


Agence France Press, CNN and other news organizations are now confirming that, for the first time, the IAEA, in a report dated tomorrow, warns that Iran is currently secretly developing a nuclear warhead for placement in a missile delivery system. This incredibly explosive development is sure to rile the debate on the merits of the Obama Administration’s engagement policy towards Iran, with pressure certain to rise for a tougher stance from Washington. AFP’s report:

VIENNA — The UN atomic watchdog is concerned that its information about Iran’s nuclear activities suggests Tehran may be working on a nuclear warhead, according to a restricted report obtained by AFP Thursday.

“The information available to the agency … raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile,” the watchdog’s chief Yukiya Amano wrote in his first report to its board of governors.

It was the first time the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had expressed such concern about Iran’s “current” activities.

The report also confirmed that Tehran had begun enriching uranium at higher levels, theoretically bringing it closer to levels needed for making an atomic bomb.

“Iran provided the agency with mass spectrometry results which indicate that enrichment levels of up to 19.8 percent (uranium) were obtained,” the report said.

The confirmation by the IAEA of enrichment levels of nearly 20% clearly support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent boasts about a 20% enrichment capacity. The Obama Administration’s response was to ridicule Ahmadinejad’s enrichment claims via Robert Gibbs:

“Quite frankly, what — what Ahmadinejad says — he says many things and many of them turn out to be untrue,” Gbbs said. “We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.

Clearly, the Obama Administration’s statement via Gibbs was off the mark and one can only hope a new, stronger statement and, more importantly, a tougher line from the Obama Administration on Iran’s nuclear proliferation activities is forthcoming soon.

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