Soltaniyeh: Iran against any measure leading to nuclear apartheid
IRNA– Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh said Iran was opposed to any move which would result in nuclear apartheid
He made the remark in the Friday night meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in reaction to a proposal by the US and a number of other western countries on formation of a nuclear fuel bank.
He said the fact that the proposal was not welcomed by all the IAEA member states proved that it was generally looked upon as a move to tighten technological and scientific monopoly and create a nuclear apartheid so it stood in sharp contradiction with the inalienable right of countries which was emphasized in the Non-Proliferation Treaty and thus was not acceptable.
The Iranian official further highlighted the legal deficiencies which the proposal contained in violation of the very basic principles stated in the NPT and the IAEA constitution, adding that any proposal should recognize countries’ undeniable right to development, research and production of nuclear fuel to be used for peaceful purposes.
He said the way countries implement their rights to nuclear technology is a matter of their own choice
Iran arrests terrorists who attacked nuclear scientists
Tehran Times - A number of people involved in the recent attacks on two nuclear scientists in Tehran have been arrested, Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi announced in Qom on Friday.
On Monday, two prominent physicists were targeted by terrorists in two separate bombings. Professor Majid Shahriari was killed and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi Davani was injured in the attacks. The two academics were both on their way to work at Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran when they were attacked. The police say that in both incidents, terrorists riding motorcycles attached magnetic bombs to the physicists’ cars.
The attacks came ahead of the talks between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), which will be held in Geneva from December 6 to 7.
Moslehi stated that the Mossad, the CIA, and MI6 were involved in the terrorist incidents.
“Those who were cooperating with these agencies… had more plans, but they were stopped,” he added
“Through the arrest of these people, we have found new clues to arrest the others behind the incidents,” Moslehi stated, but did not mention the number of people taken into custody.
“The enemy should be aware that they will get nowhere with these actions,” he noted.
-------80 anti-Iran organizations based in U.S.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Moslehi said that 80 organizations that are seeking to overthrow the Islamic establishment of Iran are based in the United States.
It is estimated that $2 billion is allocated to these organizations annually, he stated.
The intelligence minister added, “The enemy has a long-term plan in the area of soft war and has spent over $17.7 billion in order to topple the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic over the past 19 years.”
Clinton charm falls flat with Iran minister
Reuters-- Hillary Clinton lost him at "hello
The U.S. secretary of state had a rare chance to interact with Iran’s foreign minister at a Bahrain security conference, which Clinton used to deliver a message to Tehran on the need to engage with the international community over its nuclear program at next week’s talks in Geneva.
But while Clinton’s keynote speech from the podium directly addressed the Iranian team led by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, her attempt at a more personal diplomacy with Mottaki fell distinctly flat.
"I got up to leave and he was sitting a couple of seats down from me and shaking people’s hands and he saw me and he stopped and began to turn away," Clinton told reporters on her plane returning to Washington on Saturday.
"I said ’Hello, minister.’ He just turned away."
Clinton’s Bahrain speech on Friday came ahead of next week’s Geneva meeting between Iran and six big powers -- the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China and Germany -- their first such encounter in more than a year.
The big powers insist that the talks must focus on Iran’s nuclear program, which they fear is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have indicated that they are not eager to discuss their atomic work, which they say is entirely peaceful, leaving prospects for the Geneva meeting in doubt.
Clinton said she hoped her speech -- which described a clear choice for Iran on whether or not to rejoin the international community -- was aimed at setting the stage for the Geneva meeting and demonstrating that real dialogue was still possible.
Her aim, she said, was "to do it in a way that they couldn’t claim was accusatory, condemnatory, everything that they always claim about us."
"We offer to engage, and still have an open door on engagement, but they’ve got to show up in Geneva and negotiate on the nuclear program because it is causing legitimate concern," Clinton said. "If they proceed it will be profoundly destabilizing."
Mottaki, for one, didn’t seem destabilized in the least by Clinton’s entreaties. While the U.S. secretary of state laid out her case for broader Iranian engagement, Mottaki concentrated on his dinner -- giving no sign that Washington’s latest message to Tehran had been heard.