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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35343465/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

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TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions.

Ahmadinejad reiterated to hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a "nuclear state," an announcement he's made before. He insisted that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons.

It was not clear how much enriched material had actually been produced just two days after the process was announced to have started.



David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said that any 20-percent enriched uranium produced just a few days after the start of the process would be "a tiny amount."

The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying the program is just geared toward generating electricity.

"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," he said.

Enriching uranium produces fuel for nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons if enriched further to 90 percent or more.

"We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it," he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Iran announced Tuesday it was beginning the process of enriching its uranium stockpile to a higher level. The international community reacted by discussing the imposition of new U.N. sanctions.


Revolutionary Guard assets frozen
The U.S. Treasury Department went ahead on Wednesday and froze the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs for their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran has said it wants to further enrich the uranium — which is still substantially below the 90 percent plus level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads — as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.

But the West says Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad restated Iran's position that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb," he told the crowd. "If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it."

"We told them the Iranian nation will never give in to bullying and illogical remarks," Ahmadinejad added.


Western powers blame Tehran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to defuse the situation by having Iran export its low enriched uranium for enrichment abroad and returned as fuel rods for the Tehran reactor.


Iran, in turn, asserts it had no choice but to start enriching to higher levels because its suggested changes to the international plan were rejected.

The president said Iran will triple the production of its low-enriched uranium in the future but didn't elaborate.

"God willing, daily production (of low enriched uranium) will be tripled," he said.

A confidential document from the U.N. nuclear agency shared Wednesday with The Associated Press said Iran's initial effort at higher enrichment is modest, using only a small amount of feedstock and a fraction of its capacities.
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My question is how long before Isreal drops bombs? They obviously aren't worried about it yet, since Iran hasn't been bombed yet.

GG

...edited out nuke reference.

If they want nukes so bad I say we give them 2-3. And we won't even bill Iran for them.

Change I can believe in.

Iran export its low enriched uranium for enrichment abroad and returned as fuel rods for the Tehran reactor

This combinded with this:

Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor.

Makes this pretty suspicous.

jbunny wrote:If they want nukes so bad I say we give them 2-3. And we won't even bill Iran for them.

I'd be down with that. Hell, I say we send them express delivery. Bet we could get them there in about 15 minutes.

What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Not quite. They've not developed a warhead or tested one. They haven't even admitted it is their plan. But they're getting closer...

Lord-Loss wrote:What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Beard envy.

Lord-Loss wrote:What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Blanket stereotypes about blanket stereotypes.

Here is another blanket stereotype:

"What is with you europeans, and your need to continually follow the herd by making such blanket stereotypes? Dont you have teeth that need to be brushed?"

Neither are constructive. I, for one, do not share the belief that nuclear arms or talk of using them should be so glibly bantied about.

Please curb your blanket stereotypes in the future for not only the sake of avoiding Rule #1 of Dakka, but for the sake of just being civil.

Lord-Loss wrote:What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Dunno. Something about the whole sawing off of heads I'd suspect. That and the whole "Great Satan" thing. Oh, and their stated goal of killing every Jew on the planet starting with the country of Israel. The bombing of the USS Cole might play too. Oh, and that whole Marine compound thing in Beirut still smarts a little. I'd imagine the fact the World Trade Center no longer stands also has a little to do with it. Petty reasons really, I know.

Let's not even bring up the infiltration of Western civilization (including your beloved UK) with the intent purpose of bringing Sharia law into force around the globe.

avantgarde wrote:

Lord-Loss wrote:What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Neck Beard envy.

Corrected your typo

HellFury wrote:Dont you have teeth that need to be brushed?"

That reminds me, I forgot to brush my teeth this morning. Thank you for reminding me.

Lord-Loss wrote:What Is it with you Americans and wanting to bomb the Middle East?

Thats where alot of the terrorist live, and it's cost effective to drop one big bomb in one location. If they were to spread out more then we would want to bomb other locations as well.

Iran is nothing more than a radical terrorist state that has threatened to wipe Isreal from the face of the earth. I have no doubt that if they were to get a nuke they would either use it on Isreal or try to smuggle it here to set it off on American soil. I have no problem with a First Strike Defense

The lives of the innocent people mean nothing to you?

Israel's monopoly on nuclear weapons in the middle-east is bound to end sooner or later....

It means the same to me as it does to them.

They don't. They never cared. It's the Oil, thats the ONLY reason that the west got involved with the Middle East A century ago, and that turned into waht it is today. Then we used them like toilet paper so we sould out do the Soviets, aka afghanistan.

As an Arab, muslim cow, i went to to the West Bank and Jordan for a year or so I can learn about my ancestors. And this is what i got form the locals:

they feel angry at the west. Not because of the culture, or how its coming here, they don't really mind it. They just feel that the Amercans, and the Europeans have backstabbed them, that they gave them the short end of the stick. And its true, in the past, whenever the U.S. wanted something from the region, they got it, and left them in the dark.

So all that anger grows into hate, and the terrorists ride on the hate into power. It like how Hitler Became Chancellor of Germany.

Yeah, they hate Americans so much but they sure as hell will sell us oil and take our money.

They've got a ways to go before reaching NK's status. Kim Jung Il > Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Cane wrote:They've got a ways to go before reaching NK's status. Kim Jung Il > Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

North Korea is BEST Korea!!!

Well I feel we're safe for now. It's when you see Israeli fighter bombers dropping daisy cutters in the desert that we should start worrying.

GG

I have a feeling this will not end well....

olympia wrote:Israel's monopoly on nuclear weapons in the middle-east is bound to end sooner or later....

Turkey has had nuclear weapons for some time, though only 40 or so.

Iran still doesn't have nuclear weapons, though its unlikely that we'll do anything serious to prevent them from acquiring them. We might launch air strikes, but it seems more likely that we'll let Israel handle that; not that it really matters given the fact that the Iranians, more or less correctly, view Israel as a US appendage.

We would be in a better position were we not running Iraq.

Dogma, tell that to our great Overlord who's promise to pull out of Iraq still hasn't happened yet.

Amongst many other promises he has yet to keep.

Fateweaver wrote:Dogma, tell that to our great Overlord who's promise to pull out of Iraq still hasn't happened yet.

Amongst many other promises he has yet to keep.

Fateweaver...why do you feel the need to rub peoples nose in it?

As a republican and fellow Obama dislikist, please take this stuff out of my thread...OK?

GG

Just to point out that not all Europeans agree with Lord Loss, i am British and i entirely agree with bombing people.

On topic, i dont see the problem, a massive war between Isreal and Iran + whoever else sides with them is on the cards, if you are on polar opposites, it HAS to end in a fight eventually.

They hate each other so bad that it will end up turning ugly... no amount of talk will change it. I honestly do not see how at least a small scale war cant kick off in the next few years.

For myself, im not too concerned. Iran will most definately smash Isreal if/when it gets the chance, but the Isrealis have a truly terrifying arsenal. They will either pre-strike the Iranians when it looks like they are getting ready to pounce, or maybe just maybe the Iranians will manage to pull it off and drop something nasty on the Isrealis first, but then all hell will break loose.

So.. im just going to laugh my ass off when the Isrealis wipe the floor with them. Im not overly fond of the Jews out there, but the enemy of my enemy is most definately my friend, and i do freely admit a healthy yet slightly irrational dislike of Muslims after 4 tours of the sandbox and a healthy dislike for the most aggresive mono-theistic dogma on the globe.

I just hope to gak that nukes dont get tossed around so much that it pretty much feths the entire world up.

And a small part of me feels sorry for the countless thousands that will die in the ensuing conflict. But... hey, wars have always gone on. Ill just keep on trying to smile unless i end up as ash myself!

Kinda sad but hey.. i dont have issues dealing with sad anymore, war is war, and it doesnt overly concern me. The planet has dealt with mass extinctions before, im sure something else will evolve eventually!

generalgrog wrote:

Fateweaver wrote:Dogma, tell that to our great Overlord who's promise to pull out of Iraq still hasn't happened yet.

Amongst many other promises he has yet to keep.

Fateweaver...why do you feel the need to rub peoples nose in it?

As a republican and fellow Obama dislikist, please take this stuff out of my thread...OK?

GG

What?

jbunny wrote:

generalgrog wrote:

Fateweaver wrote:Dogma, tell that to our great Overlord who's promise to pull out of Iraq still hasn't happened yet.

Amongst many other promises he has yet to keep.

Fateweaver...why do you feel the need to rub peoples nose in it?

As a republican and fellow Obama dislikist, please take this stuff out of my thread...OK?

GG

What?

I thought it was obvious that I was trying to keep the thread on topic, and what fate was doing was an obvious attempt to steer the topic to Obama bashing. Which could be ok if it was pertaining to Obama's policy toward Iran....however he brought up Iraq, tottally taking it off topic for no reason.

GG

They’ve been working on it for a long time.

Iran’s younger population is relatively well-educated, egalitarian, and technologically literate. Remember that they held demonstrations in the street in OUR SUPPORT after 9/11.

Did none of you nuke-‘em advocates watch the demonstrations after the last election? The government is still pretty scummy, but the people are largely good folks, and would make good allies. I don’t want those people dead. As they gradually inherit the reins of power, Iran will be less and less of a threat, and more and more of an ally.


I’m not sure how peacefully the next few years will go, though.

marching and fighting as we speak Ragnar. Power to the people!