WATCHMAN ALERT - 9/11/2014 - GET READY CALLING ALL PRAY WARRIORS TO PRAY FOR ISRAEL IRAN FAILS TO ADDRESS ALL NUCLEAR CONCERNS, UN SAYS By John Harney - New York Times Prospects for an international agreement over Iran’s disputed nuclear program appeared to suffer a setback when a United Nations monitoring agency said the Iranians had yet to meet two of five confidence-building measures to ensure that their activities are purely peaceful. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said Iran had so far not explained unresolved issues over its research into detonators that could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, and had likewise not explained studies that could be relevant to calculating the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon. The issues are important because Iran must satisfy the atomic agency’s requests for transparency as part of a broader negotiation Iran has undertaken with the major powers aimed at assuring them its uranium enrichment and other nuclear work will never be used to make bombs. A temporary accord, which has already been extended once to give negotiators more time to reach a permanent agreement, is due to expire in November. Under that accord, Iran had agreed to freeze most of its nuclear work, including uranium enrichment, in exchange for modest relief of onerous Western sanctions that have hurt its economy. Iranian officials had agreed to address the confidence-building measures and other concerns in a meeting with the agency’s director general, Yukiya Amano, at meetings in Tehran last month. The agency said it had asked for a satisfactory response on all five steps by Tuesday. Iran has repeatedly asserted its nuclear work is peaceful, and President Hassan Rouhani has said resolving the nuclear dispute is one if his most important objectives. But negotiators are believed to remain far apart on some of the most contentious issues, including Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity. Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, declined to comment specifically on the atomic agency’s report. “We know there are outstanding issues with the I.A.E.A. — that is by no means breaking news to us — with Iran’s possible military dimension,” she said. “So I think we look at this in a comprehensive way. We are having the bilateral discussions right now. Those are ongoing.” While the Obama administration has long insisted that it remains committed to a “long-term comprehensive solution that provides confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” it imposed sanctions on several Iranian organizations late last month. The announcement came as the Iranian government seemed to be balking at scrutiny of its nuclear program. It had refused to allow new inspections of a military installation in Parchin, southwest of Tehran, where I.A.E.A. inspectors have suspected some experimental detonation work once was carried out.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:09:49 +0000
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