IRAN UPDATE

1.     Khamenei: No power can stop Tehran accessing an atomic bomb      Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, but no power could stop Tehran's access to an atomic bomb if it intended to build it. His message is that Iran has procured all the necessary components for a bomb but will not take dictation from outsiders on when to build it. Media and diplomats have reported that  Khamenei has been circulating a fatwa banning nuclear weapons to support Tehran’s claim that its nuclear program is purely peaceful. {See my remarks on this “Fatwa,below.}

2.     Iran will never shut Fordo, says lawmaker in Tehran     Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi spurned world powers’ latest offer to shut down the Fordo plant which refines uranium to 20 percent purity in return for easing the sanctions barring gold and precious metals trade with Iran. “The suggestion is meant to help the Zionist regime,” he said.  

 Tehran never intended closing the underground facility which brings uranium close to weapons-grade concentration. And so the nuclear talks opening in Kazakhstan on Feb. 25, 2013 between Iran and six world powers are doomed from the start.

3.     US: Iran cuts distance to nuclear bomb     The US slammed as “provocative” the installment of 180 advanced centrifuge at Iran’s main uranium enrichment site at Natanz, stressing that this will be six powers’ focus in the talks with Iran opening next Tuesday in Kazakhstan. The UN nuclear atomic agency in its latest report confirmed that the new IR-2m centrifuges can enrich three to five times faster than the outdated machines in use at Natanz until now.

4.     The North Korean test of a “miniature nuclear device” capability, combined with Iran’s ability to launch a capsule with a monkey payload into orbit, add up to their having achieved a nuclear warhead capacity through shared technology.

5.     Israel:The report's findings "prove that Iran continues to advance quickly to the red line."      A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said: " Iran is closer than ever to achieving enrichment for a nuclear bomb.The world has until next summer at the latest to stop Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb."

6.     US plan for UN to endorse Khamenei’s fatwa? Shock in Jerusalem      Officials in Jerusalem were dismayed to discover that instead of cutting this menace short, members of President Barak Obama’s circle were studying a "bizarre plan to appease Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by seeking UN Security Council endorsement for his nuclear fatwa." This fatwa was always dismissed as a piece of propaganda to support Tehran’s  claims that its program is purely peaceful  { Note that I have previously written on this Fatwa. And, contrary to the claims of Fareed Zakaria and Hillary Clinton, I determined that it was nonexistent. The claim was later modified to say that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's  sermons  and other writings  strongly implied his  prohibition .  MEMRI  later confirmed my findings.]