Iran increases defiance over nukes

Meanwhile, in a report Wedneseday, Reuters cites "an intelligence agency report being circulated by diplomats" as revealing that Iranian agents are "negotiating with a Russian company to buy a substance that can boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons."

The two-page report cited "knowledgeable Russian sources" for the information, which Washington will likely point to as more proof that Tehran wants to acquire nuclear weaponry.

"Iranian middlemen ... are in the advanced stages of negotiations in Russia to buy deuterium gas," the report said. Deuterium is used as a tracer molecule in medicine and biochemistry and is used in heavy water reactors of the type Iran is building. But it can also be combined with tritium and used as a "booster" in nuclear fusion bombs of the implosion type.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful puposes only.

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After breaking the seals, according to diplomats cited in a report from The Independent, Iran then "resumed building and testing the centrifuges, which can be used to make fissile material for a nuclear weapon."

An unnamed Western diplomat cited in an EU Business report said the removal of the seals at the Natanz nuclear center, 150 miles south of Tehran, appeared to be a "kind of maneuvering, maybe a symbol of defiance" ahead of renewed talks with the three European powers.

A tough resolution co-sponsored by Britain, France, and Germany, and passed by the IAEA in June, rebuked Tehran for failing to cooperate fully with inspectors. This angered Iran, causing it to threaten to resume uranium enrichment. But the resolution did not take the issue to the UN Security Council as the US wished.

"Iran now risks pushing Britain into the US camp," asserts The Independent.

A Times of London [subcription required] report Tuesday cited diplomatic sources as saying that Iran is " months away" from having the capability to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, Israel is calling for more international pressure on Iran. "A military operation is not absolutely necessary to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities," said Israeli army chief General Moshe Yaalon Wednesday. "If we look at Libya we can see that international pressure can be very effective."

As the BBC reported Tuesday, "If Israel becomes convinced that Iran is going down that road unstopped by the United Nations, it could one day take unilateral action, as it did when it bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981."

Iran is increasing its rhetoric against both Israel and the US.

The head of the Iranian army's ground forces, Brigadier General Naser Mohammadifar, said on Wednesday that his troops were " combat ready" and possessed a "martyrdom-seeking spirit", the official news agency IRNA reported.

A spokesman for Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards was quoted Monday as saying that Iran will wipe Israel "off the face of the earth" if that country dared to attack its nuclear facilities. "The United States is showing off by threatening to use its wild dog, Israel," Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri was quoted by the Iranian Student news agency.

Also...
• We're losing the arms race with North Korea ( Slate)
• Ex-SAS officer may face death penalty in coup conspiracy trial ( The Independent)
• High court challenge over Iraqi civilian deaths ( The Guardian)
• Pirates open fire on gas tanker in Indonesia ( The Straits Times, Singapore)
• EU, Syria compromise on strength of WMD clause ( The Daily Star, Lebanon)
• 9/11 report says plotter saw self as superterrorist ( The Washington Post)
• N. Korea wants US out of South ( The Los Angeles Times)
• Freed Egyptian thinks remorse turned captors ( The New York Times)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Matthew Clark.