And they discover this now...

Well, this was one of things that has worried me more since the first time about Iran. And being the Middle East a very unstable part of the world -perhaps the most- this is more than worrying. If they have used chemical weapons in the past in the wars between them, why are they going to refrain from using nuclear power? Those countries are among the ones which respect less -in fact, which do not respect at all- Human Rights.



Eye on Iran, Rivals Pursuing Nuclear Power - New York Times

Turkey is preparing for its first atomic plant. And Egypt has announced plans to build one on its Mediterranean coast. In all, roughly a dozen states in the region have recently turned to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna for help in starting their own nuclear programs. While interest in nuclear energy is rising globally, it is unusually strong in the Middle East.

“The rules have changed,” King Abdullah II of Jordan recently told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “Everybody’s going for nuclear programs.”

The Middle East states say they only want atomic power. Some probably do. But United States government and private analysts say they believe that the rush of activity is also intended to counter the threat of a nuclear Iran.

By nature, the underlying technologies of nuclear power can make electricity or, with more effort, warheads, as nations have demonstrated over the decades by turning ostensibly civilian programs into sources of bomb fuel. Iran’s uneasy neighbors, analysts say, may be positioning themselves to do the same.

“One danger of Iran going nuclear has always been that it might provoke others,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, an arms analysis group in London. “So when you see the development of nuclear power elsewhere in the region, it’s a cause for some concern.”

Some analysts ask why Arab states in the Persian Gulf, which hold nearly half the world’s oil reserves, would want to shoulder the high costs and obligations of a temperamental form of energy. They reply that they must invest in the future, for the day when the flow of oil dries up.

But with Shiite Iran increasingly ascendant in the region, Sunni countries have alluded to other motives. Officials from 21 governments in and around the Middle East warned at a meeting of Arab leaders in March that Iran’s drive for atomic technology could result in the beginning of “a grave and destructive nuclear arms race in the region.”

Remember that Morocco has voiced its intention for going nuclear.



Tigerhawk looks on this subject. Also Right Truth, NoisyRoom.Net,Town Commons, and Clarity and Resolve.



And who is amid all the Muslim would-be nuclear countries?

More in IHT.

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La carrera de Irán hacia ser una potencia nuclear produce, a su vez, el deseo de los países de alrededor de seguile. Turquía o Marruecos así lo han hecho así como Arabia Saudí, en casi todos los casos ayudados o prometiendo la ayuda necesaria Rusia.

La decisión de producir energía nuclear ha sido cuestionada por analistas y diversos países que ven bastante extraño que las mayores productores de petróleo y gas precisen este tipo de energía.

El rey de Jordania, Abdullah II, reconoció a la revista israelí Haaretz que las cosas habían cambiado y que todos estaban buscando la energía nuclear.

Related news:

Editor's Note - A Disarming Election: Iran and Syria lead the U.N. Disarmament Commission

On April 9, 2007 there was a United Nations believe-it-or-not moment extraordinaire. At the same time that Iran's President Ahmadinejad declared his country was now capable of industrial-scale uranium enrichment, the U.N. reelected Iran as a vice chairman of the U.N. Disarmament Commission.



Yes Ripley, the very U.N. body charged with promoting nuclear nonproliferation installed in a senior position the state that the Security Council recently declared violated its nonproliferation resolutions.

Iran announces "industrial" nuclear fuel work - Yahoo! News

Iran announced on Monday it had begun industrial-scale nuclear fuel production in a fresh snub to the U.N. Security Council, which has imposed two rounds of sanctions on it for refusing to halt such work.

The announcement marks a shift from experimental atomic fuel work involving a few hundred centrifuges used for enriching uranium to a process that will involve thousands of machines. Western nations fear this will bring Tehran closer to what they say is its aim of building atomic bombs.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants the fuel for generating electricity so it can export more of its oil and gas.

Gateway Pundit and Sweetness and Light commented about this.

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En español: Florentino Portero: Irán, más cerca de la bomba.

Un Irán nuclear representa un grave problema que no siempre somos capaces de valorar. La violación del Tratado de No proliferación por Corea del Norte e Irán a un coste diplomático y económico asumible es la señal que algunos otros están esperando para dar el paso. El régimen de no proliferación funciona mediante un doble mecanismo de persuasión y disuasión. Si el segundo elemento falla todo se viene abajo. Los países vecinos de los nuevos socios del club nuclear se sentirán forzados ellos también a dar el paso, con el objetivo de establecer un principio de disuasión o, si se prefiere, para restablecer el equilibrio. Egipto, Turquía o Arabia Saudí no podrán quedarse de brazos cruzados. El actual rearme japonés y su renovada alianza militar con Estados Unidos no pueden entenderse sin tener en cuenta el programa nuclear y de misiles norcoreano. Si fracasamos en Irán y Corea del Norte el régimen general de no proliferación entrará en crisis, lo que nos abocará a un entorno donde un conflicto nuclear será más probable que en la actualidad. El trabajo de años tratando de hacer un mundo más seguro quedará convertido en papel.

Que un estado como Irán, que nos ha declarado su hostilidad por mucho que no queramos enterarnos, acceda a la bomba nuclear implica que debemos establecer nuevos mecanismos estratégicos: disuasión nuclear y escudos antimisiles. La disuasión tiene un valor limitado cuando la otra parte está dispuesta al martirio y ese puede, en un momento dado, ser el caso de Irán. Lo esencial, por lo tanto, es dotarse de un escudo antimisiles capaz de explosionar la cabeza nuclear enemiga cuando se encuentre en las capas superiores de la atmósfera. No hace falta decir que, aunque el problema se veía venir desde hace mucho tiempo, lo único que hemos hecho los europeos es criticar las iniciativas norteamericanas. De ahí que ahora volvamos, una vez más, a depender de sus capacidades militares y de su buena voluntad. Más carnaza para el resentimiento.

En Oriente Medio el efecto será mucho más directo, favoreciendo el intento de los ayatolás chiíes por hacerse con el liderazgo en el Islam y dando cobertura a sus actividades terroristas -Hizbolá, Hamás...- y desestabilizadoras -Líbano, Palestina, Irak...-

"The only thing Europeans have done is to critisize US. So now we are going to depend once more on their military capacity and their good will. More fuel for resentment". (Florentino Portero, Spanish analist for GEES). Ejem...



Similar idea in CUANAS.



But now looks like that several US Senators have met with Iranian UN ambassador because US Dems wanted to talk with Iran.



Winds of Change.NET: (Thirty) Two Short Articles About Iran

it's difficult for me to sit down and accept the authoritay of someone who is a Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign relations and author of 'Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic' when he tells me that Iran is an unstoppable force in the Middle East and doesn't deal with the reasons why Iran may either be a hollow power - or why it may be motivated to be aggressive within a specific window of time. If this is what the leading experts are doing - heaven help us all.

Bushehr power plant to be inaugurated in Nov 2007: Russia - Irna



At a Glance | Deutsche Welle |

Iran seeks bids for two nuclear reactors Iran says its launching tenders for the construction of two new nuclear power plants in the southern city of Bushehr, where Russia is currently helping to build a nuclear power reactor. The Iranian leadership has unveiled plans for a network of power plants with a capacity of 20,000 Megawatts by 2020.

Also Reuters.



More in MNM.

ExtremeCentre.org » L’Iran persiste et signe ..:

Tehran Times: “A Country That Has… Uranium Enrichment Is Only One Step Away from Producing Nuclear Weapons; This Step Is Not a Scientific or a Technical [One] - But a Matter of Political Decision”

O Insurgente » Blog Archive » Coisas peculiares e fascinantes da democracia persa

While Iran’s international opponents have been distracted by the row over the country’s nuclear programme and the British naval hostages, Teheran has taken the opportunity to tackle reformers targeted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since he came to power.

As part of a wider crackdown, Iran’s parliament has also passed laws enabling security organisations - including the Revolutionary Guard, which was responsible for kidnapping the 15 Britons - to detain suspects for months for the purposes of interrogation.

Technorati Tags: Iran, nuclear crisis, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ahmadinejad,

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