Ahmadinejad: Iran Now Nuclear Power

[Gold9472]

Ahmadineajd: Iran now nuclear power
Iranian president: Our scienists have reached zenith, accessed nuclear fuel cycle

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342489,00.html

Yaakov Lappin Published: 12.20.06, 13:14

Iran is now a "nuclear power," its President, Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, delcared Wednesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency .

During a speech delivered in the Western Iranian province of Javanroud, Ahmadinejad said: " The Islamic Republic of Iran is now a nuclear power, thanks to the hard work of the Iranian people and authorities."

The announcement of Iran as a "nuclear power" is bound to significantly escalate tensions between the West and Iran, and marks a dramatic stage in the Islamic Republic's nuclear campaign.

In recent days, the US military has begun to build up forces around the Gulf, in what is being seen as as a warning to Iran.

Ahmadinejad was also reported to have announced that "Iranian young scientists reached the zenith of science and technology and gained access to the nuclear fuel cycle without the help of big powers."

The Iranian president began the speech by saying that "the powerful Iranian nation resists bullying powers and will defend its rights, including the right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology," the IRNA said.

In a clear rejection of all diplomatic attempts to prevent Iran from going nuclear, Ahmadinejad added in his speech that "the Iranian nation will continue in its nuclear path powerfully and will celebrate a nuclear victory soon."

The IRNA said Ahmadinejad was in Javanroud for a three-day tour along with members of his cabinet.

[Gold9472]

Ahmadinejad: Israel, US will vanish
Ahmadinejad says Israel, US, Britain will vanish – 'this is a divine promise;' Iran demands UN Security Council condemn Israel's nuclear development, place Israel's facilities under inspection

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342368,00.html

News agencies Published: 12.20.06, 09:35

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched another attack of Israel and it's allies the United States and Britain in a speech Wednesday morning.

The Iranian news agency reported that, during his speech in western Iran, the Iranian president said that the US, Britain and Israel are doomed to disappear.

"The aggressive forces will vanish, while the Iranian people will survive – since all who chose God will survive and those who distance themselves from God vanish like Pharaoh," said Ahmadinejad in his speech.

"The US, Britain, and the Zionist regime will vanish since they have distanced themselves from God. This is a divine promise," he added.

Ahmadinejad also referred to the international motion towards imposing sanctions on Iran for refusing to put an end to it's nuclear program. "They threaten us with punishments. But they must know that nuclear energy is the Iranian people's right, and they will insist on that right," he explained.

On Tuesday, Iran demanded that the UN Security Council condemn what it said was Israel 's clandestine development of nuclear weapons and "compel" it to place all its nuclear facilities under UN inspection.

If Israel refuses to comply, Iran said the council must take "resolute action" under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter which authorizes a range of measures from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military action.

Iran insists its own nuclear program is a purely peaceful effort to develop energy, but the United States and many European nations believe Tehran's real aim in enriching uranium is to produce nuclear weapons. The Security Council is currently debating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment program.

Iran's UN Ambassador Javad Zarif said in identical letters to the council and the secretary-general that the council's actions would show whether it was acting under the UN Charter or as "a tool" for a few permanent members who have encouraged Israel "to persist in its lawless behavior with impunity."

The reference appeared aimed at the United States, Israel's closest ally, which would almost certainly veto any council resolution on Israel's nuclear program.

Zarif said that Israel was the only obstacle to establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

Israel has a longstanding policy of ambiguity on nuclear weapons, refusing to confirm or deny whether it has them. But in the German TV interview broadcast on December 12th, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert listed Israel among countries that possess nuclear weapons.

Olmert's comments — which his office said were misinterpreted — came days after Robert Gates, who took over Monday as US defense secretary, said in testimony to a Senate committee that Israel was a member of the club of nuclear armed nations.

Israel's UN Mission had no immediate comment on Zarif's letters.

The Iranian ambassador insisted in the letters, obtained by the Associated Press, that Olmert's comments were a clear admission that Israel possessed nuclear weapons in violation of international law, the UN Charter and numerous Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

[Gold9472]

Netanyahu to ambassadors: It's 1938 again, stop Iran
Opposition leader speaks to 60 ambassadors in Tel Aviv, says Ahmadinejad, like Hitler, is a problem for Jews but also for rest of world. Says Iran seeks nuclear armed thousand- year Islamic Reich. Ends on optimistic note, saying process can be stopped in 1,000 days

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3341946,00.html

Attila Somfalvi Published: 12.19.06, 12:01

The Iranian bomb can be stopped, and in 1,000 days – or so claimed opposition leader and Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting with some 60 foreign envoys in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Netanyahu urged the diplomats to take action against the Iranian threat and not sit on the sidelines on the issue, saying that the longer the stick used to bar Iran from developing the bomb, the better the world's chances are of not seeing such a bomb used.

When has a world leader openly called for genocide, Netanyahu asked the audience, adding that such a thing goes against the moral principles the world is based on.

"The year is 1938 andIran is Germany," said Netanyahu, reiterating his message from last month in Los Angeles. Iran wants a nuclear weapon, he said, but this time the Jews have a country and also a responsibility.

My country is threatened, said Netanyahu to the delegates, but so are your countries – Ahmadinejad is a problem for Jews, like Hitler was, but he is also a problem for the entire world. Iran is pursuing a fanatical fantasy of a nuclear armed thousand-year Islamic Reich armed with nuclear weapons, which it will use, said Netanyahu. We must deny them this weapon, he said, you have the power to stop it and it can be done in 1,000 days.

Netanyahu's speech comes at the height of a joint US and European effort to pass a UN Security Council resolution regarding the use of sanctions against Iran. Cautious voices of optimism were heard in London, Berlin and Paris on Tuesday following what appears to be a softening of the Russian hard opposition on the subject.

However Iranian President Ahmadinejad paid the warnings no heed, vowing on Tuesday that no sanctions wouldl stop the bomb.

“A nation whose youth has been able to achieve the nuclear fuel cycle with empty hands - rest assured that it will be able to capture other peaks of (progress),” Ahmadinejad told a large crowd, not long after promising yet again that Israel's days are numbered .

The 1,000 days of which Netanyahu spoke are an apparent reference to the statements made by Mossad Chief Meir Dagan on Monday, according to which an Iranian nuclear weapon is not expected to be completed before 2009.

In the meantime US media reports indicate that the Pentagon has already decided to bulk up its forces in the Gulf – for now at least, as a means of deterrence.

[Eckolaker]

I didn't see anything that was said by Ahmadenijhad about Iran having a bomb. He just says he scientists have discovered a way to enrich fuel. Either way, I don't think this can be good. I really do see the use of a nuclear weapon in modern times.

May luck be with us all.