US warns Iran of nuclear holocaust

[chilli]

US warns Iran of nuclear holocaust

Tim Reid, Washington | August 30, 2007

PRESIDENT George W. Bush warned yesterday that Iran's pursuit of the atomic bomb could lead to a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East and promised to confront Tehran "before it is too late".

Mr Bush's remarks, the starkest warning he has made about Iran's nuclear ambitions, came just hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a power vacuum was imminent in Iraq and that Tehran was ready to fill it.

Mr Bush also talked for the first time of "two strains" of Islamic radicalism causing chaos in Iraq and the region: not just Sunni jihadists, about whom he has spoken often, but "Shia extremism, supported and embodied by Iran's Government".

The comments displayed a new aggression towards Tehran, a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the prospect of airstrikes on Iran if the crisis over its nuclear ambitions could not be solved through diplomatic channels.

Mr Bush said: "Iran's pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late," he told war veterans in Nevada.

Mr Bush has said repeatedly that he wants the Iran nuclear standoff to be resolved diplomatically. There is, however, still debate within his administration over the possibility of launching airstrikes should Iran continue to develop its nuclear capability.

Mr Ahmadinejad, in a news conference in Tehran, again denied Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, and dismissed any possibility of US military action against Iran.

"Even if they were to decide to do so, they would be unable to carry it out," he said.

He increased his provocation of Mr Bush, who accused Iran of arming insurgents with sophisticated roadside bombs that were killing US troops.

"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region ... we are prepared to fill the gap."

Although Mr Ahmadinejad revels in making provocative statements, his latest remarks will increase the fears in Washington and among the US's moderate Sunni allies in the region that an Iranian-dominated Iraq would trigger a regional war between Sunnis and Shias.

Mr Bush's speech was his second on Iraq within a week and was part of a significant effort by the White House to prepare the ground for the progress report to Congress next month by America's top military commander in Iraq, David Petraeus.

General Petraeus is widely expected to ask for more time for the troop "surge" and Mr Bush still has enough votes on Capitol Hill to give it to him.

It is likely that current US troop levels in Iraq -- about 160,000 -- will remain until April. General Petraeus has signalled he would then start to end the surge.

Despite that, US troop levels in Iraq are still likely to be about 130,000 next (northern) summer.

Last week, Mr Bush was accused of distorting history by comparing Iraq to Vietnam. He gave warning that a rapid pullout from Iraq would trigger worse bloodshed in the region than that in Southeast Asia after the US retreat from Saigon in 1975.

He told the American Legion Convention yesterday he believed the surge was working, military gains had been made and troops were "seizing the initiative from the enemy".

He said an agreement reached on Sunday by Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders in Baghdad to allow ex-Baathist members to get government jobs was evidence that political reconciliation was under way.

In reality, the agreement appeared to have achieved little because Iraq's main Sunni leader said it was too small an olive branch for his party to rejoin the Government of President Nouri al-Maliki.

But Mr Bush argued that the surge had to be given as much time as possible.

The Times

[Auxin]

For the record IAEA reports dont generally hit the US press, or when they are are reported as if the IAEA has no real clue what its doing. The vast majority of americans, even a majority of people with IQs in the 3 digit range, will beleive him.

Its sort of perversely amusing that he accuses them of planning nuclear holocaust. Not a shred of credible proof that they have a viable nuclear weapon program but bush threatens to bomb their nuclear reactors and a liquified uranium hexafluoride gas storage site housing enough uranium to irradiate the entire middle east and far, far beyond if it were bombed- that sounds damn close to nuclear holocaust to me.

[chilli]

Yeah Bush's warning could be read in a couple of ways I reckon.

[devance]

From the bible there is going to be one.

Isreal will survive.

Rather surprising with the missile problem and nukes.

Iran won't,

or much or the arab countrys.

The biblical prophecy is that they have killed the saints and will be given the black blood of a dead man to drink.

Oil looks like it.

[FungalFractoids]

For the record IAEA reports dont generally hit the US press, or when they are are reported as if the IAEA has no real clue what its doing. The vast majority of americans, even a majority of people with IQs in the 3 digit range, will beleive him.

Yeah, what are the chances of this getting much coverage on foxnews, sad ain't it

IAEA says Iran nuclear accord a 'significant step'

by Michael Adler Thu Aug 30, 9:48 AM ET

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran's decision to answer key questions about its nuclear programme is "a significant step forward," the UN nuclear agency said Thursday, reporting on a development expected to help Tehran avoid new sanctions.

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The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran continued to defy two UN Security Council resolutions to cease enriching uranium, but added that the enrichment work had slowed.

It said Iran was still short of its planned 3,000 centrifuges for producing enriched uranium which can be used as nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.

"The work plan is a significant step forward," the IAEA said, referring to an agreement under which Iran has agreed to a timetable for clearing up outstanding issues related to its nuclear programme.

But it added that "once Iran's past nuclear programme has been clarified, Iran would need to continue to build confidence about the scope and nature of its present and future nuclear programme."

The United States has accused Iran of pretending to cooperate with the IAEA in order to avoid further UN sanctions, and has stressed that fact that Tehran is still defying UN demands to stop enrichment activities.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors will review the report at a meeting beginning September 10.

Iran has cleared up questions about its experiments with plutonium, another potential atom bomb material, said the IAEA report, which included the timetable Iran and the agency agreed on last week to resolve outstanding issues.

The plutonium issue is one of several over which the UN Security Council imposed sanctions to get Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, which is investigating US charges that Tehran is covertly developing nuclear weapons.

"What we have is what we think is an important step," IAEA deputy director general Ollie Heinonen, who negotiated the timetable, told reporters.

He said the goal was to have the agency's questions about Iran's past hidden activities answered enough to close the matter by the end of the year.

"This is not an open-ended timeline," said Heinonen, who is chief inspector for the IAEA as head of its safeguards division.

He said it was the "first time" Iran had agreed to review documents that the United States says show Iran carrying out secret military work on uranium processing, high-explosives testing and putting a nuclear warhead on a missile re-entry vehicle.

"What Iran is facing is actually the litmus test, the test that it can provide in a timely manner answers to the IAEA questions and the supporting information that has been lacking," Heinonen said.

"If the answers (from Iran) are not satisfactory, we are making new questions until we are satisfied with the answers and we can conclude technically that the matter is resolved," Heinonen said.

A senior UN official, who asked not to be named, said: "If something pops up next Christmas, then that's a new issue" that the IAEA can ask about.

Beyond this, Iran must adopt the IAEA's additional protocol for wider inspections aimed at verifying the scope and nature of its nuclear programme, including advanced centrifuge research.

Iran's uranium enrichment levels at its plant in Natanz were measured at 3.7 percent, well within the maximum five percent needed for fuel needs, while weapons require over 90 percent enrichment.

The report said that "as of 19 August 2007, twelve 164-machine (centrifuge) cascades were operating simultaneously" in Natanz to enrich uranium, a total of 1,968 centrifuges.

A total of 656 more centrifuges are in development -- one 164-machine cascade running without feedstock uranium gas, one being tested and two more under construction, the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070830/wl_mi...ea_070830134812

[devance]

Intersetingly as they will get on CNN TV.

As Two prophets that will be saying stuff will be killed and resurrected.

That the beginning of revelations when that happens as far as problems.

Doesn't seem like much with terrorist blowing themselfs up.

But a different event.

[devance]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/860903.html

'Fully 71 percent of Israelis believe that the United States should launch a military attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to halt Tehran's nuclear program, according to a new poll. '

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What Iran don't understand is that the U.S. would like to launch a attack given any excuse.

Iran's playing a very dangerous game.