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Iran advances nuclear program, increases arms smuggling

Global Arab Network - Gerlinde Gerber

Monday, 18 April 2011 12:04

Iran advances nuclear program, increases arms smuggling

While the world's attention is focused on the wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East, Iran has managed to accelerate its suspected nuclear weapons program and boost arms smuggling to terrorist groups.

Nuclear program

At the occasion of Nuclear Technology Day celebrated in Tehran earlier this month, Iranian scientists and officials said they had successfully tested advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium and were getting prepared to activate the country's first nuclear reactor.

Western officials and experts say these gains in Iran's nuclear program could effectively erase setbacks from recent cyber-attacks and shorten the timeline for acquiring nuclear weapons.

Fereidoun Abbasi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency said that "second and third generation" centrifuges had been produced and tested and that two assembly lines had now been established at the Natanz enrichment site in central Iran producing uranium enriched to 20 percent purity.

According to Olli Heinonein, a former nuclear safeguards chief for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, a few hundred of these new generation centrifuges could produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in less than a year.

"If they can get the new machines performing well, and in large numbers, it will make a big difference," he explained.

Also this month, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed that fuel rods which had been inserted into the Bushehr power plant last October, but were then removed, were now being reloaded. He added that Bushehr should reach its "critical phase" by May 5-10.

Moreover, supporters of an Iranian opposition group said recently they had information about another secret Iranian nuclear facility. The facility is at a site referred to as TABA, west of Tehran, and is designed to manufacture parts for centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Iran's Foreign Minister confirmed the existence of such a factory manufacturing centrifuge parts, but said the facility was no secret and that many other factories in the country were making components for Iran's nuclear program.

Arms smuggling

Taking advantage of the world's preoccupation with the Middle East turmoil, Iran has also enhanced its efforts to arm terrorist organizations across the region.

Several cases of Iranian weapons smuggling - by sea, air and land - have been reported during the past two months.

These incidents are part of a long string of arms shipments originating in Iran and destined for terrorist organizations worldwide.

In March, Israel seized the Victoria cargo ship carrying Iranian weapons to terrorists groups in Gaza.

Just a few days later, Turkey stopped two Iranian planes to be searched on suspicion of carrying weapons to Syria.

Still in mid-March, Egyptian security forces shelled and seized several vehicles carrying what were likely Iranian-supplied arms from Sudan into the country, apparently headed for terrorist organizations in Gaza.

In the latest incident, earlier this month in Sudan, an air strike killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan. According to some reports, one of the men was "Hamas weapons man", Abdul-Latif Ashkar. The Sudanese government blamed Israel for the attack

Global Arab Network
(Source: Realite-EU)
[1]"Iran touts major advances in nuclear program", Joby Warrick, Washington Post, April 11, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-touts-major-advances-in-nuclear-program/2011/04/11/AFZ8cxMD_story.html

[2] "Iran says atomic progress resumes after power plant delay", Reuters, April 9, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/09/us-iran-nuclear-ahmadinejad-idUSTRE7382J720110409

[3] "Iran touts major advances in nuclear program", Joby Warrick, Washington Post, April 11, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-touts-major-advances-in-nuclear-program /2011/04/11/AFZ8cxMD_story.html

[4] "Iran says atomic progress resumes after power plant delay", Reuters, April 9, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/09/us-iran-nuclear-ahmadinejad-idUSTRE7382J720110409

[5] Iran opposition backers claims find of secret Iranian nuclear facility, CNN, April 7, 2011, http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-07/world/iran.opposition.secret.site_ 1_centrifuges-nuclear-program-nuclear-inspector?_s=PM:WORLD

[6] "Iran confirms factory producing centrifuge parts", AP, April 9, 2011,

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article /ALeqM5j3dWE_Uj4BaBV4bpz0h2HpLbNNEQ? docId= 2e50bbf0b0634defa7883f662eafa679

[7] "Ship Bound for Egypt Is Seized by Israel", The New York Times, March 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/middleeast/16israel.html

[8] "Turkish air authorities search another Iranian freighter", IFW, March 12, 2011

http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/index/turkish-air-authorities-search-another-iranian-freighter/20017858367.htm

[9] "Egypt seizes vehicles bringing arms from Sudan apparently headed to Gaza", The Associated Press, The Canadian Press, March 15, 2011, http://ca.news.yahoo.com/egypt-seizes-vehicles-bringing-arms-sudan-apparently-headed-20110315-134246-751.html

[10] "Target of Sudan attack was 'Hamas weapons man'", Ma'an, April 7, 2011, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=376314

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