Monday, February 13, 2012

Iran

Iran Considering Nuclear 'Time-Out' Proposal

Igor Ivanov (right) being greeted in Tehran by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on January 28 (epa)

January 29, 2007 -- Iran says it needs more time to study a proposal from the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency for a nuclear "time-out."

TEXT SIZE - +

January 29, 2007

Under the proposal, both Iranian nuclear work and UN sanctions on Iran would be suspended.

"Iran needs time to review such an initiative to see whether it has the capacity to resolve Iran's nuclear issue," chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said January 28.

Visiting Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, who appeared with Larijani at a joint news conference in Tehran, said the "time-out" proposal from International Atomic Energy Agency head Muhammad el-Baradei should be considered by Iran's government.

El-Baradei said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that any military action by foreign countries against Iranian nuclear sites could have disastrous consequences and called for a "time-out" so dialogue can be pursued.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iranian nuclear sites.

(Reuters, AFP)

Talking Technical

A control panel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant (Fars)

CASCADES AND CENTRIFUGES: Experts and pundits alike continue to debate the goals and status of Iran's nuclear program. It remains unclear whether the program is, as Tehran insists, a purely peaceful enegy project or, as the United States claims, part of an effort to acquire nuclear weapons.
On June 7, 2006, RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel spoke with nuclear expert Shannon Kile of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden to help sort through some of the technical issues involved. "[Natanz] will be quite a large plant," Kile said. "There will be about 50,000 centrifuges and how much enriched uranium that can produce [is] hard to say because the efficiency of the centrifuges is not really known yet. But it would clearly be enough to be able to produce enough [highly-enriched uranium] for a nuclear weapon in fairly short order, if that's the route that they chose to go...." (more)

Tehran Says It Is Working On Advanced Nuclear Fusion

Would Light-Water Reactor Suit Tehran's Needs?

Satellite Images Raise Questions About Iran's Nuclear Program

Centrifuges And Political Spin?

How Close Is Iran To Getting Nuclear Bomb?

Iran: The Worst-Case Scenarios

THE COMPLETE STORY: RFE/RL's complete coverage of controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program.

CHRONOLOGY

An annotated timeline of Iran's nuclear program.

Many Iranians have been claiming that their access to social networks and Internet-based e-mail sites has been blocked in recent days.

Iran Tightens Internet Control

Iranians are reporting that their access to Facebook and Internet-based e-mail sites like Gmail has been blocked, without any explanation from the government. Not even the strongest antifiltering programs have penetrated the firewall, they say. Some speculate the move is related to Iran's plan to launch a national internet, which might sever Iranians' ability to access the World Wide Web. More

Web-savvy Iranian oppositionists are renowned for their ability to use proxies and other means to circumvent Tehran

Explainer: Iran's National Internet

Reports that Iran has stepped up its Internet censorship in recent days -- as evidenced by a general slowdown of the web, Internet blackouts, and the blocking of sites such as Google -- has raised speculation that the country might be testing its controversial "national Internet." More

A cardboard Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini arrives in Tehran to mark the 33rd anniversary of his triumphant return to Iran following the Islamic Revolution.

Iran's 'Cardboard Khomeini' Faces Criticism, Condemnation

Iran's "Cardboard Khomeini" is fueling a firestorm of criticism in the Middle Eastern country after cutouts of the Islamic republic's founder appeared at a number of events, and photos mocking the mock-up went viral. More