Iran nuclear trigger report a U.S. forgery: Ahmadinejad

[sTony]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A leaked memo appearing to show Tehran's efforts to design an atomic bomb trigger was forged by the United States, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a U.S. news program.

Ahmadinejad was asked by ABC News about a report in London's Times newspaper last week on what it said was a confidential Iranian technical document describing a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the part of a warhead that sets off an explosion.

"They are all fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government," he told the U.S. network in an interview broadcast on Monday.

Reports that Iran is working on a bomb trigger are "fundamentally not true," Ahmadinejad said.

On December 14, The Times published what it said was the Farsi-language document, with an English translation, entitled "Outlook for Special Neutron-Related Activities Over the Next Four Years."

The document described steps to develop and test parts for a neutron initiator, a device that floods the core of highly enriched uranium with subatomic particles to set off the chain reaction of a nuclear explosion.

Last week, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the report "baseless ... not worthy of attention, intended to put political and psychological pressure on Iran."

"ARROGANT POWERS"

Iran, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, says its uranium enrichment program is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil. Because of its record of nuclear secrecy, the West believes Iran wants to make atomic bombs.

In a televised speech in southern Iran on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Israel should be dismantled. The Jewish state is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic weapons.

"They must know that the Iranian nation and all the world's nations will continue resisting until the complete (nuclear) disarmament of America and all arrogant powers," he told a crowd at a stadium in the city of Shiraz.

Dismissing Western allegations about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Ahmadinejad said: "You should know that if we had any intention of building a bomb, we would have had enough guts and courage to announce that without any fear from you."

Iran appears to be on course to miss the West's year-end deadline for it to accept an enrichment fuel deal aimed at calming international fears about its nuclear program.

If that happens, Washington has made clear it intends to pursue harsher sanctions against Iran in the United Nations.

Ahmadinejad said in Shiraz: "Who are they to set us a deadline? We set them a deadline that if they do not correct their attitude and behavior and literature we will demand from them the Iranian nation's historic rights."

(Reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington and Hossein Jaseb in Tehran; Editing by Eric Walsh and Andrew Dobbie)

[Greg_Cornish]

Everyone must be Christmas shopping.

[Vince E]

Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

[Popper]

Obama indicated last year that we should engage Iran with no pre-conditions to resolve our differences. After the 2008 elections, Obama wrote Ahmadinejad a letter. Ahmadinejad has publicly stated that Obama is inexperience and naive.
I suggest Obama write another letter because it doesn't look like Ahmadinejad received the 1st one.
4 years from now, the unqualified U.S president is going to find out writing letters to deal with a radical regime is a display of inexperience and weakness.

Bottom line:
Iran will never give up their nuclear program. Every effort the last 9 years to engage Iran during the Bush administration term using the French, British, Germans, Russians and Chinese have failed. The liberals are going to find out that the Bush Administration was dead on right regarding Iran, as additional sanctions are useless. It's inevitable fact that Iran will develop the nuclear technology required to build a nuclear device/bomb, and deploy the warheads using their current missiles as with Pakistan and India.
The difference between Iran and the rest of the nuclear countries is that Iran has already indicated that Israel should be wipe off the face of the Earth. No other country has made that threat in the 21st century.

At some point, I hope Obama gets the message that writing letters is useless, but then again what can you expect from a unqualified inexperience President?

If you know your history or was old enough to remember the 60’s imagine if John F. Kennedy took the approach of writing letters to the Soviets, or took 90 days to decide on what to do during the missile build-up in Cuba. Where do you think we would be today?
Yep, intermediate range nuclear warheads would have been parked right outside our borders. These missiles would have hit any major city with the East coast within 5 minutes. The course/outcome of the cold war would have been entirely different.

I expect the outcome of Iran's nuclear program will be a success as they know this U.S president will never have the back bone to apply diplomacy with strength as JFK did in 1960, and Reagan in the 1980's. And NATO will never act alone without U.S support.

Ed

[angler2020]

Israel Recalls all of its Ambassadors Worldwide

http://www.eutimes.net/2009/12/israel-r ... worldwide/



"Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Israel’s ambassadors and consuls generals from all over the world have been summoned to attend a conference to be held over global challenges facing Israel.

The meeting to be attended in Jerusalem Al-Quds on December 27-31 is hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the ministry reported on its website.

“The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country’s leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat,â€