[R-G] Juan Cole -- IAEA Inspectors: Iran not Producing Weapons-grade Uranium

[Sid Shniad]

Juan Cole -- IAEA Inspectors: Iran not Producing Weapons-grade Uranium 

As I mentioned yesterday, Iran is not producing weapon-grade uranium, 
and could not easily do so without detection. The Hindu, which despite 
its name is left of center (and which is one of India's finest newspapers) 

writes: 

'Iran has not converted the low-grade uranium that it has produced 
into weapon-grade uranium, inspectors belonging to the International 
Atomic Energy Agency have said. 

The Austrian Press Agency quoted an IAEA expert as saying that the 
uranium substances that Iran has produced at its Natanz enrichment 
facility have been carefully recorded and remote cameras have been 
installed to supervise part of the stockpile. 

"If the Iranians intend to transport these uranium substances to a 
secret location for further processing, agency's inspectors will find 
out," he said. 

The expert added that "so far, Iran has carried out good cooperation 
with us in relevant verifications". 

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has said that Iran has slowed down its 
uranium enrichment programme.' 

US newspapers are complaining that they are losing money and may not 
survive. After they put all sorts of falsehoods about Iraq on their 
front pages, it may be that they fatally wounded their credibility 
with the US public. In any case, the above report does not show up 
anywhere on the web or in Lexis that I can find, except here in The 
Hindu, which tells me that someone is not doing their job. 
-- 
Posted By Juan Cole to Informed Comment at 2/22/2009 12:03:00 AM