...Middle East 14 March 2013 Last updated at 19:41 GMT Iran nuclear weapon over a year away, says Obama US President Barack Obama has told an Israeli television channel it would take Iran "over a year or so" to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview with Channel 2 he said he did not want to "cut it too close" and declined to rule out the possibility of military action. Iran's nuclear programme is expected to be high on the agenda when Mr Obama visits Israel later this month. Tehran insists it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes. But Israel has repeatedly threatened a military strike if Iran appears to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb. Washington is pushing for more time to allow diplomacy and economic sanctions to run their course. "We think that it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon but obviously we don't want to cut it too close," Mr Obama said. "My message (to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) will be the same as before: if we can resolve it diplomatically, that's a more lasting solution. But if not, I continue to keep all options on the table." Asked if an attack on Iran's nuclear sites was a realistic option he said: "When I say that all options are on the table, all options are on the table and the United States obviously has significant capabilities. "But our goal here is to make sure that Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel or could trigger an arms race in the region...
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...Iran’s Nuclear Program Erin Henderson (Minson) Contemporary International Problems Professor Samad Hafezi What is the U.S. policy toward Iran’s nuclear program? Does it even exist? Has the U.S. taken a stance on what should be done and how to do it? After careful research I have still not been able to answer any of these questions. Let’s take a look at what the sources say and attempt to determine exactly where we are in 2010 on this very issue. Iran’s nuclear program goes all the way back to the era of the Shah and the plans for 20 nuclear reactors. It wasn’t until the bombing of the Persian Gulf that production was halted, but not completely. Their program today is managed by their President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Part of the uproar is that even though Iran is open to inspection of their “legal” nuclear program, they have a covert operation underway that they declare is for some sort of energy program for civilians. This seems to be a hot topic in the U.S. today. Since 1987 the U.S. has been issuing charges and regulatory guidance to Iran about their nuclear program and uranium enrichment operations. We have done everything from banning imports and goods to freezing personal assets of those individuals directly involved in the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet today we are still at a loss for how to handle this issue. The U.S. has more than enough issues directly tied to Iran’s nuclear program. Their ultimate concern is nuclear proliferations...
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...The Iranian Nuclear Dilemma Jonathan Metcalfe International Relations Research Paper Nathan Jones University of San Diego 5 December 2011 Since 2006 Iran has been making a serious push to gain nuclear weapons. Iran has been disregarding President Obama’s requests to cease the nuclear weapons program that is becoming a larger threat to international security. A realist would see the Iranian nuclear struggle as a push to challenge the power of the United States. Countries that have nuclear weapons legally through the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are major world powers in regards to economic, military, and global influence. Realism suggests that if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons that they could create hegemonic stability in the Middle East. Throughout history the Middle East has been a very unstable area. In recent years there has been effort to overthrow the dictatorial governments in the area, which created political unrest. Iran’s push to obtain nuclear technology could possibly bring peace to that area. Iran’s nuclear program has been developing since the 1960’s and was recently revived in 2006. Iran plans to have the nuclear technology ready by 2015. Iran could become a global superpower in years to come. Venezuela, Russia, the AQ Kahn network, and several other countries contribute to the Iranian development of nuclear weapons. These countries have aligned, and exchange information about WMD’s. Although aligning with...
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...Iran's nuclear program is one of the most polarizing issues in one of the world's most volatile regions. While American and European officials believe Tehran is planning to build nuclear weapons, Iran's leadership says that its goal in developing a nuclear program is to generate electricity without dipping into the oil supply it prefers to sell abroad, and to provide fuel for medical reactors. Iran's first nuclear program began in the 1960s under the shah. It made little progress, and was abandoned after the 1979 revolution, which brought to power the hard-line Islamic regime. In the mid-1990s, a new effort began, raising suspicions in Washington and elsewhere. Iran insisted that it was living up to its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but in 2002, an exile group obtained documents revealing a clandestine program. Faced with the likelihood of international sanctions, the government of Mohammad Khatami agreed in 2003 to suspend work on uranium enrichment and allow a stepped-up level of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Association while continuing negotiations with Britain, France and Germany. In August 2005, Mr. Khatami, a relative moderate, was succeeded as president by Mr. Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative. The following January, Iran announced that it would resume enrichment work, leading the three European nations to break off their long-running talks. Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium, but the atomic energy...
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...Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay By WILLIAM J. BROAD, JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID E. SANGER Ralph Langner, an independent computer security expert, solved Stuxnet. The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal. Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own. Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms. “To check out the worm, you have to know the machines,” said an American expert on nuclear intelligence. “The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.” Though American and Israeli officials refuse to talk publicly about what goes on at Dimona, the operations there, as well as related efforts in the United States, are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting...
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...Analyst in Nonproliferation John Rollins Specialist in Terrorism and National Security Catherine A. Theohary Analyst in National Security Policy and Information Operations December 9, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41524 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress The Stuxnet Computer Worm: Harbinger of an Emerging Warfare Capability Summary In September 2010, media reports emerged about a new form of cyber attack that appeared to target Iran, although the actual target, if any, is unknown. Through the use of thumb drives in computers that were not connected to the Internet, a malicious software program known as Stuxnet infected computer systems that were used to control the functioning of a nuclear power plant. Once inside the system, Stuxnet had the ability to degrade or destroy the software on which it operated. Although early reports focused on the impact on facilities in Iran, researchers discovered that the program had spread throughout multiple countries worldwide. From the perspective of many national security and technology observers, the emergence of the Stuxnet worm is the type of risk that threatens to cause harm to many activities deemed critical to the basic functioning of modern society. The Stuxnet worm covertly attempts to identify and exploit equipment that controls a nation’s critical infrastructure. A successful attack by a software application such as the Stuxnet worm could result in manipulation...
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...Iran and the Western World Sanctions on Nuclear Enrichment and Weapons development. The challenges between Iran and Western World started after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the United States imposed sanctions against Iran and expanded them in 1995 to include firms dealing with the Iranian government. In 2006, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1696 and imposed sanctions after Iran refused to suspend its uranium enrichment program. U.S. sanctions initially targeted investments in oil, gas and petrochemicals, exports of refined petroleum products, and business dealings with the Iranian revolutionary guard corps. UN sanctions against Iran The UN Security Council passed a number of resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, following the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors regarding Iran's non-compliance with its safeguards agreement. These are the sanctions below that were passed on Iran United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696 – was passed on 31 July 2006. Demanded that Iran suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and threatened sanctions. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 – was passed on 23 December 2006 in response to the proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program and, in this context, by Iran's continuing failure to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors and to comply with the provisions of Security Council resolution 1696 in...
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...Concern continues to grow about the developing Iranian nuclear capability. Through a variety of sources, the CIA believes it has access inside a heretofore unknown Iranian nuclear facility, deep underground and with very limited access, even by Iranian officials. The CIA's asset has the capability to disrupt the Iranian operation, either by means of planting a virus in the facility's computer system or by causing a disruption through the planting of a bomb or similar object. (LENGTH 4 - 5 pages doublespaced PLUS citations) Answer: the nuclear program of Iran was launched in 1950’s in collaboration with the United States of America as part of the Atoms of Peace program. During the Iran-Iraq war in 1980’s, over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians became the victims of chemical weapons. So Iran is has a first- hand knowledge of the effects of Weapons of Mass destruction. It has signed different treaties such as Nuclear-non Proliferation Treaty to show its concern about the risks of WMD. But now the true intentions of Iran on developing the nuclear capability are unknown. The U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that if Iran pursue to achieve the chemical weapons capability again it would be unlikely that it achieve this capability before 2013 or it might extends till 2015.( US Intelligence,2009). Iran nuclear program includes several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor and uranium enrichment facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants. The...
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...The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iranian Nuclear Deal in vernacular, that was signed earlier this year is the culmination of a decades-long diplomatic arm wrestle between Iran and the United Nations. Iran, the European Union and the permanent members of the UN Security Council collectively referred to as P5+1 (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany), reached a final agreement on July 14, 2015 in Vienna after many rounds of negotiations. The deal is meant to curb Iran's nuclear program, which has been a prolonged international safety concern, in return for incremental relief from the UN sanctions that have economically isolated Iran for years. The JCPOA requires that Iran cut its stock of enriched uranium by 98%, enrich uranium up to only 3.67%, and eliminate 2/3 of its current centrifuges. Iran cannot build new uranium-enrichment facilities, and nuclear activities will be restricted to one facility. Additionally, Iran has given the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) extensive access to its nuclear facilities for inspections. The physical requirements will last 15 years, while monitoring parameters will be in effect for 25 years. As Iran is confirmed to be in compliance with the deal, sanctions will be lifted and Iran will receive $100 billion of its frozen assets. Hassan Rouhani, the current Iranian president, and his administration hope the agreement will revitalize the country's economy. In exchange, the other parties predict...
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...Let’s all pity Netanyahu and the GOP: Israel, Iran, irrational thinking — and Thomas Friedman’s usual muddled nonsense A reactionary leader addressing a reactionary legislature will expose the creeping irrelevance of them both PATRICK L. SMITH Share 100 168 109 TOPICS: BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, NEW YORK TIMES, THOMAS FRIEDMAN, JOHN KERRY, ISRAEL, IRAN, EDITOR'S PICKS, NEWS, POLITICS NEWS Let's all pity Netanyahu and the GOP: Israel, Iran, irrational thinking -- and Thomas Friedman's usual muddled nonsense Thomas Friedman, Benjamin Netanyahu, John Kerry (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Michel Euler/Photo montage by Salon) Many readers will have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s sentimentally charged but otherwise empty speech to Congress on Tuesday. If you missed it, you can watch it here or read the transcript here. There is a lot to consider in this presentation, even if—or partly because—it was a celebration of the nothing-new. To me, the key to the occasion lies in one especially revealing trick the Israeli leader tried. This was the staged presence of Elie Wiesel in the gallery. The novelist, Nobel-winner and concentration camp survivor was strategically placed in the speaker’s box next to Netanyahu’s wife, Sara. After a reference to “a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war,” Netanyahu played his card. “My friend, standing up to Iran is not easy,” he began this passage. “Standing up to dark and murderous...
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...Iran’s Nuclear Weapons: Realist and Idealist Paradigms Student name: Institution: Course name: Ttor name: Due Date: Iran’s Nuclear Weapons: Realist and Idealist Paradigms This paper will discuss the impending nuclear agreement with Iran reflecting on the realistic and idealistic paradigms in international affairs. Observations of the relationship will firmly accommodate the two paradigms. The aim will be to elaborate clearly the use of international law and organizations on all the paradigms in connection to international security and inter-state relationships. Realist Paradigm Realism is mounted on the notion that, world politics is driven by competitive self-interests and a struggle for power that is aimed at preserving and improving military, security and economic interests. To realists, the presence of war is essential in a state system as it clearly underlines the hypothesis of international conflict. Such states are characterized by chaos and revolutions, which are directly linked to vested national interests, distribution of power and conflict. a. Political realism The Iranian nuclear program has attracted much attention within the international arena due to the interest devoted by nation’s states on their foreign policies (Bowen & Brewer2011). In international relations, realists and idealists paradigms are important as they concern themselves with substantive issues affecting nations and states...
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...policies in the international realm, which increases the pressure to establish rules of governance in cyber space. The following essay will be concerned with the Stuxnet worm and its role in Operation Olympic Games, which targeted the Iranian nuclear power plant Natanz. The analyses will provide an overview of the attack, including technical comprehension of the attack, and also looks at the attack in term of its political consequences. The first section will discuss the origins of the attack, building on Ralph Langner’s article published in ‘IEEE Software’. Even though numerous cyber offences took place before, it will explain what made Stuxnet stand out. The second part of the essay analyses the political perspective of the attack and two competing theories explaining the presence of malware in the nuclear facilities. The following section analyses the role of cyber warfare as viable military strategy. It will be argued that cyber offences appear to be more applicable as an offensive rather than defensive strategy, due to the attacker’s advantage. The last part of the essay will discuss if it is possible to prevent an advanced persistent attack like Stuxnet. Origins of the attacks Since the 1980’s, Iran’s nuclear power program has been continuously questioned by the International Energy Agency as well as the United Nations and the international...
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...A Declaration of Cyber-War | Vanity Fair April 2011 Stuxnet Worm Last summer, the world’s top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they’d seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it. As the world now knows, the Stuxnet worm appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. And, as Michael Joseph Gross reports, while its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating. By Michael Joseph GrossPhotograph by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson EMail GAME OF SHADOWS Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and C.E.O. of Kaspersky Lab—a Moscow-based computer-security company and an early investigator of Stuxnet—photographed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Kremlin. All over Europe, smartphones rang in the middle of the night. Rolling over in bed, blinking open their eyes, civilians reached for the little devices and, in the moment of answering, were effectively drafted as soldiers. They shook themselves awake as they listened to hushed descriptions of a looming threat. Over the next few days and nights, in mid-July of last year, the ranks of these sudden draftees grew, as software analysts and experts in industrial-control systems gathered in makeshift war rooms in 3 of 14 6/21/2014 10:02 PM A Declaration of Cyber-War | Vanity Fair file:///C:/Users/malbun/Desktop/A...
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...negotiations in Switzerland between the Islamic Republic of Iran and P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council– the United Kingdom, Russia, France, the United States and China plus Germany) along with the European Union, together they came up with an agreement to thwart the Iran Nuclear Programme. The document was published by the U.S. Department of State titled Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Nuclear Program. The agreement itself is very controversial, understandably so however because the agreement is 159 pages in it’s entirety and certainly becomes quite technical very fast. Through this essay I will be reviewing the the details and the politics surrounding the Nuclear Treaty with Iran and asserting my position on it. To review, the deal outlines what measures will specifically be made to prevent Iran from making a nuclear bomb and to avoid a war; and to protect potentially many thousands of lives and dollars. Some of the pros of this agreement are that firstly, the deal will keep Iran from producing enough material (enriched uranium, centrifuges, and plutonium) for a nuclear weapon for at least the next 10 years, and impose the watchful eye of the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) to provide inspections of Iranian facilities, including their military sites. It also provides a chance to lessen international tensions between Iran and the US, who loving refer the other as “the leading...
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...The Growing U.S. Concerns with Iran Jeremy Bondy American Military University DEFM600 B001 Win 12 Dr. Oliver Hedgepeth February 25, 2012 Table of Contents Introduction 3 History 4 Assumptions 5 Secrecy of Iran's Nuclear Program 6 Evidence of Nuclear Weapon Development 6 Refusing IAEA Inspections 7 Closing the Straits of Hormuz 8 Iran Aid to Syrian Government 9 Iran's Supporting of Militant Groups 10 Replacing the Iranian Regime 10 Variables Used to Define a Model 11 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction As time goes on Iran is becoming an increasing area of concern and threat to the United States and its allies. Iran has been working for some time at trying to establish itself as a dominant power, especially within the Middle East. This quest for recognition has caused rising national security concerns within the United States and some of its allied countries. Some of the most recent concerns include; Iran's nuclear program, threats of closing of the Straits of Hormuz, the oil sanctions, and Iran's threats towards other oil producing Arab nations. Iran has also been working at strengthening its ties with Syria, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite groups in Iraq, and ties to groups in Palestine and Afghanistan. According to Mansour (2008), Iran has many tools in place that have a major impact on their surrounding countries and on the United States. Iran is gaining allot of ground on becoming a dominating force...
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