Iran lashes out at West over slain scientist, but hints at diplomatic opening

[alp227]

Iran on Friday hurled new threats of retaliation against the West for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists but also signaled a readiness to negotiate on at least one of the nuclear disputes behind the country’s worsening feud with the United States.

Even as angry throngs swarmed the memorial services for slain scientist Mostafa
Ahmadi-Roshan, state-run news media confirmed a visit to the country later this month by a special U.N. delegation to discuss alleged secret research by Iran on designing a nuclear warhead. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which will dispatch its delegation to Tehran on Jan. 28, has been pressing Iranian leaders for years to come clean about experiments.

Iran’s invitation to the IAEA was the first conciliatory gesture since the country’s leaders threatened last month to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for economic sanctions. But Western diplomats and nuclear experts on Friday expressed skepticism about the meeting, noting that Iran continues to move aggressively to enlarge its stockpile of enriched uranium in defiance of U.N. and Western demands.

Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s former top inspector, warned in an interview that Iran may be seeking to buy more time by initiating talks without freezing its production of the nuclear fuel used in weapons and at nuclear power plants.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/angry-iran-buries-slain-scientist-vows-revenge-against-us-israel/2012/01/13/gIQAT65CwP_singlePage.html

[JackRiddler]

1. Let's hope sanity prevails because...

the bombing of civilians on the street is obvious terrorism. There are crazy, powerful people in the US and Israel who are trying to start a big, new, horrible war on Iran. Peace is the only credible path to positive change. Peace is the way to avoid nuclear proliferation, end a variety of bloody hostilities, and eventually clear the way to the reforms and openings that the people of both Iran and the US (and Israel) so badly need.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Always good to talk to each other.

.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. what a load of crap.

It is tough enough creating fuel for a reactor, when most US and Euro reactors use approximately 3-5% enriched fuel. Depending on what is used to moderate the chain reaction, these fuels are still tough to make. As hard as it is to reach this level, it can be done in small quantities, and perhaps can even be hidden successfully from our prying eyes.

Now, when you talk about enriching enough U or plutonium for nuclear weapons, you need U-235 (the rare isotope of Uranium) to about 92-94%. Given that most uranium ore has no more than 00.71% U-235, you are talking about a HUGE project. There are tell-tale side effects from which one can easily confirm whether such massive, expensive, and tough efforts are taking place. In retrospect, the Pakistan, Indian, and North Korean nuke developments were obvious, when we looked for the right stuff and in the right place. IN Iran, we are looking all over, as is Israel, and as Panetta said, THERE IS NO WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT THERE.

[DCBob]

4. Interesting how Iran has responded to all this..

One would think further threats of wiping Israel off the map would have been the likely response. Maybe the sanctions and fear of more clandestine attacks have forced them to the negotiation table.

[AverageJoe90]

5. Well.....

I still believe that the possibility exists that the Iranian gov't may have offed this guy themselves, perhaps over threats of whistleblowing or whatever.

On the other hand, there may be a few decent people left in Tehran and maybe they can try to steer the country from the course in which it's headed now.

[Critters2]

6. I figure it was the Iranian government, too.

Probably a whistleblower.