And now Iran. The Axis is complete.

[Brave]

U.S. Says Iran Is Pursuing Nuclear Arms

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday rejected Iran's assertion of peaceful nuclear aims and said the country was "clearly pursuing" nuclear arms.

Officials said Washington was waiting to hear from international inspectors before deciding on a response to disclosures Iran's nuclear program was more advanced than previously thought.

"It's hard to get a view into exactly what their motivations are, but very clearly they are pursing nuclear weapons," U.S. National Security spokesman Sean McCormack said, referring to Iranian leaders.

Iran, which President Bush (news - web sites) has branded an "axis of evil" member along with Iraq (news - web sites) and North Korea (news - web sites), last month revealed that it had begun mining uranium and was building several plants to process and enrich the fuel.

Time magazine reported in this week's edition that the Natanz uranium enrichment plant was "extremely advanced" and The Washington Post reported on Monday that Iran is on track to produce enough enriched uranium by 2005 for several nuclear bombs per year.

Enriched uranium is used in nuclear power reactors and can also be used to make atomic weapons. The United States has long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons capability.

Iran says its nuclear plans are merely aimed at meeting booming electricity demand from its 65 million population.

"Iran now openly says that it is pursuing a complete nuclear fuel cycle. We completely reject Iran's claim that it is doing so for peaceful purposes," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) told reporters on Monday.

"After all, Iran has been in possession of a great amount of energy of a non-nuclear nature as a result of their gas and oil supplies," he said. "There is no economic justification for this, and it does remain a matter of great concern."

McCormack said the United States wanted to hear a report from International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei on his visit to the Natanz plant last month.

"The first step is listen and hear from IAEA," he said.

Iran on Monday accused the United States of "sabotaging" cooperation between Iran and IAEA.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, "Iran's nuclear activities are transparent, peaceful, and are according to the international regulations."

Said Fleischer, "This is one of the reasons the president ... referred to Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the axis of evil, because of their willing desire to flaunt international accords in pursuit of nuclear weapons."

[Canyonero!]

So did David Frum see all of this coming? Or is it all just weird coincidence? To me, including Iran in the axis seemed odd, but maybe the administration has known things like this were going on.

[SPare]

This is little surprise. It's been relatively well known that Iran tests missiles for North Korea to get around the test bans. The quid pro quo is that the North Koreans are helping Iran to build nuclear weapons.

Mix that together with the fact that Rafsanjani noted in TIME that he would gladly do the thermonuclear tango with Israel, and we're living in VERY dangerous times.

Make no mistake, Iraq is merely the beachhead for a lot more shakeup.

[Guest SkinsHokie Fan]

America needs to continue to support groups in Iran that want to knock down that evil government. Trust me there is a growing revolution there we must foster and nurture it and watch Iran be free and no longer in the anti-American camp

[SPare]

Canyonyero:

If anything, Iran is the worst of the three. The entire destruction of Lebanon was caused by groups funded and trained by Syria and Iran.

Iran continues to be the primary source of funds for Islamic terrorism groups.

Iran formed the model that the Wahhabi madrassas follow.

Until Little Kim got the Bomb, Iran posed the greatest danger of the 3 countries.

Incidentally, Syria and Saudi Arabia probably could also have been included in the list.

[redman]

*Bump*

Report: Iran Nuke Experts Visited N.Korea This Year

Wed Jun 11, 9:42 AM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!

TOKYO (Reuters) - Iranian experts on nuclear issues secretly visited North Korea (news - web sites) this year, possibly to ask North Korean officials for advice on how to handle international inspectors, a Japanese newspaper said on Wednesday.

The Iranian experts made three visits to North Korea between March and May, the conservative Sankei Shimbun said, quoting what it described as "a Korean peninsula source," who was not named.

The visits "may have been intended to ask North Korea for know-how on how to act when accepting inspectors," Sankei quoted the source as saying. "Cooperation on nuclear development may also have been discussed," the source added.

A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization denied that any officials from the country's nuclear body had visited North Korea. Foreign Ministry officials did not return calls seeking comment on the report.

Two Iranian experts stayed in North Korea for several days in March for talks with North Korean officials in charge of nuclear development, Sankei said. One expert visited in April and two experts visited in May, the newspaper added.

Sankei said North Korea may receive, or may already have received, funds from Iran, both of which have been branded as part of an "axis of evil" by President Bush (news - web sites) along with pre-war Iraq (news - web sites).

Washington has accused Iran of violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Tehran has signed, by using undeclared nuclear material to test a uranium enrichment system.

Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to producing electricity and it has allowed inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to visit several of its nuclear facilities.

Tuesday it denied having any hidden nuclear facilities that should have been declared to U.N. inspectors, following a critical U.N. report of Tehran's nuclear program which Washington called "deeply troubling."

North Korea said Monday it wanted nuclear weapons so it could cut its huge conventional forces and divert funds into its economy, in Pyongyang's most explicit public acknowledgment to date that it was seeking to build nuclear weapons.

The United States said last October that Pyongyang had admitted to having a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear arms. North Korea has since expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

[luckydevil]

I supported the Iraq war, but I wanted to go after Iran instead. There is a large pro American sentiment there( more so than any other Arab country). They truly are living in a fundamental state, so a revolution will lead to a secular state and a pro-western attitude. A false notion proposed by many intellectuals is that democracy will lead to change in the Arab world. That is utter nonsense; democracy does not guarantee freedom or the protection of the minority, liberty is needed. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and economic freedom (private property, capitalism) will lead to change in the Arab world.

[redman]

I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment of your post, lucky, but I just wanted to point out that Iran is not Arab. Persians are ethnically South Asian, more closely related genetically to Indians than Arabs. That's important to note because movements like the pan-Arab Baath movement, for example, simply don't apply to them.

[Riggo-toni]

What we need to do here are a few strategic airstrikes at processing plants, similar to the brilliant move the Israelis did at the Osirak plant in Iraq back in the 80s. There's no need to go to full out war with Iran, but we can't delay these strikes much longer. Iran would have no qualms about passing on a couple warheads to Hezbollah.

[Riggo-toni]

Originally posted by SkinsHokie Fan

America needs to continue to support groups in Iran that want to knock down that evil government. Trust me there is a growing revolution there we must foster and nurture it and watch Iran be free and no longer in the anti-American camp

SHF,

Since you are a Muslim, I am curious on what your take is as far as American support for the MEK.

[aREDSKIN]

I've been saying for a while now that Iran is next on our target list. Either by military force or domestic upheavel the mullas days are numbered IMO. The hope is that Iran will impolde by the sheer weight of the utter contempt that the populas have for the mullas and the religious dogma. Iran is no Iraq. They are a significantly larger country with a much greater population. They are Persians and not Arab. Shia is the primary religious sect and not Sunni.

The time is fast approaching that this region will become a power keg unless the Iranians are held in check. Russia, NK and China are providing nuclear technologies for obvious reasons. War by proxy is becoming the choice de jure of this bloc.

[Prosperity]

The MeK can not be supported

I am an Iranian and while I do full heartedly support the overthrowing of the current goverment the MeK helped Saddam during the Iran Iraq War instead of helping their fellow Iranians who were being killed in the hundreds of thousands

[AJWatson3]

this has to be the stupidest statement i have read in a while:

"It's hard to get a view into exactly what their motivations are, but very clearly they are pursing nuclear weapons," U.S. National Security spokesman Sean McCormack said, referring to Iranian leaders."

It would be like the Andy Reid and Bill Parcells not understanding why we signed Coles, Morton, Thomas and Hall.....