ID :
117026
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 14:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/117026
The shortlink copeid
Iran says builds Fordo nuclear facility because of Israeli threats.
MOSCOW, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Iran is building an underground
nuclear facility in Fordo, 35 kilometers north of the city of Qum, because of U.S. and Israeli threats to strike at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, according to Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi.
"We decided to build the facility in Fordo Mountains because of
regular threats from the United States and Israel to bomb Natanz. This is
our reaction to their aggressive and unconstructive approach," he told
Tass in an interview on Thursday.
The ambassador said a weapons dump in the mountains is being developed
into a uranium enrichment center.
"There is not a single centrifuge there so far and the facility is
still far away from commissioning", Sajjadi said.
Earlier Iran informed the IAEA the Fordo facility would not be
commissioned before the spring of 2011.
The ambassador said that according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty Iran was not obliged to inform the IAEA about the facility, as over
six months remained before gas is pumped into the centrifuge.
"However to display our goodwill we did not wait for the established
deadline and notified the IAEA about our plans. We did it 18 months before
the established deadline," he said.
Therefore, Sajjadi described western claims of Iranian
non-transparency as "a manifestation of psychological war against Tehran".
"We notified the IAEA about Fordo when there was actually no
enrichment facility, but only plans to develop the place into a uranium
enrichment center. However leaders of the United States, France, and Great
Britain, who received the information not from intelligence services, but
from the IAEA fanned up the issue at the Pittsburgh summit to raise
tensions around Iran. Therefore, it is a clear political game and nothing
else," the ambassador said.
He also blamed the IAEA for "dual standards and bias" saying the
agency delayed consideration of simple issues related to the Iranian
nuclear problem before reporting that Tehran had committed no violations.
"Had there been no evil design, it would have reported it in two
months instead of dragging time for three years. Therefore, I
categorically disagree with allegations that our nuclear program is not
transparent. Had they been true, we would have never signed the NPP (like
India, Pakistan, and Israel)," the ambassador said.
.Eurocontrol says half trans-Atlantic flights to be cancelled.
BRUSSELS, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Eurocontrol air traffic service said
on Thursday a half of all trans-Atlantic flights may be cancelled Friday
because of an ash cloud caused by an erupting volcano in Iceland.
On Thursday from five to six thousand flights were grounded across the
whole of Europe.
"It's the first time in the history of European air traffic that we
are faced with such a phenomenon," Eurocontrol's deputy head of operations
Brian Flynn told a press conference.
Eurocontrol said the ash cloud from a volcano beneath Iceland's
Eyjafjallajokull glacier is moving to the south and southeast and the
whole of Germany and a part of Poland may be closed for air flights by
Friday morning.
By midnight the ash cloud from Iceland has covered Belgium, the
Netherlands, northern Germany, northern France and northern Poland. It
will soon reach Paris and Luxemburg.
Air traffic over the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and Norway has been completely shut down since Thursday
afternoon and is expected to resume by Friday evening.
According to Eurocontrol, on a normal day there are around 28,000
scheduled flights over European skies.
.SKorea's premier praises cooperation with Sakhalin.
VLADIVOSTOK, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- South Korean Prime Minister Chung
Un-Chan highly assessed Sakhalin efforts to promote mutually advantageous
cooperation with his country and promised "to promote all initiatives that
appeared during the presentation of Sakhalin region in Seoul," the
Sakhalin regional administration said in a press release on Friday
commenting on a meeting between the prime minister and regional Governor
Alexander Khoroshavin that took place on Thursday.
It quoted the prime minister as saying he would recommend Korean banks
to open branches on Sakhalin and assist in preparing the presentation of
Korean business on the island.
"You have done a lot, but we have to do more together. Sakhalin
region, Russia and the Republic of Korea have a lot of work to do, and it
shall be done properly," the prime minister was quoted as saying.
-0-nec
nuclear facility in Fordo, 35 kilometers north of the city of Qum, because of U.S. and Israeli threats to strike at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, according to Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi.
"We decided to build the facility in Fordo Mountains because of
regular threats from the United States and Israel to bomb Natanz. This is
our reaction to their aggressive and unconstructive approach," he told
Tass in an interview on Thursday.
The ambassador said a weapons dump in the mountains is being developed
into a uranium enrichment center.
"There is not a single centrifuge there so far and the facility is
still far away from commissioning", Sajjadi said.
Earlier Iran informed the IAEA the Fordo facility would not be
commissioned before the spring of 2011.
The ambassador said that according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty Iran was not obliged to inform the IAEA about the facility, as over
six months remained before gas is pumped into the centrifuge.
"However to display our goodwill we did not wait for the established
deadline and notified the IAEA about our plans. We did it 18 months before
the established deadline," he said.
Therefore, Sajjadi described western claims of Iranian
non-transparency as "a manifestation of psychological war against Tehran".
"We notified the IAEA about Fordo when there was actually no
enrichment facility, but only plans to develop the place into a uranium
enrichment center. However leaders of the United States, France, and Great
Britain, who received the information not from intelligence services, but
from the IAEA fanned up the issue at the Pittsburgh summit to raise
tensions around Iran. Therefore, it is a clear political game and nothing
else," the ambassador said.
He also blamed the IAEA for "dual standards and bias" saying the
agency delayed consideration of simple issues related to the Iranian
nuclear problem before reporting that Tehran had committed no violations.
"Had there been no evil design, it would have reported it in two
months instead of dragging time for three years. Therefore, I
categorically disagree with allegations that our nuclear program is not
transparent. Had they been true, we would have never signed the NPP (like
India, Pakistan, and Israel)," the ambassador said.
.Eurocontrol says half trans-Atlantic flights to be cancelled.
BRUSSELS, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Eurocontrol air traffic service said
on Thursday a half of all trans-Atlantic flights may be cancelled Friday
because of an ash cloud caused by an erupting volcano in Iceland.
On Thursday from five to six thousand flights were grounded across the
whole of Europe.
"It's the first time in the history of European air traffic that we
are faced with such a phenomenon," Eurocontrol's deputy head of operations
Brian Flynn told a press conference.
Eurocontrol said the ash cloud from a volcano beneath Iceland's
Eyjafjallajokull glacier is moving to the south and southeast and the
whole of Germany and a part of Poland may be closed for air flights by
Friday morning.
By midnight the ash cloud from Iceland has covered Belgium, the
Netherlands, northern Germany, northern France and northern Poland. It
will soon reach Paris and Luxemburg.
Air traffic over the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and Norway has been completely shut down since Thursday
afternoon and is expected to resume by Friday evening.
According to Eurocontrol, on a normal day there are around 28,000
scheduled flights over European skies.
.SKorea's premier praises cooperation with Sakhalin.
VLADIVOSTOK, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- South Korean Prime Minister Chung
Un-Chan highly assessed Sakhalin efforts to promote mutually advantageous
cooperation with his country and promised "to promote all initiatives that
appeared during the presentation of Sakhalin region in Seoul," the
Sakhalin regional administration said in a press release on Friday
commenting on a meeting between the prime minister and regional Governor
Alexander Khoroshavin that took place on Thursday.
It quoted the prime minister as saying he would recommend Korean banks
to open branches on Sakhalin and assist in preparing the presentation of
Korean business on the island.
"You have done a lot, but we have to do more together. Sakhalin
region, Russia and the Republic of Korea have a lot of work to do, and it
shall be done properly," the prime minister was quoted as saying.
-0-nec
