Excerpts: Iran to expand nuclear program. Iran wants talks. Iran halts oil
to Britain and France February 20, 2012
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 20 Feb.’12:” ‘Iran building up N-site near Qom’

SUBJECT:”Iran to expand nuclear program

QUOTE:”” Iran appears to be poised to install thousands of new centrifuges
at the underground site in the northern city”

FULL TEXT:LONDON — Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear program at an
underground plant near the city of Qom, a diplomat has told the BBC, just
days ahead of a visit by United Nations nuclear inspectors.

Iran appears to be poised to install thousands of new centrifuges at the
underground site in the northern city, a Vienna-based diplomat told the
British broadcaster late Saturday[18 Feb.].

The BBC said the centrifuges could speed up the production of enriched
uranium, which can be used both for generating nuclear power and to
manufacture atomic weapons.

Iran said Wednesday[15 Feb.] it had installed another 3,000 centrifuges to
increase its uranium enrichment abilities, but it was unclear Sunday whether
these were the same as those mentioned by the diplomat.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear
watchdog, are due to visit Tehran this week.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has begun a two-day land
military exercise to upgrade its capabilities to defend the country against
possible external threats.

Commander of the Guard’s ground forces Mohammad Pakpour said on comments
posted on the force’s website sepahnews.com that the maneuvers dubbed
Valfajr, or Dawn, began Sunday[19 Feb.] outside the city of Yazd in central
Iran.

The Guard is Iran’s most powerful military unit.

Iran, meanwhile, has stopped selling crude to British and French companies,
the oil ministry said Sunday. “Exporting crude to British and French
companies has been stopped ... we will sell our oil to new customers,”
spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum
website

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 20 Feb.’12:”Iran wants talks, under spectre of
possible war”, Agence Francce Presse

SUBJECT: Iran wants talks

QUOTE: Iran F.M on Sunday [19 Feb.] said his country is keen to quickly
resume mooted talks with world powers”; “P.M. Netanyahu ‘we’ve been seeing a
regime (Iran] that breaks all the rules’ “

FULL TEXT:TEHRAN — Iran is to host a high-level team from the UN nuclear
watchdog on Monday[20 Feb.] as part of efforts to defuse dire international
tensions over its atomic activities through dialogue.

But other words being spoken in Israel, the United States and Britain — and
Iran's defiant moves to boost its nuclear activities — underlined the
prospect of possible Israeli military action against the Islamic republic.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday[19 Feb.] said his
country was keen to quickly resume mooted talks with world powers, once a
place and date were agreed.

The last talks collapsed in Istanbul in January 2011, but Iran has responded
positively to an EU offer to look at reviving them.

"We are looking for a mechanism for a solution for the nuclear issue in a
way that it is win-win for both sides," Salehi said.

But he added that Iran remained prepared for a "worst-case scenario."

Such a scenario — war — remained very much the subtext of a visit to Israel
on Sunday[19 Feb.] by US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

Israel has been gripped by feverish speculation in recent weeks that it is
closer to mounting a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear programme, though
Tel Aviv has denied reaching such a decision.

The United States, while itself not ruling out a military option against
Iran, was publicly being seen holding back its main Middle East ally from
taking such drastic action.

"I think it would be premature to exclusively decide that the time for a
military option was upon us," the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Martin Dempsey, told CNN.

"The US government is confident that the Israelis understand our concerns,"
The Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted Dempsey as saying in the CNN interview.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also warned on the BBC on Sunday[19
Feb.]: "I don't think the wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch
a military attack on Iran.

Israel's calculations will have taken into account an announcement by
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last Tuesday[14 Feb.] that his
scientists were boosting uranium enrichment, notably by adding 3,000 more
centrifuges to a facility at Natanz.

Iran also appeared to be about to install thousands of new centrifuges in
another, heavily fortified enrichment facility near the city of Qom, a
diplomat accredited to the UN nuclear watchdog told the BBC.

Iran says the enrichment is part of a purely peaceful civilian nuclear
programme.

Western nations and Israel, though, fear it is part of a drive to develop
the ability to make atomic weapons.

A November report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic
Energy Agency, strongly suggested Iran's programme included nuclear weapons
research.

The IAEA delegation due in Tehran on Monday[20 Feb] is to hold two days of
talks with Iranian officials on those suspicions.

A previous visit on the same issue at the end of January, though, yielded no
breakthrough.

"I'm not optimistic that Iran will provide much more information because I
think any honest answers to the IAEA's questions would confirm that Iran had
been involved in weapons-related development work and Iran wouldn't want to
admit that for fear of being penalised," Mark Fitzpatrick of the
London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies told AFP.

The West has ramped up its economic sanctions on the Islamic republic in an
effort to force it to halt the enrichment.

"But so far they haven't worked and we've been seeing a regime that breaks
all the rules," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last
Thursday[[16 Feb..

The willingness of the two Middle East foes to tangle, at least covertly,
appeared to be in evidence recently.

Bomb plots to kill Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand emerged
February 13 and 14, using similar methods to those in the murder of Iranian
nuclear scientists in the past two years attributed to Israeli agents.

Iran denied any involvement in the plots against the Israeli diplomats — one
of whom was gravely wounded when her car was targeted in New Delhi. Israel
has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the Tehran hits.

Israel and Iran have also made preparations for open conflict.

Israel in 2009 reportedly purchased 55 bunker-busting bombs made by the
United States, and called off its biggest-ever joint military manoeuvres
meant to have taken place around now.

The Islamic state has been conducting several war games — the most recent,
land-based ones announced on Sunday in central Iran — and flaunted its
ballistic and cruise missiles.

And two Iranian warships sailed through the Suez Canal on the weekend and
were in the Mediterranean, within striking distance of Israel.

+++SOURCE: Washington Post 20 Feb.’1012:”Iran halts oil shipments to Britain
and France”, Associated Press

SUBJECT: Iran halts oil to Britain and France

QUOTE: “Britain imports no oil from Iran. . .France …on track to phase out
Iranian crude …currently makes up less than 4 percent of the country’s oil
imports”

FULL TEXT:Iran’s oil ministry said Sunday[19 Feb.] that it has cut off oil
exports to France and Britain in what officials described as the first in a
series of punitive measures targeting “hostile” European countries for
supporting economic sanctions against the Islamic republic.

The mostly symbolic move appeared aimed at blunting the political impact
within Iran of a European oil embargo set to begin in the summer. Iranian
officials have sought to play down the loss of the country’s European
customers, who collectively consume about 18 percent of Iran’s petroleum
exports.

“Crude oil exports to British and French companies have been halted,” Ali
Reza Nikzad-Rahbar, a spokesman for Iran’s Oil Ministry, said in a statement
on the agency’s Web site. The official added that Iran had other customers
and would “have no problem to sell and export our crude oil.”

The impact of the move is likely to be minimal, as Britain imports no oil
from Iran, while France is already on track to phase out Iranian crude,
which currently makes up less than 4 percent of the country’s oil imports.

Iran’s announcement comes four days after state-run news media reported that
Iranian officials were planning to terminate oil contracts with up to six
European countries in retaliation for sanctions. Government spokesmen later
denied the reports, but not before global oil prices shot up to an
eight-month high as investors fretted about shortages and escalating prices.

The wrangling over oil comes as Western nations prepare to further increase
the economic and political pressure to force Iran to give up its nuclear
ambitions. In addition to the oil embargo, European Union nations are moving
to exclude Iranian banks from the international financial messaging system
known as Swift, a move that will make it harder for Iran to collect money
from its foreign oil sales.

Despite stiff sanctions, Iran has refused to agree to curbs on its nuclear
program, which it says is intended only for generating electricity. Western
governments contend that Iran is moving systematically toward a nuclear
weapons capability under the cover of a civilian nuclear energy program.

But Iran has also hinted that it might be open to making concessions.
Iranian officials last week sent a letter to E.U. officials expressing
willingness to resume international talks on its nuclear program. Western
governments cautiously welcomed the proposal, which could lead to the first
direct talks in more than a year. Iran agreed to host a special visit by a
delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which traveled to
Tehran on Sunday for what the U.N. agency hoped would be a detailed
discussion of Iran’s past nuclear activities.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, continued to play down talk about
possible preemptive military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. The
White House dispatched National Security Adviser Thomas E. Donilon to Israel
over the weekend, the latest in a series of high-level visits focused
primarily on Iran and the worsening crisis in Syria. Donilon was scheduled
to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli
officials.

Hours before the talks began, the top U.S. military officer repeated the
administration’s view that a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran would be
“not prudent.”

“That’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis, well known and well
documented,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
said on CNN’s Sunday news show “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA