"There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P. T. Barnum (1810–1891), an American showman
While Iran says it is developing new centrifuges - http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-developing-centrifuges-090813603.html
By BY NASSER KARIMI |
TEHRAN,
Iran (AP) — The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader on Friday
called for separate talks directly with the United States amid the
multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear Program.
The remarks
Friday by Ali Akbar Velayati signaled a high-level endorsement of the
policies of President Hassan Rouhani, who has been been sharply
criticized by hardliners over the landmark nuclear deal that Iran
reached with world powers last month and over other contacts with the
U.S.
Velayati said Iran benefits by talking separately with each of the so-called "5+1" powers —
the grouping of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and
Germany, with which it negotiated the interim nuclear deal and with
which it is still to work out a permanent accord. Each has separate
interests, he said in comments on television that were also carried on
the semi-official Mehr news agency.
"We aren't on the right path if we don't have one-on-one talks with the six countries,"
he said. 'We have to talks with the countries separately. ... It would
be wrong if we bring the countries into unity against us, since there
are rifts among them over various international issues."
Hard-liners
have blasted the nuclear accord as a surrender to Western pressure and
have criticized Rouhani over phone conversation he had with President
Barack Obama in September when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif met with his American counterpart. U.S. officials have also said
Iran and the Americans met in secret for months ahead of the nuclear
deal. Under the accord, reached in Geneva, Iran is to limit its uranium
enrichment for six months in return for an easing of some sanctions,
pending negotiation of a permanent deal.
Experts from Iran and the world powers will hold a new
round of talks Monday in Geneva on implementing the interim accord, one
of Iran's senior negotiators, Abbas Araghchi, and Maja Kocijancic, the
spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday.
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Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi (C) is surrounded by journalists following a press …
The
United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear
weapon. Iran denies the charge saying its program is only for peaceful
purposes, including power generation and developing medical treatments.
Iran's nuclear
chief Ali Akbar Salehi said late Thursday that the country is building a
new generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment but they need
further tests before they can be mass produced. His comments appeared
aimed at countering hard-liner criticism by showing the nuclear program
is moving ahead and has not been halted by the accord.
"The new
generation of centrifuges is under development. But all tests should be
carried on it before mass production," Salehi said, according to state
TV. He did not elaborate on how long that would take.
He also said
Iran has a total of 19,000 centrifuges, though he did not say how many
were operational. In August, Iran said it had 18,000 including some
1,000 advanced ones centrifuges. Iran previously gave the U.N. nuclear
watchdog information on the new generation of machines, which are able
to enrich uranium faster.
Under the
Geneva deal, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment to 5 percent
and neutralize its stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium.
Enriched uranium can be used to build a weapon if it is
enriched more than 90 percent. At lower levels, it is used to power
nuclear reactors.
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