nuclear Archives

Report Israel ‘selling nuclear information’ to Saudi: Israeli expert

May 31, 2018 by administrator

Israel is selling Saudi Arabia information that would allow the kingdom to develop nuclear weapons, a senior Israeli nuclear expert has revealed.

Ami Dor-On, a senior nuclear commentator with the Israeli military organization iHLS, said the cooperation has been made possible in the wake of the widening ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is indicative of an emerging nuclear arms race in the region.

“This information should shock us as we see the world is changing for the worse, following the race for the possession of nuclear weapons that pass right over our heads in the Middle East,” the Middle East Monitor quoted the expert as saying on Thursday, citing a report by Arabi21.

According to the Israeli writer, the Tel Aviv regime is aware that Saudis would eventually make the move for developing nuclear weapons and want to make sure they would not go to other regional players such as Pakistan to obtain the know-how.

“It can be assumed that Israel may take the initiative to develop Saudi Arabia’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and not leave it solely to Pakistan, given the growing Saudi-Israeli relations,” the expert added.

Dor-On claimed that Pakistan has already signaled its willingness to transfer the expertise to Saudi Arabia “within a month” should the arms race intensify.

Saudi Arabia has already asked the US for permission to expand its nuclear program to include uranium enrichment, a move that experts warn is not to be taken lightly considering the Riyadh regime’s never-ending thirst for political and military dominance in the region.

The kingdom is widely viewed as the financier of Pakistan’s nuclear program. Ironically, Saudi royals took the first steps in the 1970s after finding out that Israel and India had already taken major steps towards developing nuclear weapons.

A few years after jump-starting Pakistan’s weapons program, Saudis followed their own nuclear ambitions by secretly procuring Chinese ballistic missiles already capable of delivering nuclear payloads.

The trend continued to the point that the kingdom designated the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force as one of the five branches of the Royal Saudi Arabian Armed Forces.

Experts have called on the international community to prevent Saudi Arabia from acquiring nuclear weapons, as Riyadh faces an uncertain future amid ongoing power clashes, the poor judgment of Saudi leaders and their promotion of extremist ideologies.

Source: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/31/563499/Israel-Saudi-Arabia-Ami-DorOn-iHLS-Pakistan

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Terrorists Could Capture US Nuclear Weapons at Turkey’s Incirlik Base

August 15, 2016 by administrator

Stimson Center think tank said that United States run the risk of losing control over dozens of nuclear weapons deployed at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to terrorists.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The United States run the risk of losing control over dozens of nuclear weapons deployed at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to terrorists, the Stimson Center think tank said Monday.

“The continued presence of these weapons at five sites in Europe, particularly in Turkey, raises serious risks of their seizure by terrorists or other hostile forces,” the center said in a new report titled “B61 Life Extension Program: Costs and Policy Considerations.”

In a statement accompanying the report’s publication, the think tank stressed that a protracted civil conflict in Turkey would make the fate of the weapons uncertain, citing the events during Turkey’s July 15 attempted coup.

The base was impacted significantly by the July 15 events and their aftermath. Former base commander Gen. Bekir Ercan Van was arrested over alleged involvement in the plot, while Turkish authorities cut the base’s electricity supply off and prohibited US planes from taking off.

“From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, just 70 miles from the Syrian border…These weapons have zero utility on the European battlefield and today are more of a liability than asset to our NATO allies,” Laicie Heeley, a Stimson Center researcher and the report’s co-author, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Stimson Center recommended the removal of all B61 bombs from Europe, stressing that a total over $6 billion could be saved by such a move.

Earlier in August, the US National Nuclear Security Administration approved the production engineering phase for the B61-12 life extension program as a part of the country’s drive to modernize it nuclear arsenal. The lives of over half of all B61 bombs are set to be extended.

The Incirlik base is used by the United States and US-led coalition combat planes when launching airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State group, which is outlawed in many countries including Russia. The base is located in the city of Adana, several dozen miles from the Syrian border.

Source: http://sputniknews.com/world/20160815/1044272187/terrorists-us-nuclear-weapons.html

Turkish actor Erdal Kuyumcu in US admits selling nuclear technology material to Iran

June 15, 2016 by administrator

Erdal Kuyumcu, 44, the chief executive of Global Metallurgy LLC

A former Turkish actor, detained in New York for illegally selling to Iran a restricted metallic powder used in missile production, pleaded guilty on June 15.
Erdal Kuyumcu, 44, the chief executive of Global Metallurgy LLC, pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court on June 15 to deliberately violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which limits trade with Iran.

The indictment said Kuyumcu collected more than 450 kilograms of cobalt-nickel metallic powder, which is used in aerospace, missile production and nuclear applications, to export them to Iran.

It added that Kuyumcu, along with another partner, then hid the metal powder in Turkey before sending it to Iran.

The indictment demanded 20 years in prison for Kuyumcu, in addition to a $1 million fine, but Kuyumcu is expected to be sentenced to up to five years in jail after reaching a deal with the prosecutor’s office and disclosing the partners and institutions involved in the plan.

The final verdict on Kuyumcu will be given in October.

According to a statement by the U.S. Justice Ministry, Kuyumcu sold nickel metal powder, which he bought from a U.S. company in Ohio, to Iran via a firm in Turkey without receiving a license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Kuyumcu’s lawyer Patrick Mullin denied that the powder would have been used in missile production, claiming that it was also often used for industrial purposes.

Kuyumcu had appeared in many TV series and movies in Turkey.

Zarrab case

Kuyumcu’s case may also set a precedent for the case involving Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab, who is currently jailed pending trial in the United States for money laundering, fraud and on charges of violating sanctions against Iran. Zarrab is on trial conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) against Iran and its institutions.

He faces 75 years in prison and a possible $50 million fine, $10 million of which will be paid in cash and the rest of which will be paid in bonds.

source: hurriyetdailynews

June/15/2016

Moscow, Yerevan mule boosting Armenian NPP nuclear fuel reserves

May 31, 2016 by administrator

213504 On the sidelines of the Moscow-hosted Atomexpo-2016, Armenian and Russian nuclear chiefs discussed the possibility of supplying the Armenian NPP with reserves of nuclear fuel, RIA said.

At the meeting, the administration of Fuel Company of Rosatom TVEL and chief of Armenian NPP Movses Vardanyan discussed the prospects of further cooperation, in particular, the possibility of additional supplies of Russian fuel to the reserves, a statement from TVEL said.

Vardanyan said that the Armenian plant has been using Russian nuclear fuel for almost 40 years, and long-term cooperation with TVEL allows to speak about the Russian company as a reliable supplier.

“I hope that we will be able to use quality nuclear fuel in further operation.”

The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) is the only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus; it is located only 36 kilometers west of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Approximately 40 percent of electricity of Armenia was produced by the nuclear power plant in 2015.

Azeri media panicked state that Armenia has nuclear weapons or radioactive similar weapon

May 1, 2016 by administrator

A new hysteria has seized Azeri media suspecting Armenia to hold “atomic weapons” or a radioactive weapon. Azeri media that ask Baku to bring the matter before the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in charge of controlling the atomic proliferation. The statement of General Arkady Ter Tatevosian and former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratain evoking available by Armenia ‘secret weapons’ caused a real panic among the population of Azerbaijan and especially its media. Azeri would be terrified that Armenia would have scientific and technical expertise to develop atomic weapons. Azeri media also calling for the closure of the Armenian thermonuclear Medzamor the only South Caucasus. The media claim that Armenian citizens arrested in Georgia recently tried to import in Armenia radioactive materials that could be used to make a bomb … these media call the Azeri Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov alert organizations international because according to them, Armenia would have the atomic bomb or the lowest “dirty bomb.”

Krikor Amirzayan

UN Security Council unanimously endorses Iran nuclear deal

July 20, 2015 by administrator

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously endorsed the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

The resolution, co-sponsored by all 15 council members and adopted Monday morning, also authorizes a series of measures leading to the end of U.N. sanctions that have hurt Iran’s economy, Associated Press said.

But the measure also provides a mechanism for U.N. sanctions to “snap back” in place if Iran fails to meet its obligations.
The resolution had been agreed to by the five veto-wielding council members, who along with Germany negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran.

Source: Panorama.am

US accuses Israel of spying on nuclear talks with Iran

March 24, 2015 by administrator

Israel denies Wall Street Journal reports that it shared confidential information from talks with members of the US Congress in attempt to derail any deal

The US has accused Israel of spying on international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme and using the intelligence gathered to persuade Congress to undermine the talks, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal cited senior administration officials as saying the Israeli espionage operation began soon after the US opened up a secret channel of communications with Tehran in 2012, aimed at resolving the decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

The apparent decision by the White House to leak the allegations is the latest symptom of the growing gulf between Barack Obama’s administration and Binyamin Netanyahu’s government over the Iran talks, in which the Israeli leader suspects US officials of being ready to make too many concessions at the expense of Israeli security. Intelligence analysts suggested that the leak reflects the degree of anger in Washington at Netanyahu’s actions, and could mark a more serious blow to the already tottering relationship.

The leak has come exactly a week before a deadline for the US-Iranian negotiations in Lausanne to produce a framework agreement.

According to the report, the US has long been aware that Israel is among the shortlist of countries with the most aggressive intelligence operations targeting America, alongside Russia, China and France. It said American diplomats attending the talks in Austria and Switzerland were briefed by US counterintelligence officials about the threat of Israeli eavesdropping. It also raised the possibility that Israel gathered intelligence about the US position by spying on other participants in the negotiations, from western Europe, Russia, China or Iran. US intelligence had previously provided help to the Israelis to spy on the Iranians, the report said.

The US also conducts intelligence operations against Israel, and learned of the Israeli spying operation when it intercepted communication between Israeli officials exchanging classified information that US intelligence believed could only have been acquired by espionage.

“It is one thing for the US and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal US secrets and play them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official as saying.

Israel has categorically denied the allegations that it spied on closed-door nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US, however it did not deny that such information had been obtained.

“I think the report is wrong, it is inaccurate,” the outgoing Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told the country’s Army Radio on Tuesday morning. “The State of Israel obviously has various security interests and we have excellent intelligence services, but we are not engaged in espionage against the United States.” He did not, however, deny information was obtained. Lieberman said: “All the information we gathered was from another entity, not the US.” He added: “We reached a decision a long time ago not to spy on the US and I haven’t come across anyone who has violated that instruction in several decades.”

Ronen Bergman, an expert on the country’s intelligence agencies at the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, said: “Whatever you think of Netanyahu’s position on the Iran talks, if he thinks that Israel’s national security is at stake, he has the right to order the intelligence community to find out what is happening.”

But Bergman – whose book, A History of the Israeli Mossad, will be published next year – added: “What worries me and what should be of high concern to the leaders of Israel is that this is ample proof that the relations at large between the US and Israel are sustaining an earthquake. The fact that it is happening is less worrying than that it was leaked. Also, any intervention by Israel in the inner working of American politics is wrong. If this report is true and Netanyahu’s intervention used intelligence material, then it is just making it worse.”

Yuval Steinitz, the strategic affairs minister and close Netanyahu aide, told Israel’s Channel 2 that the reports were “intended to damage the strong ties between the US and Israel, despite our differences on the Iran issue”.

Turkey may be developing nuclear weapons

October 2, 2014 by administrator

24 September 2014 – 1:06pm

According to Die Welt, Turkey is developing nuclear weapons using a nuclear program similar to Iran’s. The source adds that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the construction of uranium-enriching machines in 2010.

source: vestnikkavkaza.net