IAEA Staff Pushing for More Aggressive Report on Iran

The UN’s top nuclear official is expressing concern that Iran may be secretly continuing work on nuclear weapons. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told The Associated Press that his agency has indications of such activities both “in the past and now.” Iran denies secret weapons work and even the United States — which provides much of the intelligence on Iran to the agency — said in 2007 that Tehran had suspended all meaningful weapons development by 2003.

Tyler Cowen looks at the very bad estimates that experts were giving in the 1940s of when the USSR would be able to build a nuclear weapons and wonders “whether today’s estimates of Iranian production are any better.”

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said there remains “time and space” for diplomacy aimed at averting military action to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power and that President Barack Obama is “not bluffing” when he says he’s considering military options. Still, the pressure on Obama’s administration to move toward military action is growing as Iran advances its uranium enrichment capabilities, and U.S. lawmakers, Israel and Persian Gulf allies press for results. Today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said negotiating time is “finite.”

VIENNA — In a defiant move ahead of nuclear talks, Iran has announced plans to vastly increase its pace of uranium enrichment, which can make both reactor fuel and the fissile core of warheads. Eager to avoid scuttling those negotiations, world powers are keeping their response low-key. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions last week, and the IAEA informed member nations in an internal note seen by The Associated Press on Thursday.

VIENNA, Austria — Senior UN investigators trying for more than a year to restart a probe into Iran’s alleged work on nuclear arms chose their words carefully Tuesday about hopes for success as they left for Tehran on a trip that sets the stage for separate talks between six world powers and the Islamic Republic. Iran insists it has never tried to develop nuclear arms — an assertion underlined by the Foreign Ministry in Tehran as the UN team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts prepared to board the flight bound for the Iranian capital.

As initially reported here yesterday, in what is the biggest news of the weeks, and possibly the year, the Bundesbank has broken away from its "all is well" posturing exhibited as recently as three months ago, and in a dramatic reversal of its diplomatic position, has demanded repatriation of some of its NY Fed and all of its Paris-domiciled gold.

The UN atomic watchdog is concerned that its information about Iran's nuclear activities suggests the Islamic republic may be working on a nuclear warhead, according to a restricted report obtained by AFP Thursday."The information available to the agency ... raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile," the watchdog's chief Yukiya Amano wrote in his first report to its board of governors.