Max Peck / January 17, 2008, 5:26 PM / Global Political Relations / #1
It has been reported by Israeli officials that last Thursday (January 10, 2008) Russian fuel tankers delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's first nuclear power plant in Busheshr.
Ironically, the shipment made was supposed to "convince Tehran to stop its own uranium enrichment program" and soothe the growing number of political worrywarts around the globe. Instead, it inspired Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to speak out, saying "Now Russia has started delivering nuclear fuel to Bushehr, (Iran's) uranium enrichment may serve (only) military goals."
Israeli officials, perhaps a bit pessimistically, believe that Iran can be expected to have working nuclear weapons by the year 2010. This is worrying for the Israeli state for a variety of reasons, most importantly because things have recently been more than icy between Israel and Iran, a relationship which has only deteriorated since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Israel is also the only Middle East country known to have nuclear weapons at its disposal (this obviously correlates with their healthy alliance with the United States) -- even in a vacuum, any country in their vicinity holding weapons similar to theirs in power simply cannot be a good thing.
Unlike other nations, Iran has never been particularly indirect concerning its efforts to enrich uranium. On the contrary, they have been unapologetically candid in their efforts. Although U.N. sanctions have been placed in the recent past, they appear to have been wholly ineffective.
I expect to continue to follow this story as it heats up, considering that I’m not clear on Russia’s goals, realistically, in transporting nuclear fuel to a prospective catalyst of war (aren’t they all, though?).
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080117/tpl-uk-iran-nuclear-israel-81f3b62.html (Reuters)
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