Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be disastrous for the Middle East.

The Group of Eight has said Iran must suspend its uranium enrichment activities, a demand which has been rejected by Tehran repeatedly.

JOMHOURI-YE ESLAMI: Industrialized countries have been making efforts to produce biofuel from agro products for some time now. They have produced ethanol from agro products, but at what cost. The global production of corn during 2004-7 was sacrificed for producing ethanol in the US. The price of corn went up due to the premeditated plan, conveying to farmers that it is more feasible to grow other products. This is while the West’s main objective is to promote ethanol production worldwide. At present, automobiles fueled by ethanol have hit the market on a large scale, which also increased demand for ethanol at the regional and international levels. Apart from this policy of promoting ethanol, the West has adversely impacted the production of wheat, sugar and livestock, which also prevented the decline of prices of agro and meat products at the international level. It is now clear that the serious fluctuation in agro prices in recent months is not normal and has resulted from market manipulation.

HAMBASTEGI: The Israeli newspaper ’Maariv’ in its latest issue wrote that the last time Israel won a war was 40 years ago, hence “approving Iran’s nuclear program is better than starting a war, which could lead to the destruction of Israel“. The paper pointed out that Israel’s defeats in previous wars portend that a military strike against Iran would have unwanted consequences for Israel. It also said that Israel could have freed Hezbollah’s prisoners without having to fight the 33-day war, as this way Israel would have paid a lower price.

HAMSHAHRI: Managing Director of Tehran Stock Exchange Ali Rahmani said that TSE has received two foreign proposals for investments. He did not reveal the identity of foreign investors, but noted that negotiations are underway to facilitate their investments. The proposals have been made at a time when TSE needs a larger cash flow more than ever. Although in the distant past, some foreign companies bought the stocks of Iranian firms, currently there is no foreign investment at TSE. If negotiations produce positive results, foreign investors will be encouraged to enter the Iranian stock market after a long time. Rahmani emphasized that more stocks should be offered for the TSE to function efficiently.

KAYHAN: Leader’s representative in Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy, Ali Shirazi, said that as soon as America attacks, Iran will destroy Tel Aviv and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf in the first phase of its retaliation. He recalled that at present Iran has the highest power and preparedness in its history. “The Zionist regime is pressuring the White House to launch a military strike against Iran. The enemies have understood that Iran’s might is increasing by the day and are determined to prevent Iran’s growth at the international level in every possible manner. Any stupid move like attacking Iran will drag the enemies into a quagmire,“ he said.

A 15-page paper on the process requirements for casting and machining of uranium metal into hemispherical forms--said to useful only for making the core of a nuclear weapon--has been raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in recent months as evidence of an alleged Iranian intention to build nuclear weapons.
The agency’s May 26, 2008, report said the IAEA’s “overall assessment of the nature of Iran’s nuclear programÉrequires, inter alia, an understanding of the role of the uranium metal document“.
Two days later, the deputy director and head of the IAEA’s Safeguards Department, Olli Heinonen, was quoted by an anonymous diplomatic source in an AFP story as telling a closed-door briefing of IAEA member-states in Vienna that Iran’s possession of the document was ’alarming’.
But the IAEA has long had information supporting the Iranian claim it never asked for the document and has never used it since Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan network added it to a centrifuge purchase without any prior discussion. In fact, an IAEA report last November appeared to clear Iran from suspicion on the issue.
The revival of that issue in 2008 appears to reflect political pressure on the IAEA from the United States and its allies.
Iran admits having gotten the document from Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan network when Iranian scientists obtained centrifuge designs from that group. But Iranian officials have contended from the beginning that its scientists never requested any such instructions, and that the Khan network’s suppliers threw the document into the deal when the Iranians purchased plans for P-1 centrifuges.
The agency demanded that Iran turn over all documents pertaining to the Khan network’s offer and what was actually purchased. But Iran said it had no other documentary evidence relating to the 1987 offer, blaming the secretive management style of the AEOI at that time.
What the IAEA has not revealed in its reports, however, is that in January 2005, Iran allowed IAEA investigators to look through boxes of old AEOI files, according to a source close to the IAEA. During that search, the investigators came across the infamous 15-page “uranium metal document“.
“As they were going through boxes of papers, it literally fell out,“ says the source.
Iranian officials explained that the document had been provided by the Khan network’s supplier when Iran purchased centrifuge blueprints at a meeting in Dubai in 1987 but insisted that Iran had not asked for it.Had the document triggered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons project, it obviously would not have been left in files related to the centrifuge and enrichment plans for the IAEA to find. Far from Iran seeking to hide the document as incriminating, its atomic energy officials had apparently simply filed it away and forgotten it.
Iran agreed to provide a copy of the document to the IAEA in November 2007.
Contrary to the IAEA claim of ignorance about the “full scope and content“ the 1987 offer, the IAEA actually had an extensive interview with the key Khan network figure present at the meeting with the Iranians in Dubai: Khan’s chief financial officer, Buhari Sayed Abu Tahir.
Tahir was arrested in Malaysia in May 2004, and Heinonen and other IAEA officials obtained an account of the meeting in Dubai in an interview with Tahir in February 2005--after the agency had become aware of the uranium metal document, according to the book The Nuclear Jihadist by journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins.
Frantz and Collins indicate that the Iranians did not ask for any plans relating to nuclear weapons manufacture. Instead, the authors write that after agreeing on the price of the equipment and plans, Khan’s men “sweetened the deal“ by throwing in the uranium metal document.
Contrary to IAEA claims that it needs more information to clarify the significance of the uranium metal document, the agency’s Nov. 15, 2007, report said the issue had been resolved to its satisfaction. The timing of the IAEA’s decision in early 2008 to highlight the uranium metal document, after having previously indicated that it was resolved, suggests that it was the result of new political pressures on the agency. The new IAEA hard line on the issue came after Iran had provided new information that resolved the entire list of issues about the history of its nuclear program on which the IAEA had been raising doubts since 2003.
It also coincided with the introduction into the IAEA process on Iran of “alleged studies“ of weaponization--documents whose authenticity has not verified by the agency and which it has not been allowed to share with Iran.