According to an Indian business newspaper India has finalized the dates for an India delegation to visit Iran next month.
This delegation is expected to be in Iran from the 10th till the 14th of March .This development comes at a time when there is increasing pressure on India by the US and EU nations to toe their line as far as sanctions on Iran are concerned.
Indian exporters are looking at an estimated 8 to 10 billion dollar business opportunity with Iran after the fresh round of sanctions forced European and American companies to stop business dealings.
Auto components, textile machinery, heavy tires, forging and casting machines and sugar machinery are among the sectors that have been identified.
India exports high quality rice, tea and wheat and now barley soya bean, butter and red meat have been the other items.
India is also looking to increase its trade balance that is currently tilted in Iran's favor. Exports from India to Iran were only about 2.7 billion in 2010-11 while oil imports from Iran stood at 9.4 billion dollars in 2010-2011.
According to official sources as part of the proposed payment mechanism, India is to make 45 per cent of oil import payments in rupee terms. This will then be utilized by Iran for payment of imports from India. Iranian banks will deal with UCO bank that will serve as the nodal bank in India for all transactions.
Observers say India will stick to its plan to increase trade ties with Iran and remain positively engaged in its relations with other nations despite the fresh round of sanctions.
Iran places indigenous fuel rods into Tehran reactor
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled the country’s latest nuclear achievements on February 15, 2012.
Iran has placed the first indigenous fuel rods into the heart of Tehran Research Reactor as President Ahmadinejad unveils the country’s latest nuclear achievements.
According to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the fuel rods were produced at Isfahan nuclear facility and transferred to the Tehran Research Reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
By placing nuclear plates into the Tehran reactor, Iran has taken the final step in completing the nuclear fuel cycle.
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydoun Abbasi were also present at the ceremony on Wednesday.
Several radio-pharmaceuticals made by Iranian experts were also unveiled by Ahmadinejad.
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoon Abbasi
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoon Abbasi says Iran will become one of the world's major exporters of nuclear equipment in the near future.
The country has reached self-sufficiency and will become one of the world's main exporters of nuclear equipment in the near future, Abbasi told reporters on Tuesday, IRNA reported.
He said that Iran has turned pressures and sanctions into opportunities, adding that the country's nuclear achievements were indebted to 15 years of work and efforts by Iranian scientists.
Abbasi said that the launch of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, the launch of Arak research reactor, fuel production at Isfahan's nuclear site as well as uranium enrichment were among the country's nuclear achievements.
He said that the development of nuclear technology would lead to the development of scientific industries and expressed hope that nuclear technology would be used to serve public welfare in the country.
Iran officially launched the Bushehr nuclear power plant on September 12. The plant had been connected to the national power grid on September 3, supplying 60 megawatts of its 1,000-megawatt capacity.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant will initially generate electricity at 40 percent of its capacity and will reach its full capacity of 1,000 megawatts in about two or three months.
In past few years, there have been series of mysterious incidents involving Iran's nuclear industry and people working in it. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for civilian use but Western powers believe it has military goals. In this file pic: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the 25th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran. (Text & photo: Reuters)
Iran on Wednesday announced new strides in nuclear programme, including centrifuges able to enrich uranium much faster, in a defiant blow to US and EU pressure to rein in its atomic activities and amid signs of an increasingly vicious covert war with Israel over the issue.
The move came on the day when Israel’s ambassador to Thailand Itzhak Shoham linked the Bangkok blasts to the one in New Delhi — in which wife of an Israeli diplomat was injured — and blamed both on Iran, which denied the charge.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled on state TV what was said to be Iran’s first domestically produced 20% enriched nuclear fuel for Tehran’s research reactor. He said Iran had added 3,000 more centrifuges to boost its uranium enrichment effort. And he ordered Iran to “go build” four more research reactors.
Iranian officials said the new generation centrifuges at Natanz would produce three times more enriched uranium. The developments underlined Tehran’s determination to forge ahead with its nuclear activities despite increasingly tough sanctions — and speculation that Israel or the US could be months from launching military strikes against it.
“The era of bullying nations has past. The arrogant powers cannot monopolise nuclear technology...,” Ahmadinejad said. “Our nuclear path will continue.”
However, Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television said the government had handed a letter to the EU foreign policy chief expressing readiness to “hold new talks over its nuclear programme in a constructive way”
Israel, which is the region's sole but undeclared nuclear power and feels its existence is threatened by a nuclear Iran, is widely held to have been carrying out clandestine acts against its arch foe.
Those acts have included the murder of four Iranian scientists and the deployment of a computer virus, Stuxnet, which damaged many of Iran's centrifuges. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Iran denied a state media report that it had cut off oil exports to six European Union states. Brent crude oil prices jumped up $1 a barrel to $118.35 in reaction to the announcement.
Iran unveils three new achievements of its nuclear program
15 February 2012, 16:30 (GMT+04:00)
Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15 / Trend S. Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iran has unveiled three new achievements of its nuclear program at the official ceremony today in Tehran, PRESS TV channel reported live.
The ceremony is taking place Tehran's Nuclear Facility in Amirabad, in presense of country's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other government officials, as well as nuclear scientists and journalists.
At the beginning of the ceremony, congratulations were spread to the scientists who contributed to the development of country's nuclear program, and those who were killed as a result of terror attacks.
According to Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Abbasi, the three new achievements of country's nuclear program are: the increased number of centrifuges, production of new IR-4 generation centrifuges and successful loading of domestically-made fuel rods into the nuclear reactor.
Unlike centrifuges of previous generations (IR-1, IR-2, IR-3), the IR-4 centrifuges have higher speed and production capacity. the centrifuges were unveiled in the Natanz nuclear plant.
The natural uranium containing rod has been delivered to Tehran research reactor after testing. The fuel rod has already been exposed to 1500 MWH of radiation and has been successful in neutron tests concerning radioactive levels or leakage. The rod is currently under exposure to more radiation to test its endurance qualities. IRI experts have already supplied the country with its needed radio isotopes immorally sanctioned by the West.
Earlier, Deputy Chief of Iran's national security council Ali Bagheri said that "because Western countries were unwilling to help us, we began enriching uranium to 20 percent to make nuclear fuel rods".
IRIB news reported in January that experts in Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) managed to build and test a first-ever nuclear rod in the country. The results of the test have not been announced.
Iran says its nuclear program is confined to production of peaceful atomic energy which it says is a fundamental right of any country. Western nations and Israel have charged that Tehran is secretly working to build nuclear weapons - an assertion Iran vehemently denies.
Tensions in the region over Iran's nuclear activities have been on the rise in recent months as speculation has mounted that Israel may be preparing for a strike on Iranian facilities that the Jewish state says constitute a threat to its national security.
Ahmadinejad and other top Iranian officials have said they are prepared to return to international talks about their nuclear program provided Iran is treated with respect.
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ordered Iran to "go build" four more nuclear research reactors in addition to the sole one operating in Tehran.
"It has been estimated that four nuclear reactors in four different spots in the country are needed. Go build them, to carry out research activities and provide radio-medicine needed by the country," he said in a speech on state television.
The order came after Ahmadinejad unveiled a number of advances in Iran's controversial nuclear programme that served as a defiant blow to international efforts to rein in its atomic activities.
Iran is currently building one other research reactor, a heavy-water facility in the central city of Arak designed to be more powerful than the ageing Tehran research facility built in 1967 by America.
It also has projects to construct 20 reactors to produce electricity.
Iran's nuclear drive has unsettled the West and Israel, which fear it could include work towards atomic weapons.
Tehran has denied its programme is anything but peaceful.
However the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, said in November it had evidence of tests and computer simulations that strongly suggested a military dimension to Iran's activities.
Reuters adds from Tehran
Iran proclaimed advances in nuclear know-how on Wednesday, including new centrifuges able to enrich uranium much faster, a move that may hasten a drift towards confrontation with the West over suspicions it is seeking the means to make atomic bombs.
Tehran was driving home its resolve to pursue a nuclear programme its hardline Islamic clerical leaders see as a pillar of power, protection and prestige despite Western sanctions that are inflicting increasing damage on its oil-based economy.
Iran also aimed to show that the tightening sanctions noose has failed to stop it making progress in nuclear technology and to firm its hand in any renewed negotiations with world powers.
"The era of bullying nations is past. The arrogant powers cannot monopolise nuclear technology. They tried to prevent us by issuing sanctions and resolutions but failed," president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a live television broadcast.
"Our nuclear path will continue." However, Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television said the government had handed a letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressing readiness to "hold new talks over its nuclear programme in a constructive way".
An Ashton spokeswoman confirmed receipt of the letter, saying she was evaluating it and would consult with the United States, Russia, China and other partners among the big powers.
Iranian officials have long refused to negotiate curbs on its programme, saying it aims solely to produce electricity for booming domestic demand in OPEC's No 2 oil-exporting state.
The most recent talks between world powers and Iran collapsed in January 2011 when they could not agree an agenda.
The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy and sanctions are ultimately judged futile in reining in its nuclear activity.
Underlining the high stakes and at times nervous confusion arising from the nuclear stand-off, Iran's oil ministry denied a state media report that it had cut off oil exports to six European Union states. Brent crude oil prices jumped up $1 a barrel to $118.35 in reaction to the announcement.
"We deny this report ... If such a decision is made, it will be announced by Iran's Supreme National Security Council," a spokesman for the ministry told Reuters.
Iran's English language Press TV said Tehran had halted oil deliveries to France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Netherlands and Spain -- its biggest EU customers -- in retaliation for an EU ban on Iranian crude due to take effect in July.
"It is not really surprising that we are seeing this chaos as it reflects the fractured political process in Iran," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis in London.
"You have the oil ministry responsible for revenues while other parts of the government are trying to make political statements. At the end of the day, they need revenues and they will remain dependent on the Europeans if they cannot place their oil elsewhere. Iran remains absolutely dependent on income from its oil exports," Brown said.
The Islamic Republic is the world's No. 5 oil exporter, with 2.6 million barrels going abroad daily, and the EU consumes around a fifth of those volumes.
With Western sanctions now spreading to block Iran's oil exports and central bank financing of trade, Tehran has been resorting to barter to import staples like rice, cooking oil and tea, commodities traders say.
The most recent talks between world powers and Iran failed in January 2011 because of Tehran's unwillingness to discuss transparent limits on enrichment, as demanded by several U.N. Security Council resolutions passed since 2006.
The nuclear achievements proclaimed by Tehran involved a new line of uranium enrichment centrifuge and the loading of its first domestically produced batch of fuel into a research reactor that is expected to soon run out of imported stocks.
Tehran has for some years been developing and testing new generations of centrifuges to replace an outdated, breakdown-prone model. In January it said it had successfully manufactured and tested its own fuel rods for use in nuclear power plants.
Ahmadinejad said the "fourth generation" of centrifuge would be able to refine uranium three times as fast as previously.
If Iran eventually succeeded in introducing modern centrifuges for production, it could significantly shorten the time needed to stockpile enriched uranium, which can generate electricity or, if refined much more, nuclear explosions.
Last year, Iran installed two newer models for large scale testing at a research site near the central town of Natanz.
But it remains unclear whether Tehran, under increasingly strict trade sanctions, has the means and components to make the more sophisticated machines in industrial quantity.
"We have seen this before. We have seen these announcements and these grand unveilings and it turns out that there was less there than meets the eye. I suspect this is the same case," said Shannon Kile at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
France said Tehran's latest moves again demonstrated that it would rather ignore international obligations than cooperate. "These statements are an extra concern for the international community," said deputy foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.
"The Iranian military nuclear programme constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace not only in the world but in the region. We are convinced that Iran continues to develop this programme. (Today's) announcements reinforce that conviction."
But Russia said global powers must work harder to win concessions from Iran, warning that Tehran's preparedness for compromise was waning as it makes progress toward the potential capability of building nuclear warheads.
Making a case for a renewed dialogue, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said U.N. sanctions and additional measures introduced by Western nations had had "zero" effect on its nuclear programme.
Iran has threatened retaliation for any attack or effective ban on its oil exports, suggesting it could seal off the main Gulf export shipping channel, the Strait of Hormuz, used by a third of the world's crude oil tankers.
State television aired live footage of Ahmadinejad loading Iranian-made fuel rods into the Tehran Research Reactor and called this "a sign of Iranian scientists' achievements".
The Tehran reactor produces radio-isotopes for use in medical treatments and agriculture.
Iran says it was forced to manufacture its own fuel for the Tehran reactor after failing to agree terms for a deal to obtain it from the West to replenish imported Argentinian stocks that will run out in the near future.
In 2010, Iran alarmed the West by starting to enrich uranium to a fissile purity of 20 per cent for the stated purpose of reprocessing into special fuel for the Tehran reactor.
In boosting enrichment up from the 3.5 per cent level suitable for powering civilian nuclear plants, Iran moved significantly closer to the 90 per cent threshold suitable for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead.
Analysts remained doubtful that Iran would be able to operate the research reactor with its own special fuel.
"As usual, the announcement surely is exaggerated. Producing the fuel plates ... is not so hard. But the plates have to be.
My cousin who is a manufacturer has got good orders after his recent. Is it to Iran. I too had a couple of good inquiries from Iran. It it didn't click. For me sanctions on iran means more business opportunities for Indians.
Iran unveiled new centrifuges able to enrich uranium much faster, a move sure to intensify suspicions that it is seeking to make atomic bombs.
"The era of bullying nations has past. The arrogant powers cannot monopolise nuclear technology. They tried to prevent us by issuing sanctions and resolutions but failed," Mr Ahmadinejad said in a live television broadcast.
"Our nuclear path will continue."
He added that the "fourth generation" of centrifuge would be able to refine uranium three times as fast as previously.
The broadcast demonstration is also being seen as a show of defiance by Tehran, which appears to have make significant progress in its nuclear ambitions despite sanctions imposed on it by the West.
American officials were quick to dismiss today's developments. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that Tehran's reported advances were: "not terribly new and not terribly impressive."
Speaking on Channel 4 News, Mark Fitzpatrick, the Director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that although it had hyped up its nuclear progress, Iran does have the technology to make a nuclear weapon, but he stressed that for Iran to do so would be a political decision with devastating consequences:
"Iran has enough low-enriched material for four weapons-worth - if further enriched. But if they went to further enrich it, the inspectors would find out, the world would know and we would be at war. I don't think Iran will take that step - at least not in this year, but it's getting closer."
British nuclear consultant John Large, has warned that there is an increased risk of a major nuclear disaster as a consequence of the country's scientific isolation. Tehran's infrastructure is old and rudimentary, and it has been working on its nuclear programme for a long time without assistance from more nuclear advanced nations:
"Because Iran has not been given the expertise of the international nuclear community, because its scientists have not been allowed to attend conferences and because its components are so old, yes, there is a big risk of the plant being unstable," he said.
Independent nuclear engineer John Large, analyses the implications of Iran's breathrough moment for Channel 4 News.
How has Iran got to this stage?
"Nuclear technology is very established, its been around since the 40s. As such, its difficult to contain knowledge about it. So while the International community has found it impossible to stop knowledge of how to run a nuclear programme, it has tried to stop certain countries from producing the material needed to start up such a programme. Through the IAEA, it tried to make those nations who wanted to start up a programme only able to do so by producing everything it needed internally. But where it has failed is where it hasn’t stopped countries like Iran taking a shopping basket over a number of years and going to other countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil and getting the necessary components before having a recognisable nuclear programme."
How advanced are their weapons likely to be?
There are hints in Iran’s nuclear developments in the last few years that it is not looking forward or sideways with its ambitions, but backwards. In other words, it is not trying to emulate the newest forms of the technology, but replicating old versions. It looks like they are trying to create polonium berrylium – (often used as a trigger for nuclear weapons) which was first used in the late 1940s.
How do we know Iran is not building a civil nuclear programme?
For a start they don’t need a civil nuclear programme to power anything. Secondly, for the type and amounts of material they are known to be using and developing, that is way more than would be required for a civil programme as opposed to making nuclear weapons. All the indicators point to their ambitions to build weapons.
Meanwhile, Iran's oil ministry denied that it had cut off oil exports to six EU states even though this had been reported in a broadcast by Iranian state media.
"We deny this report ... If such a decision is made, it will be announced by Iran's Supreme National Security Council," a spokesman for the ministry said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran's English language Press TV said Tehran had halted oil deliveries to France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Netherlands and Spain - its biggest EU customers - in retaliation for an EU ban on Iranian crude due to take effect in July.
The US maintained a close presence in the region in the form of its aircraft carrier, the SS Abraham Lincoln, which sailed through the Strait of Hormuz and close to the Iranian shoreline on Tuesday.
The Strait is used for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, and last month, Tehran threatened to close it in retaliation to further sanctions placed on it by the international community, which objects to its nuclear programme.
The show of force is the latest in a string of events that has led observers to voice concerns that posturing may soon evolve into war.