Iran, Syria navies ink cooperation deal
Press TV--Naval authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria have signed a bilateral cooperation protocol for joint training programs.
Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari and his Syrian counterpart General Taleb al-Barri signed the cooperation agreement aboard Iran’s supply vessel Khark in Syria’s Lattakia Port, IRNA reports.
Khark along with another Iranian ship, Alvand, docked at the Syria port following their passage through the Suez Canal, a strategic international shipping route in Egypt, for the first time since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
Tehran has announced that the two Iranian warships in Lattakia are “on a routine and friendly visit and carry the message of peace and friendship to world countries.”
The Syrian Navy commander and his deputies also toured the two Iranian ships on Friday.
The 1,500-ton patrol frigate Alvand is armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, while the larger 33,000-ton supply vessel Khark has 250 crewmembers and can carry three helicopters.
Also on Friday, Rear Admiral Sayyari along with other Iranian naval authorities as well as Iran’s ambassador to Syria Ahmad Mousavi attended a banquet hosted by Syrian Navy officials.
Iran’s Navy commander is on a six-day official visit to Syria heading a delegation of naval authorities.
Iran Is Exploring Nuclear Weapons, Watchdog Says
The Wall Street Journal —The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it has uncovered new information indicating that Iran is exploring ways to militarize its nuclear program, including ways to affix atomic weapons onto long-range missiles.
The quarterly report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, also said Tehran continues to expand its production of nuclear fuel, despite a recent slowdown that Western diplomats attributed to a cyber attack on Iran’s Natanz uranium-enrichment facility.
The IAEA said Iran is trying to move more advanced centrifuges into its Natanz facility that could significantly reduce the amount of time Tehran would need to produce weapons-grade fuel. The IAEA report didn’t say if and when Iran would be able to deploy these more advanced machines.
The IAEA presented Iran in 2008 with intelligence it had obtained—both from Western intelligence officials and independently—that indicated Iran had been exploring ways to affix nuclear weapons to its long-range Shahab missiles.
Iran rejected the IAEA’s information as fabricated. But the IAEA said in its quarterly report that new information has been obtained that increased the concerns that Iran was exploring ways to militarize its nuclear program.
"Based on the agency’s analysis of additional information since August 2008, including new information recently received, there are further concerns which the agency also needs to clarify with Iran," said the report, which was also sent to the U.N. Security Council.
The IAEA didn’t specify when the new intelligence was obtained. But U.S. and European officials briefed on the report said it was recent and some of it was tied to Iran’s long-range missile program.
These diplomats said they hoped the new information could lead IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to release a report in the coming months that would more clearly state that the U.N. agency believes Iran is pursuing atomic weapons.
U.S. intelligence agencies have strengthened the language in its own reports suggesting that Iran has been exploring ways to weaponize its nuclear program.
"[The IAEA report] sets up the next step: rendering a judgment on whether Iran was—and perhaps still is—working on aspects of the possible military dimensions, or weaponization, of its growing nuclear program," said a U.S. official Friday.Continued…