The Institute for National Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said in its annual report, released Tuesday, that Iran will possess nuclear weapons unless military action is taken against it, and Israel would be capable of carrying out such an attack

“Time is working in Iran’s favor, and barring military action, Iran’s
possession of nuclear weapons is only a matter of time,” the institute said in a statement distributed at a news conference where it released its annual assessment of the Middle East’s strategic balance.

Israel considers Iran to be its most serious threat. It dismisses Tehran’s claims that its nuclear program is designed solely to produce energy and is worried by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has not ruled out a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, but has said he hoped other ways could be found to keep Tehran from becoming a nuclear power. In 1981, Israel destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in a surprise air attack. (more…)

Israel on Tuesday will test, for the UN, an underground installation in the Negev desert designed to monitor any attempt by arch-foe Iran to test nuclear devices, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported.
The test will consist of three strong explosions Israel will deliberately set off in the northern Negev using 15 tonnes of liquid explosives, to see how they register on equipment at the underground site.

Each blast will be equivalent to a seismic tremor of 2.4 on the Richter scale, the report said.

The facility is equipped with seismographs and other equipment able to detect earth tremors and transmits the data directly to the International Atomic Nuclear Agency (IAEA) in Vienna via Israel’s nuclear research facility at Nahal Sorek, the paper said.

The new underground testing center is in the mountains near the Red Sea beach resort of Eilat.

“The station will assess earth tremors, and ways to predict them and other underground and surface activity, such as nuclear tests,” the paper quoted Rami Hofshteter of the Lod Geophysics Institute near Tel Aviv as saying. (more…)

North Korea on Monday hailed 2006 as a “year of great victory” thanks to its first ever nuclear weapons test and vowed to keep putting its military first in the coming year.
A joint New Year editorial in the hardline communist state’s major newspapers also vowed to restructure the creaking economy and called for unbending loyalty to leader Kim Jong-Il.

“Our access to a nuclear deterrent was an auspicious event in the national history as it meant the realization of the Korean people’s centuries-old desire to have national strength no one could dare challenge,” said the editorial carried jointly by the party, military and youth newspapers.

“Our nuclear deterrent serves as a powerful force for defending peace and security in Northeast Asia and guaranteeing the victorious advance of the cause of independence,” it added, referring to the nuclear test on October 9.

The editorial termed 2006 a “year of great victory” and made no mention of the international condemnation or UN sanctions which were sparked by the nuclear test and by earlier missile tests in July. (more…)

New Rural Sales Pitch: Work Outside D.C.’s Fallout Zone

Winchester and its neighbors along Interstate 81 in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley have much to recommend themselves to potential employers, including a low cost of living, access to a major highway and views of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains.

More recently, though, the area has been successfully trumpeting another attribute: It is just outside the “blast zone.”

In a little-noticed migration with implications for both greater Washington and the valley, several federal agencies, including the FBI, are relocating operations to the I-81 corridor. Helping drive the shift is the government’s emphasis on security in a post-Sept. 11 world, which turns Winchester’s location 75 miles from Washington into a geographic ideal. It is far enough from the capital to escape the fallout of a nuclear explosion — a distance often estimated at 50 miles — but still close enough so that employees can get to the District relatively easily when they need to. (more…)

BEIJING — The U.S. envoy at talks on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons held out the possibility on Wednesday of agreement on first steps toward that goal, weeks after Pyongyang defiantly staged its first nuclear blast.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said U.S. and North Korean negotiators were fleshing out plans to set in motion a joint statement from September 2005 promising North Korea aid and security assurances in return for nuclear disarmament.

“Certainly we are talking about much more than just agreeing on things on paper. We’re discussing actual developments on the ground, and for that reason these discussions are not easy,” Hill told reporters after a third day of talks in Beijing. He added that agreement could come by Friday. (more…)

UNITED NATIONS — Iran demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council condemn what it said was Israel’s clandestine development of nuclear weapons and “compel” it to place all its nuclear facilities under U.N. inspection.

If Israel refuses to comply, Iran said the council must take “resolute action” under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which authorizes a range of measures from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military action.

Iran insists its own nuclear program is a purely peaceful effort to develop energy, but the United States and many European nations believe Tehran’s real aim in enriching uranium is to produce nuclear weapons. The Security Council is currently debating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment program. (more…)