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Cash moving out of Iran as U.S. hints at actions by extra-UN alliance The international crisis over Iran's nuclear program has resulted in large amounts of money being sent out of the country as well as a sharp decline in the number of tourists traveling to Iran, U.S. officials said. Wealthy Iranians have been making large cash deposits in Swiss banks and in other secure locations in Europe because of fears that the U.S. or Israel will launch military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Additionally, more than 60 percent of travel reservations have been cancelled in recent months. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, at a news conference in Moscow, on April 19. AFP/Mikhail Metzel Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told reporters that the U.S. is already taking steps to form a coalition outside the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran for its defiance of the world body. "If the Security Council cannot act over a reasonable period of time, then there will be an opportunity for groups of countries to organize themselves together for the purpose of isolating the Iranians diplomatically and economically," Burns said. "It's not beyond the realm of the possible that at some point in the future a group of countries could get together, if the Security Council is not able to act, to take collective economic action or collective action on sanctions." The action would be designed to circumvent "those that might prevent the Security Council from acting effectively," such as Russia and China, he said. In Washington, Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control, said the Iranians have "both feet on the accelerator" of their nuclear weapons program. "They're moving very quickly to establish new realities on the ground associated with their nuclear program," he said. Iran claims it has converted enough uranium for 110 tons of uranium hexafluoride as feedstock for centrifuges. "This is enough material for more than 10 weapons," Joseph said. Joseph said the most disturbing aspect of the Iranian nuclear program is the announcement by Teheran that they are operating a cascade of 164 centrifuges. "I'm a political scientist, not a nuclear physicist, but every nuclear physicist that I have talked to in the past has always suggested that 164 is a key number, because once you're able to operate over a sustained period of time 164 centrifuges in cascade, and feed into that this material, this UF6 that I talked about, you're well on your way to an industrial-scale capability in terms of the production of enriched uranium," he said. Iran wants 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by the end of the year, enough to produce one nuclear weapon a year, he said. Iran also claims it is developing the P-2 design centrifuge that is four times more effective at enrichment than the P-1, Joseph said. "This is likely the greatest strategic threat that we face as a nation and that faces the international community," Joseph said. "A nuclear-armed Iran is something that we simply cannot tolerate, and this is a sense that is shared very widely by most states. A nuclear-armed Iran would represent, I think, a direct threat, not only to us and not only to the countries in the region, but to the entire nuclear nonproliferation regime. It would represent a threat to stability in the region, because a nuclear-armed Iran, I believe, would be emboldened to take even more aggressive actions through the use of terrorism and other means." -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
