73wire presents “In the News”: Iran

Today, “In the News,” spotlights  Iran. From the IAEA wanting more answers and concerns over the possibility of even more secrete nuclear sites to Iran’s refusal to negotiate over their nuclear rights and the Revolutionary Guard’s plans to own and operate a news agency.

UN nuclear watchdog wants more answers from Iran

The UN atomic watchdog on Monday demanded more information from Iran about the purpose of a previously secret nuclear site and indicated that the Islamic Republic could be hiding other facilities.Iran has also said that the new site near the holy city of Qom should be operational in 2011, which could heighten fears in the West which has already accused Tehran of seeking a nuclear bomb.

President Barack Obama said before the new International Atomic Energy Agency report was released that Iran was “running out of time” to accept a deal whereby other nations would enrich its uranium.

“Iran’s declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which (have) not been declared to the agency,” said the new IAEA report.

Secrecy raises fears of more Iran atom sites: IAEA

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog is concerned that Iran’s belated revelation of a new uranium enrichment site may mean it is hiding other nuclear facilities, an agency report obtained by Reuters said on Monday.The report said Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun building the bunkered site near Qom in 2007, but the IAEA had evidence the project had begun in 2002. Iran reported its existence to the IAEA in September.

IAEA inspectors who were admitted last month to the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Site found construction well advanced. Iran told the agency it would be started up in 2011.

Iran says nuclear rights non-negotiable: report

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country’s nuclear rights were not negotiable, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday.”The Iranian nation’s nuclear rights are not negotiable and our nuclear cooperation will be done within the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s framework … Nuclear cooperation with Iran is beneficial to the West,” ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Iran media plans stir talk of elite force at helm

The portfolio of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard keeps on growing. Its troops watch over nuclear facilities, its rocket scientists enlarge Iran’s missile arsenal and its engineers have taken on a rail line as their latest big-ticket project. Could media mogul be next?

Sometime early next year, a new voice is expected to join Iran’s state-sanctioned media blitz: a full-service news agency with video, photos and print.

The arrival of another government-backed news outlet is not much of a surprise. It fits into Iran’s two-pronged media strategy: controlling its message with a constant flow of statements, trial balloons and news items while trying to muzzle those who disagree, including new plans to now police the Internet for opposition sites.

What’s being closely watched is how much control could be taken by the Revolutionary Guard — already the most powerful single institution in the country.

“The war of ideas will be intensified,” said Ehsan Ahrari, an analyst on regional affairs at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in

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