nuclear weapons

It’s still not a definitive rejection of the deal reached in Vienna to reprocess Iran’s uranium abroad into a matter unsuitable for a nuclear weapon, but it’s not nothing, either:
Iran’s foreign minister said in remarks reported Wednesday that he opposes sending the country’s enriched uranium abroad under a tentative deal negotiated with the United States [...]

Already circulating through the Twitterverse, thanks to @TehranBureau: this video, in which Iranian dissidents clearly chant that they don’t want an atom bomb (after the jump).

As mentioned earlier this morning; now formally reported, per The Wall Street Journal:
Iran has formally asked for changes to an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal to ship nuclear fuel out of Iran for reprocessing abroad.
The response represents a setback in attempts by the international community to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Just last [...]

As far as I’m aware, this is a first:
A suicide bomber attacked a suspected nuclear-weapons site Friday in Pakistan, raising fears about the security of the nuclear arsenal, while two other terrorist blasts made it another bloody day in the country’s struggle against extremism.
Police say the bomber was “intercepted at the first checkpost.” But still…

Today’s the deadline for Iran’s leadership to embrace or reject the deal its negotiators endorsed in Vienna to ship uranium out of the country for enrichment into fuel-producing-and-not-weapons-grade material. Whether that happens or not, Laura Rozen reports an interesting Vienna backstory:
Diplomatic sources tell POLITICO that among the most interesting dynamics to emerge was increasing, direct US-Iranian [...]

Barely an hour after word came from Vienna that an Iranian negotiating team has accepted a draft version of a deal to ship nuclear fuel out of the country for enrichment, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech this morning at Washington’s tony Mayflower hotel on nuclear nonproliferation, a core Obama administration priority. [...]

Breaking news from The Associated Press: the Iranians may in fact accept a crucial nuclear deal:
Iranian negotiators on Wednesday expressed support for a deal that — if accepted by their leaders — would delay Tehran’s ability to make nuclear weapons by sending most of its existing enriched uranium to Russia for processing, diplomats said. International [...]

Not that Iran is a democracy — it really, really, really isn’t — but I see via Heather Hurlburt that Iranian public support for nuclear weapons is on the decline:
WPO says 2/3 of Iranians say they would support their country forgoing weaponization in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. And they opposed developing “an [...]

I don’t really feel like getting into an argument about Israel today, but Eli Lake at The Washington Times reports:
President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.
This despite Obama’s desire to work for [...]

In Geneva, where the U.S. delegation has arrived in advance of tomorrow’s multilateral negotiation with Iran’s nuclear program, senior U.S. diplomats set expectations for the talks in a background briefing for reporters. The key points: the disclosure of the hidden nuclear facility at Qom has “strengthened the sense of purpose and unity amongst the 5+1 [...]