Iran opens mines, milling plant following failure of nuclear talks
(JNS.org) Iran, following a lack of progress in nuclear talks last week with the six world powers, has opened two news uranium mills and a milling plant, Reuters reported, citing the Iranian state news agency IRNA.
The new Saghand 1 and 2 mines and the Shahid Rezaeinejad yellowcake plant, which became operational on National Nuclear Technology Day in Iran, give the Islamic Republic “greater self-sufficiency in making the raw materials for enrichment to nuclear fuel and, potentially, for warhead-grade material,” according to Reuters.
“Iran has invested in the Saghand mine to help it develop an independent source of uranium for its nuclear requirements but project development has proceeded very slowly,” the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank said in a 2011 report on the Saghdad uranium deposits.
In a speech at Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Western countries have “tried their utmost to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but Iran has gone nuclear.”
“This nuclear technology and power and science have been institutionalized… All the stages are in our control and every day that we go forward a new horizon opens up before the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said.
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Hagel to visit Israel later this month
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is set to visit Israel later this month for the first time since taking office, Army Radio reported.
Hagel, who was confirmed in a historically close 58-41 vote by the Senate and during the confirmation process came under fire for both his record and statements on Israel, will reportedly arrive in Israel on April 21.
Hagel discussed the planned visit with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon, during a recent telephone call.
The nuclear program of Iran is expected to be the focus of the talks Hagel will hold with Israeli officials during his visit. In his confirmation hearing before the Senate on Jan. 31, Hagel mistakenly expressed support for a U.S. policy of “containment” in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat.
There has been a recent flurry of visits to Israel by top U.S. government officials. Barack Obama made his first visit as president to Israel in March, and was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who returned to Israel on Sunday for another visit and is trying to restart the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process.
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Hamas arresting teens with long hair in latest sign of Islamic rule
(JNS.org) Police in Gaza have begun arresting, humiliating and then shaving the heads of teens with long hair in the latest sign of Hamas imposing strict Islamic rule on Gaza.
According to the Associated Press, the crackdown began last week against teens with long hair and tight or low-waist pants. More than two dozen young men have been targeted in sweeps by the police.
“The only thing I want to do is leave this country,” 19-year-old Ayman al-Sayed told the Associated Press. “I am scared. They just take you from the street without reason. I don’t know what they are going to do next.”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has called on Hamas to investigate the “arbitrary detentions and violations of civil rights of civilians,” according to the Associated Press.
Hamas, a terrorist organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip since a bloody coup against its Palestinian rival group Fatah in 2007, has increasingly implemented strict Islamic laws in the coastal enclave, including banning alcohol and placing restrictions on women.
The latest incident comes after Hamas imposed gender segregation in Gaza’s schools last week. The new law bans men from teaching in girls’ schools and enforces gender segregation past the age of 9. It will take effect next school year.
Early last month, the Gaza Marathon was canceled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an agency in charge of Palestinian refugee affairs in Gaza, after Hamas banned women from competing.
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Jimmy Carter to be honored by Yeshiva University’s law school amid alumni opposition
(JNS.org) Alumni and pro-Israel supporters of Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law have launched a campaign to prevent to the university from awarding former President Jimmy Carter with the school’s “International Advocate for Peace Award.”
The award is being presented by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution.
In reaction to the award, a group of leading alumni and pro-Israel supporters calling itself “The Coalition of Concerned Cardozo Alumni” has established a website, shameoncardozo.com, which accuses Jimmy Carter of “anti-Israel bigotry” and urges Cardozo alumni to contact the Dean of Cardozo and the President to Yeshiva University to express their outrage.
President Carter has been criticized by many in the Jewish community for his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which criticizes Israel’s presence in the West Bank. Many leading Jewish scholars, including former top Mideast diplomat Dennis Ross, Emory University Professor and Middle East historian Kenneth Stein, and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, have pointed out inaccuracies in Carter’s book.
“I can’t imagine a worse candidate for any kind of a human rights award,” Dershowitz told the Washington Free Beacon on Monday. “He has more blood on his hands than practically any other president.”
Yeshiva University and Cardozo Law School have defended their choice, and told the Jewish Press in a statement that they plan to honor Carter for his “lifetime of work, from the historic Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt, to monitoring some 90 elections around the world and supporting fledgling democracies to resolve conflicts without violence.”
Meanwhile, a number of Cardozo alumni plan to use civil disobedience to block Carter from attending the event.
“Mr. Carter ain’t going to get anywhere,” Daniel Rubin, 62, told the Forward. “There’s no reason for a school that has any sense of Jewish integrity to have a guy like that around,” he added.
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