MEDIA REACTION; IRAN'S INDUSTRIAL-SCALE NUCLEAR FUEL

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000666 SIPDIS STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION; IRAN'S INDUSTRIAL-SCALE NUCLEAR FUEL PRODUCTION; US IMMIGRATION REFORM 04/10/07; BUENOS AIRES ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT All local papers report Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that Iran has begun industrial-scale nuclear fuel production in defiance of the international community. Also, daily-of-record "La Nacion" carries an opinion piece regarding the planned US immigration reform. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS - "A decision that will feed the dispute with Tehran" Leading "Clarin" carries an opinion piece by international analyst Oscar Raul Cardoso, who penned (04/10) "If one clings to yesterday's announcement by polemic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Natanz, Iran has taken the most important step in its nuclear program since 1974... "According to Ahmadinejad, Iran has already reached the enriched uranium industrial production stage... Uranium enrichment is a complex uranium purification process which, to a certain extent, can serve to manufacture the basic material required for nuclear bombs. "Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran only plans to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. "The new element now is that, according to Ahmadinejad, this process has been transferred to at least some of the 54,000 Tehran centrifuge plants that Tehran is reported to be installing in Natanz. If these figures are true, experts believe that Iran would be in a position to manufacture some twenty nuclear weapons per year. "... In any event, just the announcement, whether it is strictly true or not, will surely increase international tension over the Iranian case. There is also the possibility that Iran could restrict even further the IAEA inspectors' action... Additionally, Tehran could waive the NPT, withdraw from it and get rid of all international surveillance." - "Change of direction" Claudio Mario Aliscioni, international columnist of leading "Clarin," comments (04/10) "The latest edition of 'Foreign Affairs' magazine makes a noteworthy remark on Iran 'It is an opportunistic power that seeks to ensure its prevalence in the neighborhood without resorting to war.' "As a matter of fact, the US is going through its worst nightmare due to the fact Bush misinterpreted the concrete reality contained in said definition. "Now, once again, the ball is in Washington's field. It could either pressure for the toughest UN sanction, thereby burying the most elementary caution or it could change its policy and come to the realization that it can do little against a country that already sees itself as indispensable. "If it does so, the White House will perhaps notice that this natural shift in Persian Gulf power could also suit it well." - "Bush's strong bet on immigration reform" Hugo Alconada Mon, Washington-based correspondent for daily-of-record "La Nacion," writes (04/10) "Without a positive result in sight for Iraq, which is the shadow hanging over the entire country, (US) President George W. Bush decided to bet on the domestic front in search for a legacy of his term in office. For this purpose, his staff has been discreetly negotiating an immigration reform with key members of Congress. "For the first time, Bush spoke about those negotiations while in Yuma, one of the Arizona towns closest to the (US) border with Mexico... "The plan becomes another major challenge for his administration, which is weakened by an over five-year-long 'global war on terror.' Bush will have to find a point of agreement between the defenders of 12 million undocumented immigrants who live in this country and those who even propose to criminalize them all. "... As per an already circulating draft, millions of undocumented immigrants should return to their countries of origin and ask for 3,500-dollar-worth three-year-long, renewable work visas and pay a 10,000-dollar 'fine' for having illegally entered the US. "According to the White House, it is only a point of departure, but it has already sparked a reaction from the organizations that defend immigrants, which consider it 'unacceptable.'" To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires WAYNE