Iran announced Wednesday that it has successfully test fired their first long range missile. Iran continues to deny nuclear development.
Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi spoke on television, describing the Sajjil-2 as a high-speed, surface-to-surface missile that would serve as a "strong deterrent" against any possible foreign attack.
Fox News is reporting that the "Sajjil-2" is a two-phase missile using solid fuel. This missile has a range of 1,200 miles. That puts Iran's sworn enemy, Israel, within reach. It also puts parts of southeastern Europe in range as well.
While Israel declined to comment, Iran's Defense Minister boasted that this new missile is very fast which will make it, "impossible to destroy" using ground to air defense systems citing that it eludes defense radar.
Iran is currently under strict UN sanctions over its build-up of enriched uranium. While low levels of enriched uranium can be used for electricity, greater enriched uranium is often used for nuclear weapons. There was an agreement earlier this fall for Iran to send its uranium off for enrichment to guarantee that it wasn't being enriched to the point of being nuclear ready. Iran cut that program off last month, stating again that their uranium is only for the generation of electricity and not for nuclear armament.
The name "Sajjil" translates to "Baked Clay" and refers to a story in the Koran where invaders attacked the holy city of Mecca. Birds sent by God attacking the invading soldiers and drove them back by dropping bricks of baked clay upon them.
Fox News is also reporting that Israeli military intelligence is identified that Iran is close to having the technology to assemble a nuclear weapon. Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said Iran has enriched enough uranium this year at its facility in Natanz to build a bomb and is on the brink of a "technological breakthrough" that would enable it to build atomic weapons.
Because of this build-up the U.S. House has announced that by a vote of 412-12 would impose sanctions against Iran. Lawmakers approved legislation that would penalize foreign companies that sell oil to Iran or help the country with its oil-producing capacity. While the House passed the measure, the Senate will more than likely note get to vote on it this year, so for right now it is seen as a warning to Iran.
Hitting Iran in one of its weakest areas could be "the last best hope for diplomatically ending Iran's nuclear weapons program," said Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.
Asian intelligence has also reported the build up of materials to build triggers for nuclear weapons as well as additional stockpiling of highly enriched uranium.
The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.
"Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application," said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which has analysed hundreds of pages of documents related to the Iranian programme. "This is a very strong indicator of weapons work

A Danish journalism student has been arrested in Iran after covering anti-government protests, unions say.

The Danish Union of Journalists named the student as Niels Krogsgaard, 31.

Wednesday's Tehran protests coincided with an official rally to mark 30 years since the storming of the US embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution.

A Canadian, a Japanese and an Iranian journalist are also being held for covering the protests without permits, the semi-official Fars agency reports.

Iran has tightened reporting rules since protests flared in the days following a disputed presidential election in June.

Opposition supporters say the elections were rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

At least 30 protesters have been killed in clashes since the elections. Thousands have been arrested, and some 200 opposition activists remain behind bars. Three have been sentenced to death.

Batons and tear gas

Mr Krogsgaard was in Tehran working on an academic paper about Iranian politics, said the Danish Union of Journalists.

Thousands were present at Wednesday's anti-American rally

He was "apparently arrested in connection with a demonstration on Wednesday", the union was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Security forces had used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters and there were unconfirmed reports the authorities had also opened fire.

Video footage and photos showed what appeared to be large crowds of opposition supporters being chased by security forces in riot gear.

Many of the opposition demonstrators wore green scarves or bands, which have been used in repeated protests since Iran's disputed presidential elections in June.

Thousands were present at the anti-American rally, about 1.5km (1 mile) from where opposition supporters gathered in Haft-e Tir square.

In November 1979, 52 US diplomats were taken hostage at the embassy and held for 444 days by Islamist students in support of the Iranian revolution.

Hillary Clinton: "We are very interested in working with Russia" Pressuring Iran and threatening further sanctions over its nuclear programme would be counter-productive, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says. Speaking after talks in Moscow with US counterpart Hillary Clinton, Mr Lavrov said every effort should be made to continue negotiations. His comments appeared to fall short of the tougher commitment sought by Washington towards Iran. But Mrs Clinton praised Russia for its help on the issue. The US secretary of state, in Moscow at the end of a five-day European tour, told a joint news conference with Mr Lavrov that Russia had "been extremely co-operative in the work that we have done together" on Iran. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes, but the US and other Western nations believe it is seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran revealed last month that it had a second uranium plant, further raising questions about the nature of its nuclear ambitions. 'No requests' Ahead of Mrs Clinton's visit, a US official had suggested she would ask Russian leaders about "specific forms of pressure" that Moscow would be prepared to back if talks failed. ANALYSIS Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC News, Moscow Last month President Medvedev told President Obama sanctions against Iran might be "inevitable". But on Tuesday the Russians seemed less enthusiastic. Iran has agreed to open more of its nuclear enrichment facilities to international inspection. That has taken the pressure off Russia, for now. Behind the scenes there are powerful factions vying for control of Russia's Iran policy. Russia's arms makers and their Kremlin allies are pro-Iran. They want to sell weapons to the Islamic Republic. Nor do they fear a nuclear armed Iran. They do not believe Russia will be a target. But there is also an increasingly powerful pro-Israel faction in the Kremlin. Analysts say a new strategic and military partnership is being built with Jerusalem. Over a million Russian speakers now live in Israel. At present Moscow is happy to wait and see what happens. But Tehran can no longer take Moscow's support for granted. But Mrs Clinton said no requests had been made. "We did not ask for anything today. We reviewed the situation and where it stood, which I think was the appropriate timing for what this process entails," she said. The US was not seeking further sanctions pending talks between big powers and Iran, she added, but could do so "in the absence of significant progress and assurance that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons". Mr Lavrov, for his part, said "all efforts" should be made to maintain dialogue with Iran. "We are convinced that threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the present situation are counter-productive," he said. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says Mrs Clinton was looking for a solid commitment from Mr Lavrov, but did not get one. Both Mr Lavrov and Mrs Clinton also said there had been considerable progress in talks on a new treaty to reduce the two countries' nuclear arsenals. Mrs Clinton later met President Dmitry Medvedev at his Barvikha residence, but she will not meet Russia's powerful Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. He is in China for talks focusing on trade, but also expected to raise the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea. No quid pro quo President Barack Obama, who met Mr Medvedev in July, has pledged to reset relations with Russia. Iran on defensive over secret site UN sanctions against Iran Iran and the nuclear issue A month ago, following the revelations about Iran's second uranium enrichment facility, the Russian president said his government might ultimately accept further sanctions as inevitable. Since then, Mr Obama has met a key Russian demand to scrap plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a US missile defence system in Europe. The US administration insisted it did not expect concessions in return. But US officials have called on Russia to support, or at least not oppose, the idea of the UN Security Council imposing tougher sanctions on Iran if it fails to live up to its international obligations. The council wants Iran to end uranium enrichment and has approved three rounds of sanctions - including bans on Iran's arms exports and all trade in nuclear material.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president said Saturday that President Barack Obama made a big mistake when he accused the country of having hidden a newly revealed nuclear site, arguing that Iran reported the facility to the U.N. even earlier than required.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments came hours before the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, arrived in Iran to arrange an inspection of the uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

Iran agreed to allow U.N. inspectors into the facility at a landmark meeting with six world powers near Geneva on Thursday that put nuclear talks back on track and included the highest-level bilateral contact with the U.S. in three decades.

But the new site has raised concerns among the U.S. and many of its allies who suspect Iran of using its nuclear program as a way to develop weapons capability — an allegation rejected by Tehran.

ElBaradei recently said Tehran was "on the wrong side of the law" over its new plant because he argued the country should have revealed its plans as soon as it decided to build the facility — a position backed by the U.S.

Iranian officials disagree, saying that under IAEA safeguard rules, a member nation is required to inform the U.N. agency about the existence of a nuclear facility six months before introducing nuclear material into the machines. Iran says the new facility won't be operational for 18 months, and so it has not violated any IAEA requirements.

Ahmadinejad said Iran voluntarily revealed the facility to the IAEA in a letter on Sept. 21, four days before Obama and the leaders of France and Britain denounced Tehran and said it hid the nuclear site from the world for years.

"The U.S. president made a big and historic mistake," Iranian state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a speech Saturday. "Later it became clear that (his) information was wrong and that we had no secrecy."

The IAEA has said that Iran is obliged under the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to notify the organization when it begins to design a new nuclear facility.

Iran says it voluntarily implemented the Additional Protocol for 2 1/2 years as a confidence-building gesture, but its parliament passed legislation in 2007 forcing the government to end such cooperation after the country was referred to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

The IAEA has countered by saying that a government cannot unilaterally abandon such an agreement.

Suspicion that Iran's newly revealed nuclear site was meant for military purposes was heightened by its location at least partly inside a mountain and next to a military base.

Iran has said it built the facility in such a way only to ensure continuity of its nuclear activities in case of an attack.

"Some are allowing themselvs to threaten our legal facilities with military attack, and so we are going to come up with security measures for our nuclear facilities," Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said Friday. "One of them is that we need to have a facility for uranium enrichment with a higher level of security and that's why we decided to establish the new facility that is under construction."

ElBaradei arrived in Iran on Saturday to meet with Iranian officials, state radio reported.

An IAEA spokesman said that in addition to the new nuclear facility, ElBaradei will also discuss a plan to allow Russia to take some of Iran's enriched uranium and enrich it to higher levels to fuel a research reactor in Tehran.

Western officials said Iran agreed to the plan at Thursday's meeting, a potentially significant move that would show greater flexibility by both sides.

Obama noted the deal in comments on the meeting. But Mehdi Saffare, Iran's ambassador to Britain and a member of the Iranian delegation at the talks, said Iran had not yet agreed to such a plan.

The Obama administration, together with the U.S. Congress, is drawing up plans for tough new sanctions if the talks with Iran show signs of faltering. Obama said the new penalities could target Iran's energy, financial and telecommunications sectors.

A congressional committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on the possibility of expanding sanctions to cover a wider range of financial transactions, including a new ban on exporting refined petroleum to Iran.