I see that we have a new apologist for Iran's nuclear weapons program.

He says "It is thus very unlikely that Iran would agree to any core Western demands on its nuclear issue short of genuine reciprocity meeting the substance of its declared priority."

As there is no need for 20% enriched uranium for power generation, the question is why Iran is so reluctant to give it up. Given Iran's long history of lying to the IAEA, the world will need to see serious concessions before ratcheting up the sanctions let alone beginning to remove them.

The sanctions seem to be the only way to get through to the Iranian regime, and by making the average Iranian's life miserable, it could act as an agent for regime change.

An ultimate problem with Iran is that it is largely ruled by extremist Islamic priests and is against Western interests. Meanwhile other nuclear powers including the US, UK, France and Israel are on balance representatives of our interests.

If the author reads my sigint efforts at http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/iranian-googling-and-amateur-sigint.html he could learn the following Google searches and other activities of Iran's Atomic Energy Oranisation:

- October 30, 2006 (IP 217.218.11.165) Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran, conducting a Google search "what is nuclear simulation".

- November 19, 2006 (IP 217.218.64.202) from Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran, using ISP conducted Google search with key words "nuclear explosion simulation".

- March 4, 2007 (IP 213.176.127.82) from Tehran using ISP "Iranian Research Organization" also conducted a Google search with key words "simulation underground nuclear explosion".

- September 9, 2007 (IP 217.218.64.202) from Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran googling for information on "nuclear weapon effects computer".

- October 24, 2007 (IP 217.218.64.202) Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran [googling for information on "Nuclear weapon effects computer".

- November 14, 2007 (IP 217.218.64.202) Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran googling for information on "underground nuclear explosion simulation"

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a supercomputer at Isfahan University of Technology in 2011. The Isfahan campus includes the Nuclear Technology Center and within that the Uranium Conversion Facility involved in Uranium enrichment. A supercomputer has many uses including nuclear explosion simulation. Such simulations demand the speed and capacity of a supercomputer.

Pete