Syria Rebuilds Mystery Structure

(NEWSER) - Israel is engaging in a bit of saber rattling directed toward Iran, the Times of London reports. The military is beefing up its air arsenal and training to be ready to strike Iran’s nuclear sites at a moment's notice. “Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours,” a defense official said. “The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words.” More»

Peres: "We'll strike" Amadinejad if Obama's anti-nuclear efforts fail

(NEWSER) - Israel's new government continued its saber-rattling with Iran today, threatening to strike the country if President Obama's diplomatic overtures fail, the Jerusalem Post reports. Echoing the hardline rhetoric of new Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres issued a warning to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "We'll strike him" if Obama can't soften the leader's stance, Peres said. More»

Washington moves close to N. Korea agreement

(NEWSER) - Details of a suspected secret pact between North Korea and Syria to supply Damascus with nuclear weapons technology will be revealed in closed-door CIA briefings of lawmakers, Reuters reports. The pact is apparently linked to an Israeli air raid on a suspected nuclear site in Syria last year. The briefing comes as Washington moves closer to an agreement by North Korea to finally declare details of its nuclear program. More»

Meanwhile, Israel asks US for weapons

(NEWSER) - Diplomats from the UN's nuclear agency say they've seen satellite images of Iranian trucks and earth-moving vehicles working at Iran's Parchin site, in what they suspect is an attempt to scrub the area of radioactive traces ahead of the IAEA's visit . Diplomats tell the AP that they saw trucks hauling off soil that they suspect could have been contaminated in tests of a nuclear weapon trigger mechanism—whose only purpose, one diplomat said, would be related to a nuclear weapon. More»

16 US agencies agree that Iran stopped bomb program in 2003

(NEWSER) - Iran may be researching nuclear weapons technology, but US intelligence experts do not think it is actively trying to make an atomic bomb, reports the Los Angeles Times . Iran apparently stopped its bomb-building program in 2003, according to a secret report circulated last year that reflects the position of 16 American intelligence agencies, as well as another national intelligence estimate compiled in 2007. More»