The “Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013″ passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote and is expected to easily pass the full 435-member chamber, where it already has about 340 co-sponsors. A vote by the Republican-controlled House is likely within the coming weeks.

The measure seeks to cut Iran’s oil exports to less than a half-million barrels a day, limit Tehran’s access to foreign currency and expand the list of blacklisted sectors of Iran’s economy. Sponsors called it the strongest sanctions package ever against Iran’s nuclear program.

The United States believes Iran is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is intended for producing power and medical supplies. Iran is already under sanctions by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union over the program.

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers have both been pushing President Barack Obama’s administration to do more to crack down on Iran’s nuclear program.

A U.N. report showed on Wednesday that Iran was pressing ahead with constructing a nuclear reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one.

There is not yet a companion Senate bill to the House measure, but the full, Democratic-led Senate was to vote later on Wednesday on a resolution urging Obama to strengthen enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran. The Senate bill, introduced by members from both parties, is expected to pass easily.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced separate legislation earlier this month that would block Iran’s access to billions of dollars worth of foreign currency reserves.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday.

Iran has transported the reactor vessel – which would hold the fuel – to the heavy water plant near the central town of Arak but has not yet installed it, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report issued to member states.

“It certainly means that progress is made,” one diplomat familiar with the Iranian nuclear program said, adding that several other major components for the reactor, including control room equipment, had yet to be put in place there.

The United States said Iran was in “non-compliance with its international nuclear obligations”.

“This report marks an unfortunate milestone with regard to Iran’s illicit nuclear activities,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. Iran he said was “advancing its enrichment program in blatant violation of its international obligations.”

Western concerns about Iran are focused largely on uranium enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow, as such material refined to a high level can provide the fissile core of a nuclear bomb. Iran says it only refines uranium to fuel nuclear energy plants.

But experts say Arak may also be a proliferation issue as it could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel were reprocessed. Iran has said it has no reprocessing activities.

“Once the reactor operates, it could spawn more than enough weapons-grade plutonium for a bomb per year, should Iran ever decide to do that,” said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment think-tank.

The Islamic Republic, which denies it has any intention of acquiring nuclear arms, plans to commission the plant in the first quarter of 2014 and expects it to become operational in the same year’s third quarter, the IAEA said.

Israel, which has threatened to attack Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Tehran’s nuclear drive, bombed Iraq’s atomic reactor in 1981 and a suspected Syrian nuclear facility in 2007.

“Israel might be tempted to try to repeat what it did previously in Syria and Iraq and destroy the reactor before it goes critical,” Hibbs said.

In its previous report on Iran, in February, the U.N. agency said Iran had almost completed installation of cooling and moderator circuit piping in the Arak facility. Wednesday’s report said Iran planned to produce 55 fuel assemblies for the reactor by August this year.

STOCKPILE BELOW ISRAELI “RED LINE”

Tehran last year postponed the planned start-up from the third quarter of 2013, a target that Western experts said always had seemed unrealistic.

As reported by Reuters on Tuesday, the IAEA report showed Iran increasing its capacity to refine uranium by installing hundreds more centrifuges at Natanz since February, underlining Tehran’s defiance of Western demands to curb the activity.

They included complete or partial installation of more than 500 advanced centrifuges which, once operational, would enable Iran to speed up significantly the accumulation of material the West fears could be put to developing nuclear bombs.

But, in a development that could help buy time for diplomacy between Iran and world powers, the report showed limited growth of Iran’s most sensitive nuclear stockpile, medium-enriched uranium, and it remained below an Israeli “red line”.

Tehran’s holding of uranium gas refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent – a relatively short technical step from weapons-grade – is closely watched as Israel says it must not amass enough for one bomb if further processed.

Critics say Iran is trying to achieve the capability to make atomic arms. Iran denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology for energy generation and medical purposes and that it is Israel’s reputed nuclear arsenal that threatens peace in the Middle East.

The IAEA report said Iran had continued to carry out “activities” – code for suspected clean-up work of any traces of illicit nuclear-linked work – at the Parchin military site, including asphalting an area U.N. inspectors want to see.

Separately, Iran told the U.N. agency during an inspection this month of the Bushehr nuclear power plant – the country’s only such installation so far – that it was shut down. No reason was given, but it has previously suffered delays in its operations.

When Ken and Carol Zwick pried open the heavy steel hatch in the backyard of their home of 13 years, they probably expected to see Desmond Hume punching in 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 to avert worldwide calamity.

Ken Zwick

Ken Zwick

Instead, the Zwicks found a 8-by-10 foot Cold War-era fallout shelter. And it was fully stocked.

A few of the boxes bore labels suggesting they might contain explosives, so agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to investigate, but nothing dangerous was inside.

“It was Hawaiian Punch,” Hollar-Zwick said. “It was all of what you would expect to find in a 1960s fallout shelter. It was food, clothing, medical supplies, tools, flashlights, batteries — items that you would want to have in a shelter if you planned to live there for two weeks.”

The Zwicks donated their findings to the Neenah Historical Society. With all these supplies, though, it’s shocking Brandon Fraser wasn’t already living beyond the hatch.

Assuming Kim Jong Un and Ayatollah Khamenei don’t have major changes of heart on the subject of nuclear ICBMs, fallout shelters may come into vogue once more. But really, they need to be updated. This is the twenty-first century and Americans demand convenience and quality. There are two things we—by which I mean, I—can’t high live without: fitness and a high-speed internet connection.

For fitness, all you need is a jumprope for cardio in an enclosed space. Strength-training-wise, split squats and push-ups can be done on your own. And then you need a laptop with wifi for entertainment and information. Keep YouTube active and we can endure nuclear winter. Assuming of course Skynet doesn’t cut the power, too.

Israel has publicly warned of possible air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites if Tehran does not resolve Western suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons know-how under cover of a declared civilian atomic energy programme, something Tehran denies.

Iran has threatened to hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region if it comes under attack, and also to block the Strait of Hormuz, the neck of the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass.

“The defense ministry has been able to test a new missile in the Persian Gulf which has a high ability to hit targets,” General Majid Bokaei, Iran’s deputy defense minister, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA, which described the missile as a ballistic missile.

Bokaei has not disclosed when the launch occurred or the range of the missile. The announcement comes days before the Islamic Republic’s National Army Day on April 18 to celebrate the military.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing to inaugurate the “Saghand uranium complex near the Central city of Ardakan and Shahid Rezayeenejad Yellow Cake production facility” on Tuesday to mark the regime’s “National Day of Nuclear Technology,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.

Western nations including the United States have urged Iran to stop enriching uranium to levels that would be needed to fuel a nuclear bomb.

“Uranium ores are extracted from the depth of 350 meters in Saghand mine near Ardakan and is then sent to Rezayeenejad complex to be converted into Yellow Cake,” Fars reported.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman did not have immediate comment on the announcement, directing a reporter to the agency’s reports on Iran, which show that the regime has made consistent progress on the nuclear front.

The spokesman added, “Uranium processing is different than enrichment.”

The new processing plants would constitute a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions aimed at stopping such activities, according to Emanuele Ottolenghi, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“If Iran’s declared intention to inaugurate two new uranium processing facilities is true—and not just the usual bluster—then these steps represent not only a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions but also yet another Iranian provocation,” he said.

“For 10 years, an agreement has eluded nuclear negotiators. All the while, Iran has expanded its nuclear activities and edged ever closer to nuclear weapons,” Ottolenghi said. “The failure of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, last week, only heightens the sense that diplomacy is at a dead end, and with Iran further expanding its nuclear activities, the point of no return may indeed be nearing.”

The opening of the facilities comes as Western nations failed to convince Iran to halt enrichment activities during multi-lateral talks last week.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief and top Iran negotiator, said talks failed to produce a major movement and that Iran and the West remain “far apart on substance,” according to the Guardian.

“Over two days of talks we had long and intensive discussions on the issues,” Ashton said following the talks, which took place in Kazakhstan. “It became clear that our positions remained far apart.”

“We have therefore agreed that all sides will go back to capitals to evaluate where we stand in the process,” Ashton said.

Iranian officials stated that the regime would not relinquish its “inalienable right” to enrich uranium.

“Accessing peaceful nuclear know-how is an indisputable right for Iran and the Iranian nation will defend its rights in all fields,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted as saying by state organ PressTV.

President Barack Obama recently declared that Iran is more than a year away from developing a nuclear weapon, progress that would cross a so-called “red line” for the administration.

Former CIA Director General Michael Hayden recently said he has begun to view a preemptive U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear sites as the “least worst” option to stop the regime.

German prosecutors allege Iran has established multiple “front companies” in Istanbul, according to Today’s Zaman, an English-language publication in Turkey. These illicit companies are believed to have shipped nuclear-related material back to Iran.

Kristen Silverberg, a former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, said Iran has a history of using front companies as a means to skirt sanctions.

“The Iranian regime has a long practice of using front companies” to evade sanctions and conduct illicit business affairs, Silverberg, who serves as president of United Against Nuclear Iran, a non-partisan advocacy group, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Iran has “really perfected the art of sanctions evasion, and we’ve seen them do that in response to every round [of sanctions], which is why it’s so important for the U.S. and its allies to identify the front companies and continue to sanction them and any country abetting them,” Silverberg said.

News of the nuclear exports comes just days after German and Turkish officials busted several Iranian smugglers suspected of transferring nuclear goods from India to Iran.

German and Turkish officials conducted raids in each country on Monday, capturing several Iranian suspects. Three other suspects remain at large.

“In 2012 German police detected that materials with nuclear applications obtained in Germany and India were transported to the Mitech company in Iran through Turkey by an Iranian national, Hossein Tanideh,” Today’s Zaman quoted the German report as saying.

Tanideh was captured in Turkey earlier this year.

“Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, which is also the German branch of Interpol, informed its counterpart in Turkey about Tanideh’s dealings, and Tanideh was arrested,” according to the report.

German officials were reportedly able to trace Tanideh’s activities to back several of the Iranian front companies.

The investigation revealed that Tanideh was tied to several business owners who were exporting material to Iran.

“As part of the investigation, a thorough search was conducted at IDI, a foreign trade company owned by Tanideh,” Today’s Zaman reported. “Police raided the main office of the company in Bakırköy, İstanbul, and seized all the documents in the office.”

The seized documents showed that Tanideh and one of his business associates “sent the materials with nuclear applications they got from Germany and India to Mitech in Iran and declared them as plumbing parts and fixtures,” according to the report.

Turkish police are believed to have learned from these documents that 91 nuclear-related items were funneled from Germany to Turkey on multiple occasions before making their way to Iran.

Another 856 nuclear items were shipped from India to Turkey and then to Iran at various points, according to the report.

“Despite six years of sanctions Iran is still capable of procuring critically vital, made-in-Europe dual use technology for its nuclear weapons’ program,” said Emanuele Ottolenghi, a Germany-based senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Dozens of front companies still operate in Europe under the nose of local authorities,” he said. “The mushrooming of Iranian companies in Turkey is clearly related—obtaining export licenses to this NATO member state is relatively easy.”

By using Turkey as a conduit, “Iran is able to elude sanctions,” Ottolenghi explained. “European authorities must do much more to stop this traffic and demand much more vigilance from Turkey since, by now, there are more than 3,000 Iranian companies registered in Turkey.”

Iran sanctions experts questioned whether Turkish officials had quietly allowed these shipments to take place.

“The big question is: Did Ankara know about this procurement network before the Germans blew the lid off?” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Iran and Turkey continue to expand business ties.

“A good number of Iranian-financed firms have set up shop in Turkey recently,” Today’s Zaman reported. “In January this year, there were 28 Iranian-funded foreign companies established in Turkey, which ranked just behind German investors.”

Turkey has been implemented in a series of troublesome actions meant to skirt Western sanctions on Iran.

Turkey’s Halkbank, a majority state-owned lender, faced scrutiny for carrying out so-called “gold for oil” transactions with Iran. It is believed that Turkey traded more than 60 tons of gold in exchange for Iranian crude oil.

Regional reports have also indicated that Turkey may trade ships to Iran in exchange for oil in another scheme meant to skirt Western sanctions.

Turkey has also been suspected of funding the terror group Hamas, leading experts to wonder if the nuclear-export fiasco reveals a growing terrorism problem in Turkey.

These exports, “coupled with Halkbank’s gas for gold scheme, coupled with Hamas funding, coupled with Turkey’s failure for five years to comply with international standards for terror finance laws paints a very troubling picture of Turkey,” said Schanzer, who serves as vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin said these front companies appear legitimate but are actually tools of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

“The economic wing of the Revolutionary Guards runs a number of front companies for seemingly legitimate purposes,” Rubin said. “The Iranians can use these companies’ Turkish partners to access a lot of dual use technology that Iran could never import directly. That’s hard enough to keep track of under normal circumstances, but we’re saddled with a Turkish government that sees Obama’s professed friendship as evidence that they can literally get away with murder.”

Alireza Forghani, a Khamenei confidant and former governor of Iran’s Kish province, published an article arguing that Tehran and Syria should launch a tag-team attack aimed at the total “eradication [of] Israel from the planet.”

“There remains no excuse for not [waging] a total multipartite attack on Israeli soil, with hopes of completely eradicating Israel from the planet (Allah willing),” Forghani wrote, according to a new translation of his Jan. 29 essay by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Attacking and completely eradicating Israel from the planet is the only solution to this problem,” Forghani wrote. “If this problem isn’t resolved with this golden opportunity, it is not known when there may be another.”

Iran has provided logistical support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he battles rebel forces and is well positioned to provide more assistance.

“We must equip and upgrade the Syrian forces for the final blow against Israel, [a blow that will continue] until it is totally destroyed,” Forghani worte. “We must in no way repeat the mistake of the [last] Gaza [war] – accepting a ceasefire.”

“The Israelis and their false government must not be [allowed] to breathe,” added Forghani, whose June 2012 essay included the rallying cry, “Atomic bomb now!”

Forghani advocates for a formal Iran-Syria military operation, something Iranian government officials have been hinting at for months.

“Iran will rush to the aid of any country that attacks Israel and ends Israel’s story once and for all (with Allah’s help),” he wrote. “We must thank Israel’s senior commanders … for providing Syria, and of course Iran, with this golden opportunity to attack Israel.”

Forghani also said Russia and the terror group Hezbollah are considered Iran’s closest “allies,” referring to the Allied Forces of World War II.

“The new Allies are Iran, Russia, Syria, and the Lebanese Hizbullah—countries that, much like the Allies in World War II, are defensive and will deliver the second strike,” Forghani wrote. “That is, they will defend [themselves] only after being attacked. These countries can be abbreviated as ‘Risl’ (Russia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon).”

Iranian officials have said in the past months that nuclear cooperation with Russia is one of the regime’s top priorities.

Forghani goes on to predict that World War III will soon break out and end in nuclear destruction.

“World War III will erupt … and that game will have no winners,” he wrote. “Both sides will lose, because some countries on both sides have nuclear weapons.”

“It touches all of us,” Rosenzweig, author of Cyber Warfare, said at a Heritage Foundation event.

Rosenzweig warned that the dynamic, rapid spread of the Internet makes the future challenging to predict. He cited the fact that the average cell phone now has as much computing power as a 1980s supercomputer used for nuclear testing by the government.

This rapid increase in computing power makes predicting future attackers and their capabilities nearly impossible.

“In three years it will be so different we can’t even begin to predict what we’re going to need,” said Rosenzweig, who is a visiting fellow at Heritage.

Although the media have reported cyber espionage by Chinese hackers and non-state actors such as “Anonymous,” there has been an increase in cyber attacks between countries, sparking what Rosenzweig called cyber “cold wars.”

The cyber cold war between the United States and Iran has lasted five years and shows no sign of ending. The United States and Israel are believed to have attacked Iran with Stuxnet and Flame, computer viruses designed to destroy parts of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran has retaliated with cyber attacks on U.S. businesses.

Experts estimate the cyber attacks have slowed Iran’s nuclear program by two years.

However, cyber relations between China and the United States pose the greatest threat, Rosenzweig said.

The Chinese group “Unit 61398,” which is similar in structure to the National Security Agency, is suspected of stealing trillions of terabytes of data from U.S. companies and the government. It would take semi-trucks spanning the Pentagon to the port of Baltimore to physically steal that much data, Rosenzweig said.

While there is a “potential advantage, so long as we have superior technology,” that may not be the case in five or 10 years, Rosenzweig said.

He suggested strategies such as the “gamification of counter intelligence,” which utilizes private sector hackers around the world to target specific companies profiting from stolen information.

Instead of imposing sanctions on a country,which Rosenzweig said would be slow and hierarchical, the U.S. could impose sanctions on specific companies.

Rosenzweig also suggested the U.S. begin targeting China’s firewall in order to “let a thousand tweets bloom.”

Rosenzweig also warned of a cyber cold war becoming hot, causing enough physical destruction from power grids and computer systems to start a shooting war. While this is possible, Rosenzweig sees it as unlikely.

“Instead of mutually assured disaster, we have mutually assured disruption,” Rosenzweig said.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R., S.C.): If the Iranians develop a nuclear capability, how certain are you that other nations in the region would acquire an equal capability?

MATTIS: At least one other nation has told me they would do that, at a leadership level, they have assured me they would not stay without a nuclear weapon if Iran armed.

GRAHAM: Was that a Sunni-Arab state?

MATTIS: Yes, sir.

GRAHAM: So the likelihood of Sunni-Arab states acquiring nuclear capability to counter the Shia Persians is great, would you not agree with that?

MATTIS: I agree, and also other non-Sunni-Arab states in the general region.

The statements by Mattis contradict the findings of a recent report drafted by former Obama Pentagon official Colin Kahl and produced for the Center for New American Security. That report argues that Saudi Arabia–as well as other states–would be unlikely to develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquired nuclear weapons.

The U.S. must “make absolutely clear to the Iranian government that unless they change their course, their situation will only get worse” said Menendez, who recently became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a lightly attended speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference today.

Menendez noted that Iran’s crude oil exports have dropped dramatically and the value of the Iranian rial has plummeted since the sanctions legislation he and Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) spearheaded in late 2011 has gone into effect.

Menendez said he sees no reason to stop now.

“Barring verifiable compliance” with International Atomic Energy Agency requirements, he said, “I see no reason as some are suggesting to relieve the pressure of any of the sanctions. I see a reason to vigorously enforce them to achieve our goals.”

While Menendez said he is hopeful about the new round of talks with Iran, he said the Tehran regime should not be allowed to run out the clock.

“Let’s be clear,” he said. “We will not and cannot talk for talking’s sake. We cannot allow the negotiations to become just a stalling tactic for Iran to buy time.”

Menendez also voiced strong objections to recent unilateral statehood efforts by the Palestinian Authority at the United Nations.

“If we are to get [to a two-state solution], it is critical that the Palestinians come back to the negotiating table and stop the stunts and the grandstanding at the United Nations,” Menendez said. “It is counterproductive and it fundamentally jeopardizes the Palestinian relationship with the U.S., and undermines their own interests.”

Menendez, whose support for Israel has been unwavering, has recently come under scrutiny from government watchdogs who allege he used his political influence to benefit top campaign donors.

“There will never be any daylight between the United States and Israel on my watch,” Menendez said. “Never.”

With additional reporting from Ellison Barber