Iran admits secret uranium enrichment plant
Confession of secret underground complex south of Tehran pre-empts nuclear accusation by US, France and UK
Julian Borger's global security blog: Iran's secret is out
Julian Borger's global security blog: Iran's secret is out
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iran has admitted developing a secret uranium enrichment plant. Photograph: Str/AP
Tensions over Iran's suspect nuclear programme soared today with confirmation that Tehran has developed a new, secret uranium enrichment plant that could be used to engineer a nuclear bomb, but had kept the project hidden from UN inspectors for years.
Ahead of crucial talks between Iran and world powers at the end of the month and calls for swingeing sanctions against Tehran, President Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, and Nicolas Sarkozy of France were expected to deliver an ultimatum to Iran on the fringes of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.
According to the New York Times the site is built inside a mountain near the ancient city of Qum, one of the holiest Shiite cities in the Middle East.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which has been investigating the Iranian programmes for six years, declined to confirm receipt of a letter on Monday from Tehran, confessing to the establishment of another secret, underground complex south of Tehran for the enrichment of uranium which can be used for power generation and also, when highly enriched, for warheads.
The Associated Press reported from Vienna that diplomats accredited to the IAEA had been shown the letter, in which the Iranians admitted developing the undeclared plant at an undisclosed location south of Tehran.
Analysts speculated that the Iranians had delivered a partial confession because they knew that US intelligence was monitoring the activities and they were about to be exposed.
The three leaders in Pittsburgh are to demand that the Iranians make the new site accessible to the UN inspectors, the New York Times reported.
According to the NYT, US officials have been tracking the covert project for years. Obama decided to go public after Iran discovered that western intelligence agencies had breached the secrecy surrounding the project.
According to the newspaper the facility is not complete. American officials said they believe it was designed to hold about 3,000 centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium for nuclear power plants and potentially for bombs.
No comments:
Post a Comment