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Obama: Iran building secret nuke plant
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-25 20:21 PITTSBURGH: U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders accused Iran on Friday of building a secret nuclear fuel plant and demanded Tehran immediately halt what he called a "direct challenge" to the international community.
Obama went public with the charge in an appearance with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, sharpening a standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
"It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations," Obama said, adding that Tehran had been building the plant in secret for years. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said earlier on Friday that Iran had just told it of a second uranium enrichment plant under construction. The belated disclosure is sure to heighten Western fears of an Iranian bid for nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes to generate electricity. A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters while Obama attended the G20 summit, said it appeared the Iranian facility was at least a few months from having all centrifuges installed and able to operate. The nascent plant was believed to be designed for about 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium. At the United Nations, a senior Iranian official said accusations that the plant was clandestine were "not true." "If it was a covert plant, we would not have informed the (International Atomic Energy) Agency," the official said. The IAEA said Iran had disclosed the existence of the plant to IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday. The watchdog has asked Iran to provide access to and information about the plant, built inside a mountain around 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Tehran, as soon as possible. IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said Iran had stated it intended to enrich uranium at the new plant, like its Natanz complex that was hidden from the IAEA until 2002, only to the 5 percent level suitable for power plant fuel. "The agency also understands from Iran that no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility," he said. Mark Fitzpatrick, chief nonproliferation analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said it had long been suspected Iran was doing enrichment work at another site. "I think Iran disclosed it because they knew it would soon be made public by the United States," he told Reuters. "If Iran had not disclosed it I think it would have put much more pressure on them to be put under sanctions, Russia already having indicated that (more) sanctions were inevitable. This adds to the pressure on Iran." |
