“Although the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking construction of the plant for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence.” It is likely that Obama is overestimating the impact this will have upon the mullahs. They respect strength. The threat of sanctions is not strength.
“Iran admits to secret second nuclear plant built inside mountain,” by Michael Evans and Nico Hines for the Times Online, September 25 (thanks to Alexandre):
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has been building a previously undeclared nuclear facility to enrich uranium, raising fears that Tehran is closer to acquiring an atomic bomb than has been predicted up until now.
The presence of a secret second site – built inside a mountain near the holy Shia city of Qum – has been known about by American and other Western intelligence agencies for some time, although nothing has been revealed until now.
Iran’s formal letter to the IAEA in Vienna, sent on Monday, pre-empted an announcement to be made today by President Obama, Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy of France before the opening of the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, in which Tehran will be accused of building the secret facility about 100 miles southwest of the Iranian capital.
Although the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking construction of the plant for several years, Mr Obama decided it was time to put maximum pressure on Tehran by revealing its existence.
Reports from Washington indicate that Iran had learnt of the West’s uncovering of its second plant and moved to declare it formally to the IAEA.
Iran wrote a brief, cryptic letter to the IAEA saying it now had a “pilot plant” under construction, whose existence it had not revealed. Iran’s first and officially declared facility is at Natanz in southern Iran.
Marc Vidricaire, IAEA spokesman, said: “I can confirm that on September 21 Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel-enrichment plant is under construction in the country. The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 per cent.”
Uranium enriched to around 5 per cent can be used as nuclear fuel, but has to be enriched to around 90 per cent to be effective in a nuclear weapon. The United States, Britain and other Western countries believe that Iran has been attempting, at its plant at Natanz, to achieve a higher enrichment of uranium, although the plant has been subject to IAEA inspections….