Obama: Iran has secret nuclear facility

[Neo]

Obama: Iran has secret nuclear facility

PITTSBURGH – President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain will accuse Iran at the opening of the G-20 economic summit Friday of building a secret facility to produce nuclear fuel, a senior White House official told The Associated Press.

The official said the three leaders — Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — will demand that Tehran open the covert facility up to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has kept the facility, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, hidden from international weapons inspectors for years, but the U.S. has long known of its existence, the official said.

Obama decided to go public with the revelation after Iran learned that Western intelligence agencies were aware of the project.

The official said the plant could be in operation by next year.

Word the three leaders would make the announcement was first reported by The New York Times.

Meanwhile, a diplomat in Vienna and another European government official told The Associated Press on Friday that Tehran has informed the IAEA that it has a previously undeclared uranium enriching facility.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was confidential, said Iran revealed its existence in a letter sent Monday to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the atomic energy agency.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made no mention of the facility this week while attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but said that his country had fully cooperated with international nuclear inspectors.

Administration officials said the disclosure would make it easier to make the case for imposing sanctions if Iran blocks inspections or refuses to quit its nuclear program.

"They have cheated three times," a senior White House official told the Times. "And now they have been caught three times."

[Interceptor]

Iran 'concealed nuclear facility'

25/09/09

Iran concealed a partially-built second uranium enrichment plant in defiance of calls for transparency over its nuclear plans, US President Barack Obama says.

The leaders of the US, UK and France demanded UN inspectors be given immediate access to the facility and threatened tough new sanctions.

Iran told the UN about the plant on Monday, saying it was not operational yet and would provide nuclear energy.

Iranian officials in New York and Tehran denied the plant was a secret.

Tehran has previously acknowledged it has one enrichment plant, at Natanz.

“ Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programme ”
Gordon Brown UK Prime Minister

Iran's decision to build a secret facility represented a "direct challenge to the basic compact" of the global non-proliferation regime, US President Barack Obama said, making a statement in Pittsburgh, where he is hosting a G20 summit.

Despite Iran's assertions that the facility was for peaceful purposes, the new plant was "not consistent" with that goal, the US president said.

In Washington, US officials said the Western nations decided to reveal their intelligence assessments when the Iranians realised the plant's secrecy was compromised.

Iran now faces the prospect of tougher international sanctions if it does not satisfy Western calls for full disclosure in the coming months.

'Line in the sand'

Speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Obama said it was time for Iran to begin meeting its international commitments.

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ANALYSIS

BBC World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds
Iranian ambitions for this site are not known. It could be that they wanted a back-up in case their main plant at Natanz was attacked. But another fear is that they intended to enrich uranium more highly at the secret plant, to a level suitable for a nuclear explosion.

The discovery will strengthen the demands by the US and its allies for further sanctions to be imposed on Iran unless it suspends all enrichment, as required by the Security Council.

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"Iran must comply with UN Security Council resolutions and make clear it is prepared to meet its responsibilities as a member of the community of nations," Mr Obama said.

Tehran would be held accountable for any failure to meet these responsibilities, he said.

Speaking after Mr Obama, the French and British leaders used strong language to insist that Iran would now have to disclose full details of its entire nuclear programme or face new and tougher sanctions.

Gordon Brown stressed that the US, France and UK were "at one" on the issue, and accused the Iranians of "serial deception".

There was now "no choice but to draw a line in the sand" over the nuclear issue, he said.

"Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programme."

Mr Sarkozy said the situation was a challenge to the entire international community.

"Everything must be put on the table," the French president said, adding that the world needed to see a "step change" from Iran in the coming months.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was "worried" by the developments and would make a statement later on Friday, his office said. He was informed of the plant's existence by Mr Obama during a bilateral meeting this week.

China, also informed this week, was considering its response, officials said.

Underground plant

Iranian officials were quick to deny the latest plant was any kind of clandestine project.

"This installation is not a secret one, which is why we announced its existence to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]," Ali Akbar Saleri, head of Iran's nuclear agency, told the AFP news agency.

Iran says it does not need to inform the IAEA of any new site until 180 days before any nuclear material is place in the facility.

The existence of Iran's first enrichment plant, at Natanz, was only confirmed after intelligence emerged from Iranian exile groups several years ago.

IRAN'S NUCLEAR SITES

• Iran insists that all its nuclear facilities are for energy, not military purposes
• Bushehr: Nuclear power plant
• Isfahan: Uranium conversion plant
• Natanz: Uranium enrichment plant, 4,592 working centrifuges, with 3,716 more installed
• Second enrichment plant: Existence revealed to IAEA in Sept 2009. Separate reports say it is near Qom, and not yet operational
• Arak: Heavy water plant

Western governments are said to have known of the existence of the new enrichment plant for some time. Mr Obama was first told about it during the "transition" period before he took office in January, officials say.

The new facility is said to be underground at a mountain on the site of a former missile site belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, north-east of the holy city of Qom.

Construction on the facility - believed by the US to be large enough to contain 3,000 centrifuges, not large enough for commercial work - started in earnest in mid-2006, diplomatic sources said.

Iran's letter to the UN watchdog, the IAEA, on Monday informed it that "a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction".

Iran told the agency that no nuclear material had been introduced into the plant, and enrichment levels would only be high enough to make nuclear fuel, not a bomb.

In response, the IAEA has requested Iran to "provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible", an IAEA statement adds.

The disclosure of the new plant comes one day after world leaders stressed the need for greater co-operation against nuclear proliferation and shortly before Iran is due to resume talks with international powers on the issue.

Since taking office in January, Mr Obama has told Tehran than he is ready for direct talks on the nuclear issue, but has had no firm response from Iran.

Earlier this month, Tehran agreed to "comprehensive" talks on a range of security issues - but made no mention of its own nuclear programme.

The talks are due to be held in Geneva on 1 October with Tehran and the five permanent UN Security Council members - US, UK, Russia, China and France - plus Germany.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...st/8274903.stm