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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran's progress on nuclear fuel speeding up, say UN inspectors |
| 2012-08-24 |
| INTERNATIONAL nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges and may be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings. Almost all of the new equipment is being installed in a deep underground site, on a military base near the city of Qom, that is considered virtually invulnerable to attack. It would suggest that a boast by senior Iranian leaders late last month - that the country had added more than 1000 new machines to its installation despite Western sabotage - may be true. The report will also indicate, according to officials familiar with its contents, that Iran is increasingly focused on enriching uranium to a level of 20 per cent - a purity that experts say gets it most of the way to the level needed to produce a workable nuclear bomb. The report does not try to answer the question of whether Iran has made a decision to build a nuclear weapon. US intelligence officials believe it has not, and Iran insists it wants to use nuclear power for peaceful ends. Nonetheless, the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency's experts is likely to renew the debate over Iran's intentions at a time when Israel is stepping up warnings that the window to conduct a pre-emptive military strike is closing. A faction led by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak will almost certainly argue that Iran has moved closer to what he calls a ''zone of immunity'', the point at which so much equipment is installed in the underground facility, called Fordow, that it will be too late for Israel to stop Iran from producing a weapon should it choose to do so. The report could also become an issue in the US presidential race. The presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, used a trip to Israel last month to claim President Barack Obama had wasted time in fruitless negotiations with Iran. ''This will stir more discussion of how much time is left for diplomacy,'' said Olli Heinonen, the former chief inspector for the IAEA and now a fellow at Harvard's Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs. ''Even if the new centrifuges are not operating yet, a thousand new ones would represent a 20 per cent increase - and an increased production level will be a red line for many people.'' |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 "and an increased production level will be a red line for many people ... " INCLUDING the people who care - and are actually going to do something about this situation! |
| Posted by: Raider 2012-08-24 13:20 |