Smurf-Herder
03-28-2010, 01:55 PM
Iran 'building two new nuclear enrichment plants'
Iran has come under fresh international scrutiny after evidence emerged to suggest that the regime had secretly begun to construct two new nuclear enrichment plants.
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have concluded that Tehran has escalated the covert elements of its nuclear programme, giving renewed impetus for a US-led push to tighten sanctions on Iran.
The findings are partly based on anomalies in Tehran's nuclear inventory that were recently identified by inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The inspectors have expressed serious concern that new uranium enriching equipment developed by Iranian scientists has mysteriously disappeared, the New York Times reported. The equipment has not turned up at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, leading inspectors to believe that it is being stored in secret until it can be installed in an as yet unidentified facility.
Iran recently piqued international interest after the country's atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that work was to begin on two new plants to be "built inside mountains". But a European official was quoted as saying that there was "some evidence" to suggest that building was already under way.
US intelligence agencies are studying satellite evidence of a number of suspect sites, while Israel is said to have uncovered evidence of "two Qom look-alikes".
Six months ago, President Barack Obama exposed the existence of a secret Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom. The revelation shocked even Iran's traditional allies and served to introduce a measure of consensus in the debate on how to respond to Tehran's nuclear programme as Russia dropped long-standing objections to tougher sanctions against the Islamic regime. Since then, however, there have been signs that the international community's united stand has begun to fray.
Veto-wielding Russia has hinted that it would limit the scope of any sanctions resolution introduced to the UN's Security Council, while China's attitudes remain uncertain. The United States and its European allies will seek to convince both states to back tough sanctions when foreign ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations meet in Quebec this week
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7532846/Iran-building-two-new-nuclear-enrichment-plants.html
Iran has come under fresh international scrutiny after evidence emerged to suggest that the regime had secretly begun to construct two new nuclear enrichment plants.
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have concluded that Tehran has escalated the covert elements of its nuclear programme, giving renewed impetus for a US-led push to tighten sanctions on Iran.
The findings are partly based on anomalies in Tehran's nuclear inventory that were recently identified by inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The inspectors have expressed serious concern that new uranium enriching equipment developed by Iranian scientists has mysteriously disappeared, the New York Times reported. The equipment has not turned up at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, leading inspectors to believe that it is being stored in secret until it can be installed in an as yet unidentified facility.
Iran recently piqued international interest after the country's atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that work was to begin on two new plants to be "built inside mountains". But a European official was quoted as saying that there was "some evidence" to suggest that building was already under way.
US intelligence agencies are studying satellite evidence of a number of suspect sites, while Israel is said to have uncovered evidence of "two Qom look-alikes".
Six months ago, President Barack Obama exposed the existence of a secret Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom. The revelation shocked even Iran's traditional allies and served to introduce a measure of consensus in the debate on how to respond to Tehran's nuclear programme as Russia dropped long-standing objections to tougher sanctions against the Islamic regime. Since then, however, there have been signs that the international community's united stand has begun to fray.
Veto-wielding Russia has hinted that it would limit the scope of any sanctions resolution introduced to the UN's Security Council, while China's attitudes remain uncertain. The United States and its European allies will seek to convince both states to back tough sanctions when foreign ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations meet in Quebec this week
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7532846/Iran-building-two-new-nuclear-enrichment-plants.html