Iran confirms building new enrichment plant

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s nuclear programme confirmed on Friday that his country was building a new uranium enrichment plant and suggested that UN inspectors would be allowed to visit the previously secret facility.

Iran acknowledged the existence of the facility for the first time on Monday in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, presented the facility as new, saying the country had achieved a ‘successful new step in the direction of preserving and enjoying its accepted right for peaceful use of nuclear energy’.

He said Iran was ‘now in the process of building a semi-industrial plant for enriching nuclear fuel’, according to the IRNA news agency.

‘The activities of this facility, like other nuclear facilities in Iran, will be in the framework of the measures of the agency (IAEA),’ he said.

US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened tough new sanctions unless Iran came clean about its nuclear programme.

The leaders were attending a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

‘Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow... and threatening the stability and security of the region and the world,’ President Obama said.

He said Iran’s action ‘represents a direct challenge to the basic foundation of the non-proliferation regime’.

‘It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations.

‘We remain committed to serious, meaningful engagement with Iran to address the nuclear issue through the P5+1 negotiations.’

A US official said talks to be held by Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States with Iran in Geneva on Oct 1 would be a ‘serious test’ of Tehran’s willingness to address concerns about the new plant.

The British prime minister accused Iran of ‘serial deception’ in its nuclear programme.

The French president said Tehran had until December to comply or else face new international sanctions.

Russia said it was alarmed by Iran’s disclosure, while China urged the country to cooperate with United Nations inspectors, but said it still wanted a negotiated solution.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country was ‘very worried’ about Iran’s construction of a second nuclear site.

Iran insisted that the plant was within the parameters of the UN nuclear watchdog’s rules.

‘We have no secrecy, we work within the framework of the IAEA,’ President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Time magazine, saying Tehran was not obliged to inform the Obama administration of every nuclear facility it had.

The IAEA asked Iran to provide access to and information about the plant as soon as possible.

IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said Iran had stated that it intended to enrich uranium at the new plant, like its Natanz complex, only to the five per cent level suitable for power plant fuel.

‘The agency also understands from Iran that no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility,’ he said. US officials said Iran had been building the plant for several years inside a mountain near Qom.—AP/Reuters

Ahmadinejad says rules not violated

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran had complied with UN rules that required it to inform the IAEA six months before a uranium enrichment facility became operational.

He told a news conference that the new facility won’t be operational for 18 months.

Replying to a question, he said Tehran rejected nuclear armaments as ‘inhumane’.

President Ahmadinejad said US President Barack Obama would regret his statement against Iran on the issue. — APLINKK..