30 November 2009: Financial Times
By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Monavar Khalaj in Tehran
Iran said on Sunday it was dramatically expanding its nuclear programme, in a move that raises the stakes in the international dispute over the programme and could inflame tensions in the Middle East.
Tehran’s announcement of plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants is likely to exacerbate concerns that it could use its nuclear infrastructure for weapons purposes and comes after Iran was censured at the United Nations nuclear watchdog last week.
An expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme would also dash any remaining hope that Tehran would agree to a compromise proposal negotiated in October and championed by the Obama administration as a first step towards engagement.
“This announcement makes it more likely that Israel will attempt a military solution to stop Iran,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US state department official and currently a non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
But he cautioned that Iran’s announcement of 10 new sites could be an exaggeration, adding that bottlenecks with components and raw materials could impede Iran’s progress.
The Iranian cabinet on Sunday called on the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation to start constructing five enrichment sites in the next two months and to find locations for five more at an undetermined date.
Ali-Akbar Salehi, Iran’s top nuclear official, told state television the new sites would be built inside mountains to protect them against any
possible military attacks. “Iran has decided that enrichment should not be halted for a second,” he said. Iran has always insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful.
The cabinet called for all of the facilities to be the size of Iran’s Natanz facility, which has more than 8,000 centrifuges installed and which Tehran says has the capacity for 50,000.
“If true, this would be yet another serious violation of Iran’s clear obligations under multiple UN security council resolutions and another example of Iran choosing to isolate itself,” said Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman.
The Iranian cabinet is also due to consider enriching uranium to 20 per cent – as opposed to 3-5 per cent for fuel and more than 90 per cent for weapons purposes – at its next meeting on Wednesday.
