PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania: World leaders demanded on Friday that UN nuclear inspectors be given access to a previously secret Iranian plant and threatened to impose tough new sanctions on Tehran.
US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Tehran had admitted to the UN nuclear watchdog that it had built a second uranium enrichment plant.
Following their declaration, Russia expressed its concern and China said it had taken note of the information and had urged Tehran to cooperate with any probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Western leaders made it clear that they did not believe that the site had a civilian role, being of what one US official said was “the right size” to produce weapons grade uranium but of no use for nuclear fuel production.
“We expect the IAEA to immediately investigate this disturbing information and to report to the IAEA board of governors,” Obama said, branding the new plant a “direct challenge” to international nonproliferation rules.
President Ahmadinejad said Iran was not obliged to tell the Obama administration of every uranium enrichment plant it has.
“This does not mean we must inform Mr. Obama’s administration of every facility that we have,” he told Time magazine in an interview.
“We have no secrecy, we work within the framework of the IAEA,” Ahmadinejad said in a reference to the IAEA.
The head of Tehran’s nuclear program, Ali Akbar Salehi, declared that the second plant had been built to ensure Iran could continue to refine uranium even in the event of attacks on its other sites.
“Considering the threats, our organization decided to do what is necessary to preserve and continue our nuclear activities,” he told Iranian television.
“So we decided to build new installations which will guarantee the continuation of our nuclear activities which will never stop at any cost.”
Sarkozy backed Obama’s tough stance, and threatened rapid sanctions if Iran did not agree to talks on its nuclear program at talks with the international six-nation contact group on Oct. 1.
“It was designed and built over the past several years in direct violation of resolutions from the Security Council and from the IAEA,” he said of the plant, during his joint appearance with Obama and Brown at the G20 summit.
“We already face a severe breakdown of trust. We are now faced with a challenge, a challenge to the entire international community,” he said, demanding that Iranian negotiators change their stance.
“In December, if there is not an in-depth change in Iranian leaders, sanctions will have to be taken,” he said.
Brown said the scale of the Iranian “serial deception of many years” in hiding the plant for many years “will shock and anger the whole international community and it will harden our resolve. “The international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand,” he said, warning that Iran faces “further more stringent sanctions.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said new Iranian revelations will win over doubters of the US approach of threatening Iran with more sanctions while also offering it incentives.
Speaking in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Clinton appeared to be referring to Russia and China, which have in the past been reluctant to sanction Iran for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.
Clinton said the revelation of a secret nuclear plant near the city of Qom “makes clear to those, who have either not formed an opinion or doubted the necessity of the dual track approach we’re pursuing, to work with us.”
China has asked Tehran to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog in any probe on the issue, Chinese government spokesman Ma Zhao Xu said.
“It is our hope that Iran will cooperate with the IAEA on this matter.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was unable to join her three colleagues, but separately briefed journalists on her concerns, adding her voice to calls for the IAEA to urgently investigate the site.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States had had intelligence information on the secret plant for “some time” and believes it houses 3,000 centrifuge machines.
But he added the plant would not be operational for at least a few months.
