WarSclerotic

Iran plans to start work by next March on a second uranium enrichment facility, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, June 11).

(Jun. 14) – Soldiers man an anti-aircraft gun outside Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment complex in 2006. An Iranian official said the nation would begin constructing a new enrichment facility by next March (Behrouz Mehri/Getty Images)

The Middle Eastern state has maintained that its nuclear program is strictly peaceful, but the United States and other Western powers have expressed concern that Tehran could tap its enrichment capability to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. The nation’s leaders have endorsed plans for 10 enrichment facilities in addition to its existing site at Natanz (Associated Press/Google News, June 12).

“The locations will be finalized after ensuring that they meet the criteria set by us. We hope that by the end of this year a location will be fixed after taking all aspects into consideration,” Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi told state media Saturday.

“We are in no hurry in this regard. At the moment we are only identifying locations,” Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying. Another official said in April that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already finalized locations for additional enrichment plants.

In addition, Salehi urged other countries to accept a uranium exchange plan his nation negotiated with Brazil and Turkey. “The best dignified way out of Iran’s nuclear issue for Western countries is to accept the fuel swap,” the official said.

The agreement calls for Iran to store 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium in Turkey for one year; other countries would be expected within that period to provide nuclear material refined for use at a Tehran medical research reactor in exchange for the Iran-origin uranium. The arrangement appeared similar to another proposal, formulated in October by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that was intended to defer the Middle Eastern state’s ability to fuel a nuclear weapon long enough to more fully address U.S. and European concerns about its potential nuclear bomb-making capability. Tehran ultimately rejected the IAEA proposal, which was worked out with France, Russia and the United States. Those nations, in turn, have expressed concerns about the later agreement (Farhad Pouladi, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, June 12).

“In the next few months Iran will announce a new nuclear achievement in connection to the production of fuel for its Tehran research reactor,” Salehi added. The official did not elaborate, according to Reuters (Reuters I, June 12).

Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers were preparing legislation that would curb Tehran’s relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency, state media quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, as saying. Boroujerdi’s announcement that the legislature would review its ties with the Vienna-based organization came soon after the U.N. Security Council adopted its fourth sanctions resolution against Iran last week.

The bill was not set to be debated yesterday, contrary to earlier statements, he added.

Tehran did not intend to reduce its relations with Beijing or Moscow, AFP quoted him as saying. Both governments voted for last week’s sanctions resolution (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, June 13).

Iran would need between one and three years to acquire enough material for a nuclear weapon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. He emphasized that Iran might need additional time to incorporate the material in a bomb or prepare a suitable delivery vehicle, AFP reported.

Tehran “could face military action from Israel or somewhere else” if it sought nuclear weapons, Gates said (Agence France-Presse III/Google News, June 11).

Saudi Arabia has indicated it would permit Israeli military aircraft to cross a patch of Saudi territory to launch airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the London Times reported Saturday. Use of Saudi airspace would dramatically reduce the distance Israeli aircraft would have to traverse to reach Iranian nuclear targets.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” one U.S. defense source said. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [U.S.] State Department.”

Saudi defense insiders were widely aware that their country had reached an understanding with Jerusalem over potential military action against Iran. “We all know this. We will let them (the Israelis) through and see nothing,” one source said.

Any attack on Iran would have four primary targets: the Natanz plant, the Isfahan uranium conversion facility, the Arak heavy-water reactor and the unfinished uranium enrichment site at Qum, according to the Times. An attacking power could also attempt to destroy the nation’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was slated for completion this year.

Israel was prepared to launch such a strike if it obtained permission from regional powers and the United States, military experts said (Hugh Tomlinson, London Times, June 12).

Gates expressed disappointment in Turkey’s decision last week to vote against the latest Iran penalties, the New York Times reported. Brazil joined Turkey in opposing the measure, while Lebanon abstained.

“Allies don’t always agree on things, but we move forward from here,” Gates said (James Kanter, New York Times, June 11).

Elsewhere, the Obama administration was in talks with U.S. lawmakers aimed at making changes to Iran sanctions legislation that would permit the exclusion of some countries from federal penalties targeting non-U.S. firms doing business with Iran’s energy sector, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday (see GSN, April 29).

Such exclusions were intended to apply to countries that have cooperated in international efforts to isolate Iran.

“The administration doesn’t carry out the laws that are on the books, and they want the new law to be as weak and loophole-ridden as possible,” Representative Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said.

The latest Security Council sanctions resolution was a “goose egg,” House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) said. Lawmakers must approve “crippling sanctions against Iran,” she said (Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, June 11).

In Europe, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has extended a written invitation to top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to engage in new talks, AFP reported today.

Top EU diplomats also began discussion of further punitive measures the 27-nation block could take against the Middle Eastern state. Draft EU penalties under consideration would address “key sectors of the oil and gas industry with prohibition of new investment, transfers of technologies, equipment and services.”

EU leaders are expected to back an agreed draft on Thursday, and further details of the measure would be formulated next month.

“Europe may reinforce the (U.N.) sanctions especially on technology regarding the extraction of oil and gas,” and could pursue “very rigorous discipline in the banking and financial investments sector,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt warned, though, that “no one really believes that sanctions are going to sort out this problem or have much political effect”

“The only sanctions that have any effect … are the ones that are of a global and comprehensive nature,” the official said at the start of today’s talks (Agence France-Presse IV/Google News, June 14).

In Germany, prosecutors were seeking to determine whether a Russian delivery of monitoring equipment intended for Iran violated European trade rules, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The equipment was confiscated by German customs officials while in route to Iran’s Bushehr reactor (David Crawford, Wall Street Journal, June 12).

In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said Friday that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had provided notification that Moscow would suspend a delivery of advanced air defenses to Iran, Reuters reported. Experts have suggested Iran could use the S-300 system to help protect its nuclear facilities from potential airstrikes (Emmanuel Jarry, Reuters II, June 11).

Moscow is “bound by an agreement to provide Iran with the [S-300] advanced defense system,” Iranian state media on Sunday quoted Esmail Kowsari, deputy head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, as saying.

“Russia should abide by the agreements made between the two countries and deliver the system to Iran,” he said, according to the Xinhua News Agency (Xinhua News Agency, June 13).