Timeline: Iran’s nuclear ambition – Telegraph
Timeline: Iran’s nuclear ambition – Telegraph.
Containing Iran’s nuclear weapons programme has long been one of the West’s most important foreign policy challenges. Here is a timeline of key events.
2005
– Aug 8: Iran resumes uranium conversion activities which had been suspended since November 2004.
2006
– April 11: Iran says it has enriched its first uranium to 3.5 percent purity and later, in May, to 4.8 percent. This is not sufficient to make a nuclear bomb.
– Dec 23: The UN Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology. It strengthens the measures in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
2007
– April 9: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.
2009
– April 9: Iran inaugurates its first nuclear fuel plant, and says it has installed 7,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz.
– Sept 25-28: Iran reveals a secret uranium enrichment plant in the central region of Fordo.
– Oct 21: The IAEA floats a plan under which Iran’s nuclear fuel would be enriched outside the country; Tehran rejects the offer.
2010
– June-July: World powers enact new military and financial sanctions.
– July 30: Iran says it is ready for immediate talks with the United States, Russia and France over an exchange of nuclear fuel.
– Aug 16: Iran announces it is to start building its third uranium enrichment plant in early 2011.
– Aug 21: Iran starts loading fuel into its Russian-built first nuclear plant at Bushehr.
– Nov 29: Twin blasts in Iran’s capital kill a top nuclear scientist and injure another. Ahmadinejad blames Israel and the West.
– Dec 6: After a 14-month break, Iran and six world powers open two days of talks that yield agreement on holding another round of discussions.
2011
– Jan 22: Failure of new talks between Tehran and world powers in Istanbul.
– May 23-24: The European Union and US announce new sanctions against Iran.
– July 19: Iran says it has begun installing new centrifuges with better quality and speed.
– Aug 22: Iran says it has begun transferring centrifuges from Natanz to the Fordo plant.
– Sept 2: The UN’s atomic watchdog says it is getting worried about a possible military dimension to Iran’s nuclear activities. It says since February 2007, Iran has produced more than 4,500 kilos (9,920 pounds) of 3.5-percent enriched uranium (LEU) at its Natanz site.
– Sept 22: Ahmadinejad says Iran will halt production of low-enriched uranium, if the West gives it the material in return. Washington dismisses the proposal.
– Oct 6: Israeli President Shimon Peres warns that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely.
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