Iran appears to be speeding up extraction of uranium ore at its Gchine mine site, a move that could intensify Western suspicions that the Middle Eastern state intends to build a nuclear bomb, Bloomberg reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3).
(Nov. 4) -
U.S. President Barack Obama, center left, walks through the White House yesterday with top European Union officials. The leaders issued a statement urging Iran to cooperate with the international community on its nuclear program (Olivier Douliery/Getty Images).
Iran drained waste from the mine at an increasingly rapid pace between April 26 and Oct. 3, when commercial satellite images of the site were taken, said four nuclear experts who scrutinized the photographs. The nation filled one waste pond at the mine late last year and has constructed a second storage pool.
“Iran’s decision to expand mining and milling at [Gchine] seems to validate the suspicions of those who think it was the main uranium site for a covert [uranium enrichment] program,” said Jeffrey Lewis, head of the New America Foundation's Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative. The uranium enrichment process can produce low-enriched material for nuclear power reactors but also highly enriched material suitable for use in nuclear weapons; Tehran has insisted its atomic ambitions are strictly civilian in nature.
“Although the mill has a design capacity of 21 tons of yellowcake per year, it has actually operated at much lower levels. The construction of a much larger pond suggests Iran is moving toward operating the mill at its design capacity,” Lewis said.
If enriched to weapon-grade levels, 21 tons of yellowcake could be used to power two nuclear weapons, according to the independent Verification Research, Training and Information Center in London.
An international presence at the mine is necessary to reveal the destination of the uranium it produces, analysts said, adding that transparency is also necessary at the many of the nation's other nuclear facilities. Iran revoked the International Atomic Energy Agency's access to Gchine in 2006 when Tehran ended its adherence to the Additional Protocol, which enables the U.N. organization to conduct snap inspections of a signatory nation's nuclear facilities.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog needs “considerably more access into the Iranian program as a whole so that there is a verifiable distance between Iran’s option to build a bomb and the exercise of that option,” Lewis said. "Given Iran’s history of concealing nuclear facilities, an effective safeguards regime needs to cover all of Iran’s nuclear activities from the moment the ore comes out of the earth at [Gchine] and elsewhere" (Jonathan Tirone, Bloomberg I, Nov. 3).
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama today called on Iran to adopt policies that would improve the prospects of its people.
The 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran "helped set the United States and Iran on a path of sustained suspicion, mistrust, and confrontation," Obama said in a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the event. "I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect."
Last week, Tehran appeared to reject key elements of a U.N. proposal aimed at eliminating immediate concerns that Iran could produce enough material for a nuclear weapon using its existing stockpile of low-enriched uranium. The plan, put forward last month by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, calls for the refinement of much of Iran's uranium in France and Russia for use in a Tehran medical research reactor.
"We do not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. We have condemned terrorist attacks against Iran. We have recognized Iran’s international right to peaceful nuclear power. We have demonstrated our willingness to take confidence-building steps along with others in the international community. We have accepted a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency to meet Iran’s request for assistance in meeting the medical needs of its people. We have made clear that if Iran lives up to the obligations that every nation has, it will have a path to a more prosperous and productive relationship with the international community," Obama said in the statement.
"Iran must choose. We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for," he said (White House release, Nov. 4).
Obama and top EU officials yesterday released a joint statement urging Iran to cooperate with the international community, Agence France-Presse reported.
U.S. and EU leaders agreed to send "a clear message to Tehran that we want them to be a full member of the community of nations, but that they have to act consistent with international rules and responsibilities," Obama said. The White House had conducted meetings with European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, current holder of the rotating EU presidency (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Nov. 3).
A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an unacceptable threat to Israel and other nations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday in an address to U.S. lawmakers.
"A nuclear bomb in the hands of an Iranian president who denies the Holocaust, threatens Israel and denies Israel the right to exist is not acceptable," the Xinhua News Agency quoted Merkel as saying. "Security of the state of Israel is, for me, non-negotiable now and forever. ... Not only Israel is threatened, but the whole of the free world. Whoever threatens Israel also threatens us" (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily, Nov. 3).
Meanwhile, an organization of Iranian exiles urged the U.N. nuclear watchdog to investigate a site the group has alleged is involved in assembling nuclear-weapon detonators, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 25).
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a branch of the Paris-based group People's Mujahedeen, yesterday described alleged details of one site that it in September alleged was involved in nuclear-weapon work. The organization brought Iran's nuclear activities to light in 2002 but is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government.
"All activities related to the manufacture of detonators are done in this web of tunnels," said Mehdi Abrichamtchi, a spokesman for the group.
"We hope the [International Atomic Energy Agency] won't wait four years as for Qum to move to visit this site ... before the mullahs get a chance to move things around and cover up the whole thing," Abrichamtchi said, referring to an unfinished uranium enrichment facility disclosed by Iran in September. "The regime is much closer to the bomb" (Elaine Ganley, Associated Press/Google News, Nov. 3).
Meanwhile, Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is set to begin operating by the end of this year, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi said yesterday, according to Xinhua.
Russia is confident it will wrap up work on the site, Iranian state media quoted Sajjadi as saying.
"The two sides (both Russians and Iranians) have mobilized their human resources even beyond the specified plans," he said, noting that "previous tests have been successful and there have just remained two more tests to be carried out" ahead of the facility's opening (Xinhua News Agency II/China View, Nov. 3).
In the United States, a defense authorization bill signed into law last week calls for a new, annual assessment of the aims and capabilities of Iran's nuclear, missile and other military programs, Bloomberg reported yesterday. To date, only China has come under the regular scrutiny of such a U.S. analysis, according to the news agency.
"Iran’s actions pose a threat to peace and stability in their region, and these have repercussions for global security. Our hope is that our nation and countries around the world will gain better insight on the true intentions of Iran," said Representative Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), who called with Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) for the new report.
Lawmakers demanded information on Iranian strategies "designed to establish Iran as the leading power in the Middle East and to enhance the influence of Iran in other regions of the world.” The report would examine the nation's policies toward individual neighboring states.
“This report will help us understand the comprehensive threat Iran poses,” Brownback wrote in an e-mail, adding that the analysis would provide “a much clearer picture of Iran’s capabilities and how it intends to use them” (Viola Gienger, Bloomberg II, Nov. 3).