BICOM

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed yesterday that Iran has started enriching uranium at an underground facility near the city of Qom. The agency added that it was monitoring the atomic materials and has it under surveillance. “The IAEA can confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent…using IR-1 centrifuges in the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” agency spokesperson Gill Tudor stated.

The United States responded to the IAEA confirmation by saying it represents a further violation of United Nations obligations. “The fact that the IAEA has made clear that they are enriching to a level that is inappropriate at Fordow is obviously a problem,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. In the UK, Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the “provocative act which further undermines Iran’s claims that its programme is entirely civilian in nature.”

In related news, the European Union is expected to bring forward a meeting of foreign ministers due to decide on an oil embargo on Iran by one week to 23 January, according to EU diplomatic sources. EU states have already agreed in principle to an embargo on Iranian oil, part of the latest Western effort to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme. However, they still have to finalise details of when it would be imposed. Diplomats say the embargo could take several months to start because some EU capitals want a delay to shield their debt-stricken economies.

Meanwhile, the Times reports this morning that Israel is preparing for Iran to become a nuclear power and believes that it may happen within a year, citing an Israeli security report on Monday. The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) think-tank, based in Tel Aviv, prepared scenarios for the day after an Iranian nuclear weapons test at the request of former Israeli ambassadors, intelligence officials and ex-military chiefs, the paper reported. The exercise was a shift away from the conventional thought of trying to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear capabilities.