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West demands access to Iran's secret nuclear plant
AFP - Saturday, September 26
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PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AFP) - – 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 non-proliferation rules.
Iran -- which insists it is was defiant.
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 the the event of attacks on its other sites.
"Considering the threats, our organisation 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 October 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 may 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 Iranian faces "further more stringent sanctions". Nuclear standoff: chronology
At a later briefing with journalists, Brown said the "could not have been for a civil nuclear facility".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the revelation that Iran had been holding back information on the Qom plant would encourage countries that had been opposed to sanctions to toughen their position.
Russia, a member of the UN Security Council and the international community's six nation Iran contact group, has thus far been the main obstacle to sanction, but the Russian G20 delegation signaled that this might change.
Natalya Timakova, spokeswoman for Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, said: "The president will make a special statement on the latest announcement by Iran, which worries us."
This statement "will be in the spirit of those evaluations that were given by the president after a meeting with President Obama. If you remember, the word 'sanctions' was used there," she said.
China has been told of the second Iranian uranium enrichment plant and has asked Tehran to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog in any probe on the issue, Chinese government spokesman Ma Zhao Xu said. Uranium enrichment explained
"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.
The IAEA earlier said Iran had sent a letter on September 21 to inform the watchdog "that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country," agency spokesman Marc Vidricaire said in a statement.
"The IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible."
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