Text 27927, 106 rader
Skriven 2007-03-19 22:37:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Iran
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The left will defend this.  Iran has the right to nuclear technology, 
just like us.  Right ?

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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070319234443.sniij657&show_artic
le=1

Iran stops inspectors visiting nuclear site: diplomats  
 
Mar 19 06:54 PM US/Eastern
        

  Iran stopped UN inspectors from visiting an underground bunker where 
it is building an industrial-scale plant to make enriched uranium but 
the inspectors will try again, diplomats told AFP Monday. 
Iran had however promised "frequent inspector access" to the site in 
Natanz, the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 
reported in February. 

The highly sensitive inspections, and talks over how they are to take 
place, came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to 
plead Iran's case this week before the UN Security Council, which is 
considering tightening sanctions on the Islamic republic over fears that 
it seeks nuclear weapons. 

A centre of concern is the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, in 
central Iran, where the Iranians are already operating above-ground a 
pilot plant carrying out research levels of enrichment, the process 
which makes what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also the 
explosive core of atom bombs. 

A diplomat said Iran had last Saturday refused to let IAEA inspectors 
into the underground hall at Natanz where the Iranians have set up 
hundreds of centrifuges in what is to be a 3,000-centrifuge facility for 
enriching uranium. 


Centrifuges are the machines used to refine uranium for the U-235 
isotope that is valuable for fuel or weapons. 

Such a facility could make enough highly enriched uranium for an atom 
bomb in about 10 months, according to the IISS think-tank in London. 

Other diplomats, all requesting anonymity due to the extreme delicacy of 
the issue, said IAEA inspectors are set to return this week, possibly 
Tuesday, to the plant and that delays in inspections were normal and 
could just be a matter of schedule changes or working out legal issues. 

Iran's blocking access definitively to Natanz would be a violation of 
its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

Iranian officials were not immediately reachable for comment. 

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had reported on February 22 that the agency 
wanted to put cameras in the centrifuge hall in accordance with 
"safeguards measures that needed to be implemented . . . prior to the 
introduction of nuclear material into the facility." 

The report said that Iran was spinning centrifuges empty, without 
uranium feedstock gas, in two 164-centrifuge production lines, and was 
finishing installing two other similar cascades, also totalling 328 
centrifuges. 


ElBaradei said the IAEA had "agreed to interim verification 
arrangements" at Natanz's underground site "involving frequent inspector 
access but not remote monitoring." 

"Iran was informed that these arrangements (which are now in place) 
would be valid only for as long as the number of machines installed ... 
did not exceed 500, and that, once that number was exceeded, all 
required safeguards measures would need to be implemented," ElBaradei 
said. 

A diplomat said the IAEA was already considering what to do if Iran did 
not comply. 

Iran has however challenged the agency "to provide a detailed legal 
basis" for putting in cameras, as it contests the legality of the 500-
centrifuge limit, according to the report. 

The first diplomat said Iran did not want the IAEA to see "that it now 
has more than 500 centrifuges functioning underground" and that was the 
reason for the delay. 

Tehran is defying the UN's calls for it to suspend uranium enrichment. 
Iran insists its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate 
electricity. 

Iran warned Monday that it would make a "proportionate" response to any 
new UN sanctions. 

Diplomats in Vienna speculated that cutting off access to Natanz might 
be part of this response. 

The Security Council is to meet Wednesday to review a draft resolution 
against Iran agreed last week by the body's five permanent members -- 
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. 

New sanctions would include barring Iran from exporting arms and buying 
weapons such as missiles.


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