NEWS,25.5.2012

Higher enrichment at Iranian site

The UN atomic agency has found evidence at an underground bunker in Iran that could mean the country has moved closer to producing the uranium threshold needed to arm nuclear missiles, diplomats said on Friday.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found traces of uranium enriched up to 27% at Iran's Fordo enrichment plant, the diplomats told The Associated Press.That is still substantially below the 90% level needed to make the fissile core of nuclear arms. But it is above Iran's highest-known enrichment grade, which is close to 20%, and which already can be turned into weapons-grade material much more quickly than the Islamic Republic's main stockpile, which can only be used for fuel at around 3.5%.The diplomats - who demanded anonymity because their information is privileged - said the find did not necessarily mean that Iran was covertly raising its enrichment threshold toward weapons-grade level. They said one likely explanation was that the centrifuges that produce enriched uranium initially over-enriched at the start as technicians adjusted their output - an assessment shared by nonproliferation expert David Albright.Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security looks for signs of proliferation, said a new configuration for the cascades set up in tandem at Fordo means they tend to "overshoot 20%" at start up.Sanctions"Nonetheless, embarrassing for Iran," he wrote in an e-mail to the AP.Calls to Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, were rejected and the switchboard operator at the Iranian mission said he was not available. IAEA media officials said the agency had no comment.Iran is under several rounds of UN sanctions for its failure to disclose information on its controversial nuclear programme. Tehran says it is enriching uranium to provide more nuclear energy for its growing population, while the US and other nations fear that Iran doing that to have the ability to make nuclear weapons.The latest attempts to persuade Iran to compromise and let UN experts view its nuclear programme ended inconclusively on Wednesday at a meeting in Baghdad. At the talks, six nations - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - failed to gain traction in efforts to persuade Tehran to freeze its 20% enrichment. Envoys said the group will meet again next month in Moscow.Iran started enriching to 20% last year, mostly at Fordo, saying it needed the material to fuel a research reactor and for medical purposes. HopeStill, its long-standing refusal to stop enrichment and accept reactor fuel from abroad has sparked fears it wants to expand its domestic programme to be able to turn it toward making weapons.Those concerns have increased since it started higher enrichment at Fordo, which is carved into a mountain. That, say Iranian officials, makes it impervious to attack from Israel or the United States, which have not ruled out using force as a last option if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.Even though Wednesday's talks were unproductive, diplomats saw hope in the promise of another meeting."It is clear that we both want to make progress and that there is some common ground," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is formally leading the talks, told reporters. "However, significant differences remain. Nonetheless, we do agree on the need for further discussion to expand that common ground."Significant differencesSaeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, offered a lukewarm assessment of Wednesday's negotiations, in light of European and American refusal to lift tough sanctions against Iran as Tehran had hoped."The result of the talks was that we were able to get more familiar with the views of each other," Jalili told reporters.In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said significant differences remain between the two sides and that it's now up to Iran "to close the gaps"."Iran now has the choice to make: Will it meet its international obligations and give the world confidence about its intentions or not?" Clinton said.Iran went into Wednesday's talks urging the West to scale back on recently toughened sanctions, which have targeted Iran's critical oil exports and have effectively blackballed the country from international banking networks. The 27-nation European Union is set to ban all Iranian fuel imports on 1 July, shutting the door on about 18% of Iran's market.Experiments The diplomats said a confidential IAEA report on Iran's nuclear programme to be released later on Friday to the agency's 35-nation board will mention of the traces of 27% enrichment found at Fordo.Iran already has around 700 centrifuges churning out 20% enriched uranium at Fordo. The diplomats said the report will also note that - while Iran has set up around 350 more centrifuges since late last year, at the site - these machines are not enriching.While the reason for that could be purely technical, it could also serve as a signal from Tehran that it is waiting for progress in the negotiations.The report is also expected to detail the state of talks between the UN nuclear agency and Iran that the agency hopes will re-launch a long-stalled probe into suspicions that Tehran has worked on nuclear-weapons related experiments - charges that Tehran denies.

Next stop Moscow for Iran nuclear talks

Iran and six world powers achieved little in two days of intense nuclear talks in Baghdad except arranging another meeting in Moscow next month and establishing they are poles apart on crucial issues.The latest diplomatic push between Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - at one stage even looked unlikely to take place until desperate eleventh-hour efforts managed to salvage the process - for now."We remain determined to resolve this problem in the near term through negotiations, and will continue to make every effort to that end," Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said after two "very intense" days of talks."What we have now is some common ground and a meeting in place where we can take that further forward," she said, announcing the next round would take place in Moscow on 18-19 June.She added however that there remained "significant differences" and that Iran must take "concrete and practical steps to urgently meet the concerns of the international community".The main bone of contention was - and will remain in Moscow - the speed at which the P5+1 eases sanctions in return for the Islamic republic scaling back the most sensitive parts of its nuclear programme.SweetenersAshton put forward in the Iraqi capital on behalf of the six powers a new package of proposals that clearly went down badly with the Iranians.The P5+1 want Iran to restrict to purities of 20% the enrichment of uranium, the area of Iran's activities that most raises their suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal.In return reports indicated the international powers are prepared to offer a variety of sweeteners, including fuel plates for a reactor producing medical isotopes, relaxing restrictions on aircraft parts and nuclear safety assistance.But this falls short of the lifting of the whole raft of UN Security Council and unilateral Western sanctions that have been hit Iran's economy for years.Reflecting official thinking in Tehran, state media ran reports slammed the package, with the IRNA news agency calling it as "outdated, not comprehensive, and unbalanced".Iran meanwhile is loath to give up what its chief negotiator in Baghdad, Saeed Jalili called its "absolute right" to uranium enrichment.Oil embargo
In the end, with the Baghdad talks extended several times - they were originally only meant to last one day - the two sides agreed to differ, setting the stage for what may be a make-or-break gathering in the Russian capital.Neither side can afford to keep the process going indefinitely without some tangible progress.Iran is threatened with an EU oil embargo, due to take full effect from 1 July, that will also bar EU firms from insuring crude tankers heading to countries such as India, South Korea and Japan, all major buyers of Iran's oil.Israel, which is widely considered to have the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal, sees itself as Tehran's number-one target if Iran acquires the bomb and is highly sceptical that diplomacy will work.Like the United States, it has refused to rule out military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it developing a weapons capability.Oil prices have risen higher as a result, hurting global growth just as the eurozone crisis threatens to return with a vengeance and as US President Barack Obama seeks re-election in November on the back of an improving economy.Military optionObama, who campaigned in 2008 for his first term promising to reach out to Tehran, is also wary of his Iran policy being branded as soft and a failure by his Republican challenger Mitt Romney."A freeze on new sanctions in exchange for a freeze on new enrichment activity is still possible," Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank in London said."The danger is that if they drag on too long, diplomacy will be seen to have failed by many in Israel and elsewhere, which will bring renewed talk of a military option."