Iran is "closer than ever" to the ability to build a nuclear bomb, Israel said on Thursday, as a new UN report said Tehran has begun installing next-generation equipment at one of its main nuclear plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's report said Iran started installing new and advanced centrifuges at Natanz, which would enable it to speed up the enrichment of uranium.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the report was "severe," and "proves Iran is continuing to rapidly advance to the red line that the prime minister drew at his speech in the United Nations."
"Iran is closer than ever today to obtaining enriched material for a nuclear bomb," the statement read.
In a September address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu called for a "clear red line" to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
He said Iran had 70 percent of the necessary level of uranium enrichment for a bomb and warned that at the current pace, the Islamic republic could have nearly all the material needed to create a first bomb by summer.
Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, a defiant step that will worry Western powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week.
In a confidential report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the central town of Natanz.
Iran's installation of new-generation centrifuges would be "yet another provocative step," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.
Netanyahu, who has strongly hinted at possible military action if sanctions and diplomacy fail to halt Iran's nuclear drive, told the U.N. in September that Iran should not have enough higher-enriched uranium to make even a single warhead.
The deployment of the new centrifuges underlines Iran's continued refusal to bow to Western pressure to curb its nuclear program, and may further complicate efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically, without a spiral into Middle East war.
Iran is continuing to get closer to the “red line” in its nuclear program that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set at the United Nations last September, his office warned on Thursday.
The comments came in response tothe latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which indicated that Iran has beguninstalling next-generation equipment at its nuclear plant in Natanz.
"This is a very grave report which proves that Iran is continuing to make rapid progress toward the red line that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sketched in his 27 September 2012 UN speech,” astatement from Netanyahu’s office said.
“Today, Iran is closer than ever to achieving enriched material for a nuclear bomb. Preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons is the first subject that Prime Minister Netanyahu will discuss with U.S. President Barack Obama during the latter's expected visit in less than a month,” added the statement.
In his speech to the UN in September, Netanyahu drew an actual red line with a marker on a chart symbolizing Iran's uranium enrichment program, and explained that Iran must be told that if it reaches enough uranium enriched to the 90% level in order to make a nuclear bomb, it will be attacked.
In his speech to the UN in September, Netanyahu drew an actual red line with a marker on a chart symbolizing Iran's uranium enrichment program, and explained that Iran must be told that if it reaches enough uranium enriched to the 90% level in order to make a nuclear bomb, it will be attacked.
1 comment:
BUT I FOUND AN ARTICLE that states
VERY CLEARLY that Iran already has
the bomb....or bombs for that matter.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/irans-nuclear-bomb-program-complete/
Stephen >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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