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bobdina
09-25-2009, 11:35 AM
Obama: Iran has secret nuclear facility

By Ben Feller and George Jahn - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 25, 2009 8:56:35 EDT

PITTSBURGH — President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain will announce Friday that Iran has been secretly building a facility to produce nuclear fuel — and demand that it be open to international inspectors, a senior White House official told The Associated Press.

The official said the three leaders — Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — will open the G-20 economic summit with their demand that Tehran allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the covert facility.

Iran has kept the facility, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, hidden from weapons inspectors for years, but the U.S. has long known of its existence, the official said.

Obama decided to go public with the revelation after Iran learned that Western intelligence agencies were aware of the project.

The official said the plant could be in operation by next year.

Word the three leaders would make the announcement was first reported by The New York Times.

Meanwhile, a diplomat in Vienna and another European government official told The Associated Press on Friday that Tehran has informed the IAEA of a previously undeclared uranium enriching facility.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was confidential, said Iran revealed its existence in a letter sent Monday to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the atomic energy agency.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made no mention of the facility this week while attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but said that his country had fully cooperated with international nuclear inspectors.

Administration officials said the disclosure would make it easier to make the case for imposing sanctions if Iran blocks inspections or refuses to quit its nuclear program.

Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.

The officials in Europe said Iran's letter contained no details about the location of the second facility, when — or if — it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.

But one of the officials, who had access to a review of Western intelligence on the issue, said it was about 100 miles southwest of Tehran and was the site of 3,000 centrifuges that could be operational by next year.

Iranian semiofficial new agency ISNA on Friday confirmed reports on the country's second enrichment plant.

Iranian officials had previously acknowledged having only one plant — which is under IAEA monitoring — and had denied allegations of undeclared nuclear activities.

An August IAEA report said Iran had set up more than 8,000 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium at its underground facility outside the southern city of Natanz. The report said that only about 4,600 centrifuges were fully active.

Iran says it has the right to enrich uranium for a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors. But because enrichment can also produce weapons-grade uranium, the international community fears Tehran will make fissile material for nuclear warheads.

The revelation of a secret plant further hinders the chances of progress in scheduled Oct. 1 talks between Iran and six world powers.

silvertree
09-25-2009, 07:01 PM
lol will Iran nuke someone before or after Obama gets rid of our nukes...

ghost
09-25-2009, 11:56 PM
lol will Iran nuke someone before or after Obama gets rid of our nukes...


Well, whether Obama gets rid of the nukes or not, won't affect Iran. Mutually assured destruction(MAD) doesn't work with them. This is more of an ideological issue(for the Iranians) than a political one.

dmaxx3500
09-26-2009, 09:46 PM
i want to start a pool as to when isreal starts bombing em

GTFPDQ
09-26-2009, 11:35 PM
I think that by March next year, things will change. Either Israel will attack, US precision strikes or regime change in Iran.

Iraq would have to agree to Israeli jets flying through their airspace, it would be up to the US to enforce Iraqi air space. Maybe also have to go through Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Not likely to happen.

US strikes direct from the Gulf. But something would have to give on the world stage, maybe even Russian agreement that its needs to be done. Not likely to happen.

The people themselves do something. Not likely to happen.

Israel has long range missiles hidden away somewhere that could reach Iran. You never know.

ghost
09-27-2009, 12:55 AM
I think that by March next year, things will change. Either Israel will attack, US precision strikes or regime change in Iran.

Iraq would have to agree to Israeli jets flying through their airspace, it would be up to the US to enforce Iraqi air space. Maybe also have to go through Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Not likely to happen.

US strikes direct from the Gulf. But something would have to give on the world stage, maybe even Russian agreement that its needs to be done. Not likely to happen.

The people themselves do something. Not likely to happen.

Israel has long range missiles hidden away somewhere that could reach Iran. You never know.


So how do you think Russia would react if the Israelis launched airstrikes against Iran? Just out of curiosity...

nastyleg
09-27-2009, 01:13 AM
or they could fly below radar and in radio blackout like last time.

JayTac
09-27-2009, 01:14 AM
I think that by March next year, things will change. Either Israel will attack, US precision strikes or regime change in Iran.

Iraq would have to agree to Israeli jets flying through their airspace, it would be up to the US to enforce Iraqi air space. Maybe also have to go through Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Not likely to happen.

US strikes direct from the Gulf. But something would have to give on the world stage, maybe even Russian agreement that its needs to be done. Not likely to happen.

The people themselves do something. Not likely to happen.

Israel has long range missiles hidden away somewhere that could reach Iran. You never know.

If we do attack I think the only option would be to engage in a full-scale conflict. If we simply attack their facilities they'll launch a counter-offensive against Israel and most likely do their damnest to destroy everything we've worked for in Iraq. So, to keep them from destabilizing the region we'll need boots on ground, contain the fight within their own territory, and ultimately regime change should be our goal. Keeping A-Jad in power and destroying facilities would just be a temporary fix for a long-term problem.

GTFPDQ
09-27-2009, 01:14 AM
Initially, there isnt a great deal they can do. In the longer term, they can speed up and increase the size of the Naval base they want in Syria.

Increased sales of arms and intelligence to countries less than happy with the US.

Investment in countries unhappy with the US.

Threatening moves in the Caucasus.

Russia has to fuck with the US, for the US to fuck with Israeli plans.

Diplomacy at work.

Now dont get me started on the French?!?!?!?!:evilgrin0039: