Adding centrifuges to the fire

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

New reports from Iran say the Islamic Republic is running more than 3,000 centrifuges, which is certain to augment fears in Washington and Western Europe that Iran's nuclear program is for military, rather than civilian, use, as Iran's leadership insists.

The announcement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday also will likely augment the likelihood of an attack by the United States on Iran's nuclear production plants and installations. Iran's main nuclear facilities, according to Alireza Jafarzadeh, an exile with close links to the Iranian opposition, are those at Natanz and Arak.

According to a report published in the London Sunday Times, the Pentagon has drawn up plans to conduct "massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in three days." The Times quotes Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, a conservative policy institute. Mr. Debat told a conference in Washington last week that U.S. military planners are talking "about taking out the entire Iranian military."

With the number of centrifuges in operation, Iran could now produce enough enriched uranium to build an atomic weapon within the next 12 months. If it continues to operate the 3,000 centrifuges and to add more units every week, experts say Iran could have a bomb within a year. "Iran currently has enough parts ready to assemble at least 5,000 centrifuges in the first stage," Mr. Jafarzadeh said. Therefore, it is conceivable the regime has already about 3,000 centrifuges installed.

"It is a major mistake to allow the Iranian regime to buy time to complete its nuclear weapons program, when it has violated the U.N. Security Council resolutions, and has a track record of 20 years of lies and deception," Mr. Jafarzadeh said. "Ahmadinejad has no intention to abandon the nuclear weapons program. To believe that further negotiations with Iran would lead to the freeze of Iran's uranium enrichment program is naive at best," Mr. Jafarzadeh told this reporter.

"The only way to contain Iran's nuclear threat is for the international community to come up with much tougher sanctions, while tightening political screws on Iran," Mr. Jafarzadeh said.

This announcement will no doubt play well to those in Washington favoring a military strike against Iran. And it will help sway the more moderate politicians in Washington who so far have opposed a U.S. military intervention, favoring negotiations compiled with sanctions and political pressure, a tactic known as the carrot-and-stick approach.

No doubt the latest news from Iran will be put to good use by those in favor of a showdown with Iran, come what may, before Iran becomes a full-fledged nuclear power.

The great fear is that terrorist groups could end up in possession of a nuclear device obtained from Iran, say many officials in Washington, London and Paris.

Addressing nearly 200 of his ambassadors gathered in Paris for what has become a yearly reunion at the Elysee Palace, French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not hide his fears of such an eventuality. The threats we face today, said Mr. Sarkozy, "know no borders."

"All countries, including those of the Muslim world, are now under threat of criminal attack similar to the attacks on New York, Bali, Madrid, Bombay, Istanbul, London and Casablanca. Think of what would happen tomorrow if terrorists were to use nuclear, biological or chemical materials," said the French president. A grim thought, indeed.

By midweek, no doubt, the administration will have made good use of the latest reports from Iran, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to pound home to the American public the dangers represented by a nuclear-armed Iran.

And it is amid mounting threats of a U.S. tactical strike against the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities that Iran's nuclear scientists will continue adding more centrifuges every week. In so doing, Iran is increasing its ability to become the second nuclear-powered Muslim nation, after Pakistan.

Earlier reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency had put the number of Iran's centrifuge machines well below 3,000. This new figure of 3,000 operational centrifuges establishes a new — and potentially dangerous — landmark, a red line that has been crossed by Iran, say many observers.

But, says Mr. Jafarzadeh, "The International Atomic Energy Agency has reached a joint agreement with Iran that is highly favorable to Tehran. The agreement allows Tehran to drag the issue well into 2008. The agreement makes no mention of a number of nuclear sites exposed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, including Lavizan-2, Lashkar Abad, and most of Parchin, which have not been inspected by the IAEA."

Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.