Concern as Iran crosses uranium enrichment limit

Vienna - United Nations experts are investigating why tiny particles of uranium found in an underground Iranian nuclear facility had been enriched beyond levels previously acknowledged, a discovery that raised questions about whether Iran is getting closer to creating weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 per cent — more than the 20 per cent maximum level Iran has claimed — when they visited the Fordow enrichment facility in February. About 90 per cent enrichment is needed for a nuclear bomb, though the path from 20 per cent to weapons-grade is technically short.

The Obama administration and diplomats cautioned that the trace particles don’t necessarily mean Iran is secretly seeking higher enrichment levels. They said Iran’s technicians may have initially miscalibrated highly sensitive cascades of centrifuges, which spin at intense speeds to enrich uranium before adjusting them down to the 20 per cent level.

But the revelation, made public in a United Nations report released Friday, may complicate diplomacy aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear programme by providing ammunition to those who contend that the government intends to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

The disclosure came after two days of inconclusive talks in Baghdad between Iranian officials and negotiators from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. The two sides agreed to resume talks on June 18 in Moscow.

The chief US negotiator, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, flew Friday to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have warned that Iran is trying to use the talks as a delaying tactic to move closer to a nuclear weapons capability. Israel has threatened to use military action if necessary to stopTehran's nuclear progress.

In Washington, Obama administration officials said they believed the higher-enriched particles probably were produced during the centrifuge cascade startup, not by secret enrichment activity. The issue did not come up at the Baghdad talks or affect the US position there, said an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

“There are a number of possible explanations for this, including the one that the Iranians have provided,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, said at a news briefing.

“We are going to depend on the IAEA to get to the bottom of it.”

The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear monitoring agency, asked Iran for an explanation this month, and the government responded May 5.

The “production of such particles ‘above the target value’ may happen for technical reasons beyond the operator’s control,” they wrote.

A diplomat in Vienna said the explanation was plausible and that inspectors previously had found particles enriched above expected levels at Natanz, Iran’s other main enrichment facility.

“So it’s interesting, and we want to know more from the IAEA when it knows more, but not cause for alarm right now,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Israeli officials had no comment Friday. But they have been warning for years that Iran is pushing its nuclear programme beyond the levels required for civilian purposes so it can develop a nuclear bomb.

Israel may see the incident as bolstering its insistence that the US and the international community may be putting too much faith in the ability of the IAEA and Western intelligence agencies to track the internal workings of Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Obama administration has argued that it would know if Iran took steps to build a bomb, giving it time to take military action to prevent it.

In this case, the IAEA inspectors did detect the presence of slightly higher-grade enrichment.

Iran began enriching uranium to 20 per cent last year, mostly at Fordow, saying that it needs the material to fuel a research reactor and for medical purposes.

Many governments are sceptical because of Iran’s history of concealing nuclear activities and of denying UN inspectors access to sensitive sites and scientists.

Senior US officials expressed hope in recent months that the talks, which began in April in Istanbul, Turkey, could lead to an early interim agreement under which Iran would suspend production of 20 per cent uranium.

Iran, in turn, sought to persuade the West to ease international sanctions that have targeted its crucial oil and banking sectors.

The European Union will ban all Iranian fuel imports on July 1, a further blow to the nation’s battered economy.

Neither side has budged, however, and some members of Congress argued that Iran is running out the clock.

“What are these talks actually accomplishing?” asked Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The Iranian regime still hasn’t stopped enriching uranium, hasn’t turned over its enriched uranium stockpiles, and hasn’t let international inspectors into suspected weapons-related testing sites.... The endless negotiations are helpful only for Iran, no one else.”

The top Democrat on the committee, Rep.Howard L. Berman, called for stiffer sanctions, now under consideration in Congress, in an effort to force Iran into a diplomatic solution.

“We’ve got to intensify the pressure,” said Berman.

“It’s clear that the regime has not yet internalised that they have to suspend their enrichment.”

LAT