Iran has expanded its uranium conversion facilities in Isfahan
and reinforced its Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant, a
US think tank said, amid growing concern over possible US military
action.
Talk of a US attack has topped the international news agenda
since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that
Washington was mulling the option of using tactical nuclear weapons
to knock out Iran's subterranean nuclear sites.
Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Sunday
that any US attack on Iran over its nuclear program would plunge
the region into instability. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also
warned that US military intervention in Iran was not the best
solution to resolve the nuclear standoff.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said
in an e-mail with commercial satellite photos attached sent to news
media that Iran has built a new tunnel entrance at Isfahan, where
uranium is processed into a feed material for enrichment. Just two
entry points existed in February, it said.
"This new entrance is indicative of a new underground facility
or further expansion of the existing one," said ISIS, led by ex-UN
arms inspector and nuclear expert David Albright.
ISIS also released four satellite images taken between 2002 and
January 2006 it said showed Natanz's two subterranean cascade halls
being buried by successive layers of earth, apparent concrete slabs
and more earth and other materials. The roofs of the halls now
appear to be eight meters underground, ISIS said.
The revelations came one week after Iran announced it had
enriched uranium for use in power stations for the first time,
stoking a diplomatic row over Western suspicions of a covert
Iranian atomic bomb project. Iran says it seeks only nuclear energy
for its economy.
President George W. Bush has dismissed reports of plans for a US
military strike against Iran as "wild speculation" and said he
remained focused on diplomacy to defuse the standoff. Despite
Bush's denial, Iran's Rafsanjani said Teheran could not discount
the possibility of a US military strike.
(China Daily April 17, 2006)
