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Iran: Tehran May Have Violated Nonproliferation Treaty, Reports Say Iran’s nuclear facilities are much more advanced than previously thought, and some activities conducted there may have violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by testing uranium hexafluoride gas in some of its centrifuges, Time reported today (see GSN, March 5). Tehran announced last week that it plans to activate a uranium-conversion facility, with IAEA safeguards in place, Time reported. “If Iran were found to have an operating centrifuge, it would be a direct violation (of the Nonproliferation Treaty) and is something that would need immediately to be referred to the United Nations Security Council for action,” said Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Diplomatic officials said recently that the uranium enrichment facility near Natanz is “extremely advanced” and includes “hundreds” of centrifuges (Massimo Calabresi, Time, March 17). The Natanz facility contains 160 recently built centrifuges, the Washington Post reported. Iran is in the process of building 1,000 more centrifuges, with an end goal of 5,000, according to the Post. The effort is due to be completed in 2005, the Post reported. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. “Here we suddenly discover that Iran is much further along, with a far more robust nuclear weapons development program than anyone said it had,” Powell said on CNN’s Late Edition. “It shows you how a determined nation that has the intent to develop a nuclear weapon can keep that development process secret from inspectors and outsiders, if they really are determined to do it,” he added. Iran “is a country going full-bore on all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle,” said an administration official (Warrick/Kessler, Washington Post, March 10). Israel is concerned about the development, Time reported. In 1981, Israeli forces attacked and destroyed an Iraqi nuclear plant at Osirak. “It’s a huge concern,” said an Israeli official. “Iran is a regime that denies Israel’s right to exist in any borders and is a principal sponsor of Hezbollah. If that regime were able to achieve a nuclear potential, it would be extremely dangerous,” the official added. Israel is not prepared to rule out the “Osirak option” the official said, but “would prefer that this issue be solved in other ways” (Calabresi, Time).
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