Iran Slows Centrifuge Work, Starts New Tunnels

Iran has eased the pace at which it is installing uranium enrichment centrifuges at the nuclear facility at Natanz, Reuters reported today (see GSN, July 6).

The slowdown has come as Tehran has taken up more active discussions with EU diplomats on restoring talks to resolve international concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  In addition, Iran has offered more cooperation to international nuclear inspectors charged with documenting Iran’s nuclear activities (see GSN, June 26).

“We were there last week and we saw a slowing in the process of commissioning new cascades," or groups of centrifuges, said Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  “Without going into detail you could say that there is a fairly marked slowdown.  It is not a full-size freeze, but it is a marked slowdown," he told reporters at an agency board meeting today in Vienna.

Top IAEA safeguards official Olli Heinonen is scheduled to visit Tehran tomorrow to discuss a “plan of action” to help the agency clear up longstanding questions about Iran’s nuclear program.  Iran concealed an extensive nuclear program for nearly 20 years before publicly acknowledging its activities more than four years ago.  Iranian officials have asserted the nation is only seeking nuclear energy, but Western nations, led by the United States, have expressed concern that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability (Heinrich/Strohecker, Reuters/Washington Post, July 9).

U.S. Treasury Department officials plan to meet with European counterparts next week to discuss financial measures to pressure Tehran into complying with a two U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding a freeze to Iran’s sensitive nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey is scheduled to visit France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Recently imposed economic sanctions have “dramatically constrained” Iran’s ability to conduct international business, Levey said Friday, but he added that he would urge European allies to craft more stringent measures (Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press/The Guardian, July 6).

New British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has signaled his nation’s support for a third round of Security Council sanctions.

“We are ready to work with our partners on a third resolution.  We think it's very, very important that the international community remains clear and united on this issue,” he said in an interview described in today’s Financial Times.

Iran “doesn't have the right to set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East,” he said, while encouraging Tehran to accept an EU incentives package offered in exchange for Iran forgoing a uranium enrichment program.  Iran "has every right to be a secure rich country” that can have access to nuclear energy, he said.

Miliband also held a tough line regarding the possible use of military force to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Two years ago, then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called such a possibility “inconceivable,” but Miliband did not rule out the option in his Times interview (see GSN, Sept. 28, 2005).

“I think that the whole of the international community wants a nonmilitary, diplomatic solution to this problem," he said. "I don't think it does any good to speculate any wider than that” (Financial Times, July 9).

Meanwhile, Iran has begun to excavate a tunnel facility within a mountain next to its Natanz centrifuge facility, according to an analysis of recent satellite images released today by the Institute for Science and International Security (see GSN, Feb. 1, 2006).

Photographs of the area taken in January showed no activity in the mountains, but images taken June 11 show new roads leading to possible tunnel entrances, the ISIS analysis says.

The site is probably intended to secure important nuclear equipment from a cruise missile or aircraft attack, the analysis says.

“Such a tunnel facility would be ideal for safely storing nuclear items, including centrifuge manufacturing and assembly equipment, centrifuge components, natural uranium and low-enriched uranium,” the analysis says.  The site could also possibly house an operating centrifuge facility, but that prospect is less likely than the equipment storage scenario (Institute for Science and International Security release, July 9).

IAEA officials are aware of the tunneling activity, the Washington Post reported.

“We have been in contact with the Iranian authorities about this, and we have received clarifications," agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Friday (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, July 9).

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