Via Yahoo! News (AP) -
Iranian nuclear technicians set dozens of centrifuges spinning Tuesday to begin enriching uranium stocks to a significantly higher level, prompting President Barack Obama to warn of a "significant regime of sanctions."
Iran's acceleration in its enrichment program was a defiant step that puts weapons-grade uranium in closer reach, should Tehran choose to go after the bomb. It was also another in a series of mixed messages that appeared calculated to boost Iran's leverage in negotiations with world powers on limiting its nuclear program.
Only days ago, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to send its stockpiled uranium — currently enriched to safer, low levels — to Russia and France for processing into fuel rods to power a research reactor. That was proposed last year in a U.N.-drafted plan aimed at eliminating Iran's ability to enrich those stocks to higher levels needed for making warheads.
Obama, speaking at a surprise appearance in the White house briefing room, said the sanctions process is moving along quickly, but he gave no specific timeline.
In his most extensive remarks on Iran in some time, Obama said Iran appeared to have spurned his offer of engagement.
But even announcing its latest step, Iran was careful to leave the door open to a negotiated solution, saying it would stop the work if the West found a way to provide it with fuel for the research reactor, which makes radio isotopes for use in cancer treatment.
"Whenever they provide the fuel, we will halt production of 20 percent," Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program, told state TV late Monday.
He was referring to the level of enrichment necessary for the Tehran reactor. Iran's current stockpile has been spun to a level of 3.5 percent, suitable for use in fueling power plants, which is Iran's primary stated aim for its enrichment program.
The United States and its allies in Europe suspect Iran is using such civilian work to mask an effort to develop a weapons capability. Central to their concern is uranium enrichment, which at levels of 90 percent provide a possible pathway to nuclear arms production.
Iran denies it wants to produce weapons but has defied U.N. resolutions demanding it halt enrichment as a way of easing the concerns.
Even before the announcement, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believed the U.N. should slap new sanctions on Iran in "weeks, not months," according to his spokesman.
France also said Iran's action left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear defiance.
Even Russia, which has friendly ties with Iran and has opposed new sanctions, appeared to edge closer to other Security Council members supporting harder penalties, saying the enrichment work has raised new suspicions.
"Iran says it doesn't want to have nuclear weapons. But its actions, including its decision to enrich uranium to 20 percent, have raised doubts among other nations, and these doubts are quite well-founded," said Nikolai Patrushev, the chief of Russia's Security Council.
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