WESTERN DIPLOMATS are seeking to use Tehran’s announcement that it will expand its nuclear programme to push Russia and China into backing tougher sanctions against Iran.
The move comes amid fears of rising regional tensions.
Diplomats in the US and Europe said they were sceptical that Iran was serious about its plan, unveiled at the weekend, to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants, which could produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material.
Some described the Iranian announcement as an “emotional” response to a vote to censure Tehran, taken two days earlier at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
“They are having trouble making one enrichment plant work successfully, so it defies belief that they could make serious progress developing so many more plants,” a British official said.
Officials acknowledged however that Iran’s announcement could still increase the likelihood of an Israeli pre-emptive strike, since Israel views Tehran as an existential threat whose rhetoric cannot be ignored.
As a result, the US and its allies are emphasising their drive to impose new sanctions on Iran, both inside and outside the UN.
That push resembles the Iran policy of George W Bush’s second term much more than it does US president Barack Obama’s initial talk of engagement with Tehran.
Like the Obama administration last week, the Bush administration convinced the IAEA board to censure Iran and went on to secure three rounds of sanctions at the UN, a course the new administration is set to follow in the new year.
However the sanctions have to date failed to check the programme’s progress. Iran has installed more than 8,000 centrifuges at its main Natanz plant and has accumulated more than 1.5 tonnes of low enriched uranium – more than enough, if further enriched, for at least one nuclear bomb.
Western officials said they were heartened by Russia’s response to the news of Iran’s plans. Yesterday, Russian news agencies cited an unnamed Russian official as saying Moscow was “seriously concerned” by Iran’s declaration.
However, the western diplomats cautioned that China, which also wields a veto on the UN Security Council and which buys oil from Iran and sells petroleum to it, could be harder to win round.
In an indication of a possible escalation of the dispute, Ali Larijani, Iran’s speaker of parliament, said yesterday it would make no difference whether or not Tehran pulled out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Many observers though say this would greatly increase the likelihood of an Israeli strike.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said yesterday Iran did not want to leave the pact. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009