Iranian nuclear scientists at the Fordo facility appear to be within weeks of producing 20 percent enriched uranium, according to Iran analysts and nuclear specialists in close communication with US officials and atomic inspectors.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, worry Iran’s actions may bolster calls for a military response and ratchet up pressure to limit Iran’s oil exports, which might send oil prices soaring.
privately express concern that Israel might see Iran’s commencement of the Fordo facility” as a justification for a military strike, said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Sadjadpour said some White House officials question whether Iran is trying to provoke an Israeli strike in order to rally support at home and abroad. The Obama">Obama
administration, he said, wants to prevent miscalculations that might trigger a military conflict. The US and Israel say military action remains an option if diplomacy and other measures fail to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
US Congress this week approved measures against the Central Bank of Iran that the administration previously resisted on the grounds that oil prices will rise.
Iran is the world’s third-largest crude exporter and oil is Iran’s major source of income, supplying more than 50 percent of the national budget, according to International Monetary Fund figures.
Last month, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran moved a large cylinder of 5 percent enriched uranium from the Natanz fuel enrichment plant to the Fordo facility near Qom.
Iran only admitted the existence of the Fordo plant, built deep into a mountain south of the capital Tehran, in September 2009 after US, British and French intelligence agencies gathered information on the clandestine facility.
(Bloomberg)
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