Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, September 25, 2009 6:06:03 PM
Iran scurried to the IAEA in order to reveal a previously-secret uranium enrichment facility
after it got wind that the US and its allies had discovered it. Iran,
which has insisted that it had fully disclosed its nuclear work and
research, now has to provide an explanation for their deception. If
history is any guide, they won’t have to sing and dance for long
Update (AP): No surprise that the secret facility is apparently located near Qom,
which is ground zero for Shiite theological scholarship. If Israel hits
the enrichment plant, Tehran will scream that it’s an attack on an
Islamic holy city to rally the public towards religious war. Here’s
another fun detail:
The second nuclear facility, on a military base near the
Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, is thought to be capable of housing 3,000
centrifuges, not enough to produce nuclear fuel to power a reactor, but sufficient to manufacture bomb-making material, a U.S. diplomatic source who read the letter told CNN.
Remind me again, how many secret nuclear facilities did the 2007 NIE suspect Iran of having? Hot Air readers know the answer by now.
Update (AP): I missed this earlier — apparently, Obama acknowledged in his comments this morning that the secret site wasn’t designed for nuclear “energy.”
Update (AP): Another detail I missed earlier: The
September deadline for Iran to respond to the west’s negotiations offer
has now been quietly extended to December, notwithstanding the revelation of a new nuke facility that appears to have no peaceful purpose. Oh, and via Israel Matzav, there’s this too