The United States and Israel hope that a new report from the UN's nuclear agency showing Iran continuing to enrich uranium and blocking its investigation will breathe new life into efforts to put more pressure on Tehran. "This is another clear signal that the Iranian regime is playing games with the international community with a policy of deception. It should strengthen all members of the international community in their resolve to act to prevent the Iranians from moving forward on their nuclear program," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran which became public on Monday. "It is now incumbent upon the international community to ratchet up the pressure on Tehran." White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "We urge Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities or face further implementation of the existing United Nations Security Council sanctions and the possibility of new sanctions."
Iran reportedly blocked an IAEA inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb. The confidential report by the Vienna-based UN watchdog said Iran had raised the number of centrifuges enriching uranium by 500 to 3,820 since May and was stepping up development of an advanced model able to refine nuclear fuel two to three times faster, in defiance of UN resolutions. "On the issue of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program, we have arrived at a gridlock. Without Iran's assistance and cooperation, we cannot move forward," a senior UN official was quoted by 'Reuters' as saying. Iran blamed the IAEA for the impasse.
In Brussels, the president of the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe and head of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), Moshe Kantor, said that "if there is obvious evidence that the Iranians are going to have a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it, somebody should stop them on behalf of the United Nations, even by military action." Kantor made the comment to journalists in Brussels after chairing a gathering of a dozen international experts on nuclear non-proliferation who discussed the danger of the Iranian nuclear program and the potential propagation of nuclear terrorism around the globe. Kantor insisted that everything "should be done legally" and within the framework of the UN Security Council resolutions.
He deplored the fact that around 10,000 companies in Europe were still collaborating with Iran on the development of its gas and oil industry. "The collaboration continues and even big EU countries cannot stop their business community from investing in Iran's proliferation process," Kantor, who is also president of the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, pointed out.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
