On that second Iranian nuclear enrichment facility
Posted by George J. Janczyn on September 26, 2009
This is a little off my beaten path, but…
There’s plenty being written in the media following the IAEA’s revelation that Iran had disclosed a second uranium enrichment facility, but the interesting part of this story for me is:
- The United States became aware the facility was under construction during the Bush administration but said nothing until Iran’s disclosure
- Iran says it notified IAEA about the plant one year before it is scheduled to go online even though IAEA rules are for 6 month advance notice
Iran’s disclosure may have been a year before the plant was scheduled to go online, but saying it that way hides the fact that the disclosure was only recently made.
Meanwhile, there is speculation the U.S. planned to make an announcement itself to bolster its current campaign for sanctions against Iran, but Iran’s move foiled that idea. The idea is that Iran made the disclosure because it learned that the U.S. knew about the plant and was preparing a propaganda coup about it.
It’s going to be tough to know what’s really going on here.
