U.N. Threatens To Observe The S*&t Out Of Iran

[TomCADem]

Sorry, I had to quote Samantha Bea from the Daily Show in the OP title. More seriously:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090926/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_nuclear

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Iran to allow IAEA visit nuclear site

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to inspect a newly revealed and still unfinished uranium enrichment facility, the country's nuclear chief told state television Saturday.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi didn't specify when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency could visit the site, but said it has to be worked out with the agency under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty rules.

Iran's newly revealed enrichment site is said to be in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom, inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guard.

The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges — much less than the 8,000 machines at Natanz, Iran's known industrial-scale enrichment facility. Still, the enriching machines in Qom facility will produce nuclear fuel — or possibly the payload for atomic warheads.

President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Iran on Friday of constructing a secret underground uranium enrichment facility and of hiding its existence from international inspectors for years.

But Salehi said there was nothing secret about the site and that Iran complied with U.N. rules that require it to inform the world body's nuclear agency six months before a uranium enrichment facility becomes operational.

"Inspection will be within the framework of the regulations ... we have no problem with inspection (of the site). We will work out this issue with the agency and will announce the date of the inspection later after reaching an agreement with IAEA," Salei told state television Saturday.

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