UN prepares to intervene as Iran declares new nuclear plans

The United Nations nuclear watchdog fears Iran's plan to start producing higher-enriched uranium will damage chances to save a proposed atomic fuel supply deal between Tehran and world powers and is prepared to intervene as necessary, its spokeswoman said on Monday.

She confirmed Iran had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intention to begin refining uranium to a higher level on Tuesday - a move that will heighten Western suspicions of an Iranian quest to develop atomic bombs.

"IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano noted with concern this decision, as it may affect, in particular, ongoing international efforts to ensure the availability of nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor [via the IAEA-brokered draft deal]," spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in a statement.

"[Amano] reiterated the agency's readiness to play an intermediary role on the issue of the Tehran Research Reactor," added the spokewoman.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday urged the international community not to turn a blind eye to Iran's declaration that it would soon begin enriching uranium at higher levels.

Iran informed the United Nations earlier Monday that it would start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year, raising the stakes in its long-running stand-off with Western powers over its atomic plans.

"This is additional proof that Iran is ridiculing the world," Barak told members of his Labor party at a faction meeting. "The correct response is to impose decisive and permanent sanctions. I hope that the international community will not turn a blind eye to Iran's declaration."

At a Labor party meeting in the Knesset, Barak also commented on the recent statement by Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Israel would disappear.

"It is appropriate to say to Khamenei that a regime that tramples its own people is a regime that at the end of the day will be trampled by those same people," said Barak.

The United States and France, meanwhile, declared on Monday it was time to impose new sanctions over Iran's nuclear defiance.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters he did not believe Iran had the ability to raise the enrichment level of its uranium. Kouchner said all the major powers apart from China were in favor of a fourth round of UN-backed sanctions.

"Therefore, this is real blackmail," he said. "The only thing that we can do, alas, is apply sanctions given that negotiations are not possible."

Speaking at a separate event in Paris, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said more pressure had to be applied.

"We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue. The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track but it will require all of the international community to work together," he said.

Gates said the international community had "offered Iran multiple opportunities to provide reassurance about its intentions with respect to its nuclear programme".

Western governments are convinced Iran is trying to gain nuclear weapons capacity. Tehran says its atomic program is peaceful and aimed at producing energy.

Asked about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran over its nuclear program, Gates said: "Everybody's interest is in seeing this issue resolved without a resort to conflict."

He warned of the "huge danger" of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East if Iran succeeds in building a bomb.

However, he said there was no deadline for reaching an agreement and added that he did not fear that any Israeli action was imminent. "No, I don't worry about that for the moment."

A senior Russian lawmaker on Monday called on the international community to prepare "serious measures" in response to Iran's announcement that it would start making higher-grade reactor fuel.

Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, said a strengthening of international economic sanctions should be considered.

"The international community should swiftly react to the news in order to send Tehran a new signal of its intent to react with serious measures, right up to a strengthening of economic sanctions," a spokeswoman for Kosachyov quoted him as saying.

Senior Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh announced Monday that he had formally told the United Nations nuclear agency that his country would soon begin enriching uranium to higher levels.

Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that Tehran would start enriching up to 20 percent from its present stock of lower enriched uranium.

Soltanieh added that the production is meant for fuel for Iran's research reactor, which produces medical isotopes. World powers fear higher enrichment could ease the way for the production of nuclear weapons.

Iran has ignored five UN Security Council resolutions that it freeze its enrichment program.

Iran on Sunday said it plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities during the next Iranian year, its atomic energy chief was quoted as saying, in comments likely to further raise tension with the West.

	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
	Photo by: (AP)