25 September 2009

Washington — Evidence of Iran’s latest covert uranium-enrichment facility has provoked charges by the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and France that Iran is directly challenging the world with its refusal to comply with its international obligations.

The revelation that Iran has been building the facility for several years near the city of Qom “deepens a growing concern” that the country is refusing to live up to its responsibilities “including specifically revealing all nuclear-related activities,” President Obama said in Pittsburgh September 25.

“As the international community knows, this is not the first time that Iran has concealed information about its nuclear program,” he said. Although Iran has the right to nuclear energy, “the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program. “

The facility’s existence “underscores Iran’s continuing unwillingness to meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions,” as well as its requirements as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Obama said.

There is a basic compact among nations regarding nuclear proliferation and its rules are clear, the president said.

“All nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy; those nations with nuclear weapons must move towards disarmament; those nations without nuclear weapons must forsake them. That compact has largely held for decades, keeping the world far safer and more secure. And that compact depends on all nations living up to their responsibilities,” he said.

Iran “is breaking rules that all nations must follow,” he said. That endangers the established nonproliferation regime, isolates the Iranian people and threatens the stability and security of the Middle East and the world.

Obama said Iran must “act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community,” through “serious, meaningful engagement” with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, collectively known as the P5+1.

“We are committed to serious, meaningful engagement” with Iran, Obama said, but at Iran’s October 1 meeting in Geneva with the P5+1, “Iran must be prepared to cooperate fully and comprehensively with the IAEA.” (See “Iranian Negotiator Agrees to October 1 Talks with Six Powers.”)

Through the P5+1 dialogue, “we are committed to demonstrating that international law is not an empty promise; that obligations must be kept; and that treaties will be enforced,” he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the revelation of the new enrichment plant is “exceptional,” and said Iran is “taking the international community on a dangerous path.” He also called for “an exhaustive, strict and rigorous investigation” of the facility by the IAEA.

The international community was “already in a very severe confidence crisis” with Iran, and the situation is now a challenge to the entire world, he said.

At the P5+1 meeting in Geneva, “Everything — everything must be put on the table now,” Sarkozy said.

Unless there is an “in-depth change” by December, the French leader said, sanctions will need to be taken against Iran, rather than allow its leaders to “gain time while the motors are running.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described Iran’s nuclear program as “the most urgent proliferation challenge that the world faces today,” and said the international community “has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand.”

If Iran does not take the opportunity of the October 1 talks to engage with the international community and join it as a partner, “it will be further isolated.”

Iran’s “level of deception,” and the scale of the breach of its international commitments, “will shock and anger the whole international community, and it will harden our resolve,” Brown said.

A transcript of comments by the three leaders is available on America.gov.

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