Iran Enriching Uranium

 Iran has begun enriching uranium at a heavily fortified underground site, the UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed. The International Atomic Energy Agency said medium-level enrichment had begun at the Fordo plant, in northern Iran. Iran has said it plans to carry out uranium enrichment there - but insists this is for purely peaceful purposes.

The West argues Tehran is building a nuclear weapons capacity. The US called the work at Fordo a "further escalation" in the dispute. The existence of the facility near Qom, in the north of the country, only came to light after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009. Tehran said it began the project in 2007, but the IAEA believes design work started in 2006.
It is underground, heavily fortified and protected by the armed forces - making it a very difficult target for air strikes.

The US and Israel have refused to rule out attacks on Iranian facilities. On Monday a spokeswoman for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gill Tudor, said the agency could "confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20%". She added that "all nuclear material in the facility remains under the agency's containment and surveillance".

Iran insists enriched uranium is needed to make isotopes to treat cancers. But analysts say 20% enrichment is an important step towards making uranium weapons-grade. In Washington, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said such a level of enrichment was "a further escalation" of the Iranians' "ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations", and suggested "a different kind of a nuclear programme".

Earlier on Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted Iran would not bow to pressure from the West. "The Islamic establishment... knows firmly what it is doing and has chosen its path and will stay the course," he said in a speech broadcast on state television. Tensions have been high since the US imposed new sanctions on Iran's central bank and the European Union said it would place an embargo on Iran's oil exports.

EU foreign ministers are due to meet to approve the embargo later this month. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - a key route from the Gulf through which 20% of the world's traded oil passes. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned on Sunday that such a move would cross a "red line" and "we would take action and reopen the strait".

Adding to the strains, a court in Tehran on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian-American man accused of being a CIA spy. Amir Mirzai Hekmati, 28, a former US marine, had been show on state television in December allegedly confessing to being part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's intelligence services for the CIA.  Iran's judicial and political systems place huge emphasis on the importance of confessions, which are viewed with concern by human rights groups.Mr Hekmati's family, who live in Arizona, say the charges against him are fabricated and that he was in Iran to visit his grandmothers. The US has demanded his release.
 Analysis
Iran's new facility began in secret. The state may have preferred to keep it that way. But in September 2009 the US, France and the UK publicly revealed its existence - a fact that was subsequently confirmed by Iran.

Since then, the new plant has attracted plenty of both attention and suspicion. It has been built underground and it is heavily fortified. In particular, Iran appears to want to guard against potential air strikes. Military experts suggest that the facility may be able to survive attack from all but the most powerful bombs.

Iranian officials suggest that the new plant is an important step forward for the country's nuclear programme. But it is not yet clear how productive the facility will be. Iran says it hopes to carry out what's known as medium-level uranium enrichment at the plant - uranium enriched to 20%.
Western analysts warn that medium-level enrichment is an important step towards enriching uranium to weapons-grade. But Iran stresses that its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful. We will know soon enough I suppose.