Obama Calls Out Iran for Secret Nuclear Plant

Aaron Keyak — September 25, 2009 – 10:27 am | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Iran Comments (0) Add a comment

This morning President Barack Obama joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to demand that “Iran allow nuclear inspectors to visit a heretofore secret uranium enrichment plant.”

An excerpt from JTA’s article, “U.S., European Powers: Iran Must Open Secret Plant”:

“Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow,” U.S. President Obama said Friday in Pittsburgh, where he is hosting the G-20 industrial nations summit. “It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who joined Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the podium, threatened “further and more stringent sanctions” should Iran not cooperate with nuclear inspectors. Sarkozy said that the tougher sanctions could come by December.

Obama said the United States joined Britain and France in presenting evidence this week to the International Atomic Energy Agency of the second nuclear plant, near the Iranian holy city of Qom. Iran maintains another nuclear facility at Natanz.

Iran, apparently anticipating this week’s revelations, on Monday wrote the IAEA acknowledging the second plant, but insisted that it was for peaceful purposes only. Obama said the second plant’s size was “inconsistent” with such purposes and that in any case, as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it was required to reveal the existence of any such facility; the Qom plant has apparently been in existence for years.

Obama said talks between Iran and the major powers would go ahead on Oct. 1, but “at that meeting Iran must be prepared to cooperate fully and comprehensively with the IAEA.”

Here’s the video:

 

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