Iran Expanding Its Nuclear Program, Agency Reports 
By Elaine Sciolino and William J. Broad 
August 30, 2007
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/world/asia/31cnd-nuke.html

VIENNA, Aug. 30 — Iran is expanding its nuclear program in defiance of United Nations’ resolutions, even as it has promised to answer questions about an array of suspicious nuclear activities in the past, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday. 
The assessment by the nuclear agency states that Iran is now simultaneously operating nearly 2,000 centrifuges, the machines that produce enriched uranium, at its vast underground facility at Natanz, an increase of several hundred machines from three months ago. More than 650 additional centrifuges are being tested or are under construction, the agency said. 
But the program is running at well below capacity, raising questions about whether Iran is facing technical difficulties or has made a political decision to move more slowly in producing enriched uranium, which can be used to produce electricity or fuel bombs. 
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation, said his own calculations, based on the report’s data, suggested that Iran was operating its centrifuges at as little as 10 percent of their potential.
“That’s very low — and we don’t know why,” he said. The agency’s report seemed to focus less on highlighting Iran’s shortcomings than on praising a detailed “timetable” reached with Iran to resolve various issues, including past violations of its treaty obligations. 
Those issues have contributed to broadly shared doubts about Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is peaceful.
“This is the first time Iran is ready to discuss all the outstanding issues which triggered the crisis in confidence,” Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency’s director general, said in an hourlong interview. “It’s a significant step. There are clear deadlines so it’s not — as some people are saying — an open ended invitation to dallying with the agency or a ruse to prolong negotiations and avoid sanctions.” 
Dr. ElBaradei stopped short of calling for a delay in the American-led strategy to impose new sanctions as soon as possible, but said: “I’m clear at this stage you need to give Iran a chance to prove its stated goodwill. Sanctions alone, I know for sure, are not going to lead to a durable solution.”
That stance is directly at odds with the United States, France and Britain, which have led the charge in the Security Council to punish Iran with incremental sanctions in an effort to force it to freeze its enrichment activities. The I.A.E.A.’s new arrangement with Iran has opened fissures between the allied nations and the agency. 
The Bush administration repeated its determination to continue with its current approach. “There is no partial credit here,” the State Department’s spokesman, Tom Casey, said in reaction to the report. “Iran has refused to comply with its international obligations, and, as a result of that, the international community is going to continue to ratchet up the pressure.”
In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Pascale Andreani, said that as long as Iran does not give a clear decision about suspending its enrichment activities, France will pursue a third sanctions resolution.
In Tehran, however, there was praise of the agency for vindicating Iran. “This report ended all the baseless U.S. accusations against Iran,” said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, according to the state IRNA news agency. “Once again the agency confirmed validity of Iran’s stances.”
The nuclear agency is hoping that if Iran can come clean on years of stalling, stonewalling, obfuscation and denials, it can focus on building confidence around the world about the nature and scope of its current program and become a “routine” inspection case.
On Monday, Iran and the agency released a plan laying out a timetable of cooperation with the goal of swiftly wrapping up by December nuclear issues that have been under investigation for four years. 
By then, Dr. ElBaradei said, the agency will know whether Iran was “serious” or “was trying to take us for a ride.”
The plan reflects a shift in focus by the agency to treat Iran with less suspicion, a gamble that already has been criticized by officials in the United States, France and Britain. It doesn’t mean that the agency has abandoned any of its goals, but that it has now embarked on a pragmatic approach aimed at regaining maximum access to all of Iran’s facilities.
Iran, meanwhile, seems to have embarked on a new strategy to give the impression it is fully cooperating with the agency on explaining its past violations. 
Iran now seems to be hoping that by shifting the focus away from its current enrichment activities and satisfying agency demands on past questions it can deprive the international community of one of its main arguments to impose new sanctions. 
As evidence that the new timetable plan had begun to work, the agency announced that Iran had resolved all questions about its past experiments with plutonium, a material that could be used to make nuclear weapons, and the unexplained presence of some highly enriched uranium. After resisting agency entreaties for two years, Iran suddenly provided access to a key expert, documentation and other data that allowed the agency to declare that the cases was “closed.” 
“That’s important,” said Mr. Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security. “If it all works like that, we’re in for some interesting revelations in the next few months.”
There are two main issues that will prove most difficult for Iran to explain.
One involves a secretive Iranian entity called the Green Salt Project, which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design. There is evidence that suggests links between Iran’s ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles. If that evidence is substantiated, it would undercut Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is solely aimed at producing electrical power. 
The agency is heartened that Iran, which has called the allegations baseless and politically motivated, has agreed for the first time to review documents on the secret project that the United States uncovered on a stolen laptop and disclosed to the agency. 
Iran is demanding physical access to the documents, which the United States has not yet given, not just the ability to review the documents at the agency headquarters in Vienna. Iran could cry foul unless the Americans turn over the documents, which the nuclear agency believes Iran has the right to receive.
Dr. ElBaradei, who is a lawyer by training, said that in fairness, “we have to give them access to the documents.” 
The other sensitive issue is the history and origin of Iran’s knowledge of two types of centrifuge machines. 
The plan also said that Iran was finally prepared to give an explanation about a document Iran probably received from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear engineer, showing how to make uranium into hemispheres, a shape suitable for use in a weapon.
Some officials at the Vienna-based nuclear agency, a United Nations body, said they are unsure whether the apparent slowdown in Iran’s manufacture of enriched uranium reflects technical problems or a political decision in Tehran to move at a slower pace.
But Dr. ElBaradei said he believes that the Iranian leadership has decided to operate the facility at Natanz at much lower than capacity. 
“They could have expanded much faster,” he said. “Some say it’s for technical reasons. My gut feeling is that it’s primarily for political reasons.”
Dr. ElBaradei stressed that he “did not in any way give a blessing” to Iran’s decision to proceed with uranium enrichment, a program that Security Council resolutions demand must be frozen. 
But he has taken what he has called a realistic view that the world will have to accept that Iran will never halt the program and that the goal now must be to prevent it from expanding it to industrial-level production. 
“It’s difficult technology but it’s not rocket science,” he said. “Through a process of trial and error, you will have the knowledge.” 
As for charges from the Bush administration and elsewhere that he may be operating outside his mandate as global nuclear inspector to the world, Dr. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, replied, “I don’t see my role as a plumber just fixing cameras. My responsibility is to look at the big picture. If I see a situation deteriorating” and “and it could lead to a war, I have to raise the alarm or give my advice.”
In theory, the 35 countries that make up the agency’s board could pass a resolution condemning the report, if they so chose, but such a move is highly unlikely. The report will be debated by the board when it meets in Vienna beginning on Sept. 10. 
The Security Council also could demand that the agency draft a new report if members felt the work was faulty. 
Elaine Sciolino reported from Vienna, and William J. Broad from New York.