By exposing another key piece of Iran’s clandestine nuclear program, U.S. President Barack Obama has a rare chance to mobilize international support for containing the Islamic state’s growing nuclear ambitions.
The United States revealed Friday that Iran has been secretly building a second underground nuclear-fuel plant, prompting world leaders to issue the country an angry ultimatum: Come clean on what it’s up to or face tough new sanctions.
Mr. Obama pointed out that even Russia and China, who have long resisted tough sanctions at the United Nations Security Council, are demanding answers from Iran.
“Iran is on notice that they are going to have to come clean and they are going to have to make a choice,” Mr. Obama said Friday at the end of the Group of 20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh.
Disclosure of the clandestine uranium-enrichment site caps a dramatic week in which Mr. Obama has forced the nuclear issue back to the top of the global agenda – first by calling for a strict new UN regime to stem the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and now mobilizing international support for tough sanctions against Iran.
“This gives the United States and its partners a stronger hand in the negotiations,” agreed Michael Levi, director of the program on energy security at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I suspect the Russians are quite frustrated with this development and that puts Iran in a tough position.”
Mr. Obama, who campaigned for the presidency on a pledge to engage the Iranians, is now facing the disturbing scenario that the Islamic state is likely much closer to producing nuclear weapons than initially thought, and at multiple sites.
Taking a break from economic talks at the G20 summit Friday, Mr. Obama joined British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in warning Iran about the consequences of defying the UN. He called Iran’s covert activities “disturbing” and a direct challenge to the global nonproliferation regime.
“We are committed to demonstrating that international law is not an empty promise, that obligations must be kept and that treaties will be enforced,” Mr. Obama said.
An April, 2008, file photo shows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities south of Tehran.
Mr. Brown was even tougher, calling on the international community to “draw a line in the sand” with the threat of tough sanctions in the face of Iran’s “serial deception” about its nuclear ambitions.
Mr. Sarkozy called on Iran to open up to United Nations inspectors and put everything “on the table” by December or face sanctions. Experts said those penalties could include a ban on gasoline sales to Iran, which has large oil reserves but limited refining capacity.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada, which is seeking a Security Council seat later this year, also endorsed possible sanctions. He said Canada would back “whatever actions are necessary to deal with what is a tremendous threat to international peace and security.”
Asked if the response might include military action, he said: “These are highly speculative questions, highly hypothetical, and I think it would be unwise to get into that kind of speculation. Nobody to my knowledge has put those kinds of actions on the table.”
The showdown comes just days before top officials from the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany, were to sit down with Iran to discuss its nuclear program.
The revelation that Iran has been building another small-scale uranium-enriching plant may help galvanize the Security Council.
Permanent members Russia and China, which have long resisted sanctions against Iran, may now find it more difficult to resist a new tougher united front when the UN-sponsored talks open Oct. 1.
Russia appears to be softening its opposition in what some experts suggest is a quid pro quo for a U.S. decision to drop plans for a nuclear shield in Eastern Europe.
