Iran thumbed its nose at the Obama administration yesterday by testing its first nuclear-power plant and announcing plans to sharply increase the enrichment of uranium that could lead to atomic weapons.
Iran Tests Nuclear Energy Facility
“Today was one of the most important days of the Iranian nation,” Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said as he showed reporters the $1 billion plant at Bushehr.
He said the first tests, using “dummy” fuel rods, were successful, and Iran would next test the plant with enriched uranium.
Iran’s boast is a challenge to the United States and United Nations, which have repeatedly demanded a halt in the enrichment program.
Aghazadeh said Tehran is not backing down.
“America should face reality and accept living with a nuclear Iran,” he said.
President Obama said during the campaign that he would be willing to talk with Tehran, but vowed that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable. Any talks may hinge on whether hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is re-elected in four months.
Israeli officials expressed alarm at the failure of three sets of UN sanctions.
“Time is running out,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last night. “Clear and decisive sanctions against the Iranian regime alongside readiness to consider necessary actions – in case the sanctions don’t work – are necessary.”