Revelations that Iran has been working secretly on a trigger for a nuclear bomb urgently underscore the case for tough new sanctions against Tehran, the Obama Administration said.
Referring to a report yesterday, which suggested that Iran has been working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb, a senior US official said: “Now that work may have been done on a trigger mechanism, this certainly gives urgency, in the absence of any meaningful response from Tehran . . . in terms of additional pressure on sanctions.”
The official added: “The revelations that work has been done [on a nuclear trigger] do add a sense of urgency and these revelations certainly don’t hurt.”
The reaction from Washington comes as the US begins a push to get China and Russia to back a tough new set of sanctions against Iran after a year in which Tehran has snubbed President Obama’s overtures to open a diplomatic dialogue over its nuclear programme. Calls for a united front came as China backed out of a crucial meeting of the six powers involved in negotiations with Tehran.
Mr Barak said: “There is a need for tough sanctions, something that is well and coherently co-ordinated to include Americans, the EU, the Chinese, the Russians [and] the Indians.”
At the same time, Middle Eastern diplomats warned of a regional nuclear arms race and demanded greater involvement in diplomatic efforts to force an Iranian climbdown.
A Saudi diplomatic source, describing the fears of a nuclear arms race in the region, said: “We want the region free of nuclear weapons, including Israel.” He called Israel a “huge obstacle in this process.”
The revelations about work on the nuclear trigger, contained in confidential intelligence documents obtained and which foreign intelligence agencies date to early 2007, come as the Obama Administration enters a new phase over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
After months of largely fruitless efforts to establish a dialogue with Tehran, the Administration now hopes to get meaningful sanctions out of the UN, something that requires the co-operation of Russia and China.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said on Friday that world powers would soon impose “significant additional sanctions” on Iran.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, conceded yesterday that “I don’t think anyone can doubt that our outreach had produced very little in terms of any kind of positive responses from the Iranians”.
At a news conference with the Spanish Foreign Minister, she signalled that a push for sanctions may be coming soon. While she refused to comment on the Times report — she said that she never commented on intelligence — Mrs Clinton said that US concerns “have been heightened already” in recent months, with the exposure of the secret nuclear facility at Qom and Tehran’s reluctance to ship low-enriched uranium out of the country.
The secret documents reveal that Iran has worked on a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
–Agencies