(UPDATE: Read former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter's account of what's really going on behind this news of a "secret" Iranian nuclear facility:
So when Obama announced that "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow", he is technically and legally wrong....It should be underscored that what the Qom facility Obama is referring to is not a nuclear weapons plant, but simply a nuclear enrichment plant similar to that found at the declared (and inspected) facility in Natanz.
UPDATE: Read Steven Walt, who essentially makes the same points as Ritter:
According to the Washington Post, Iran notified the IAEA on September 21 that it was constructing a new pilot enrichment plant. Assuming that it has not already introduced nuclear material into this facility (and Tehran says it hasn't), Iran is therefore in compliance with the NPT's Comprehensive Full Scope Safeguards Agreement, which requires it to notify the IAEA six months before nuclear material is introduced into any new facility.)
There are news reports that Iran has told the IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei of the existence of a second nuclear facility of some sort. The news reports, quoting anonymous sources, say it is in fact a uranium enrichment facility. Obama and friends are claiming that Iran is "violating rules" by having such a facility, etc. The overall tone of the reporting is that Iran has somehow "admitted" to doing something wrong by building such a facility. In fact, by disclosing this facility, Iran is ABIDING BY the rules.
Here's some facts to keep in mind: assuming this is in fact an enrichment facility, under the terms of Iran's safeguards agreement with the IAEA, Iran is only required to inform the IAEA of the existence of a nuclear facility 180-days prior to the introduction of nuclear material into the facility.
Specifically, the Subsidiary Arrangements General Part in force with Iran since 1976 contains a standard text which calls for provision to the IAEA of design information on a new nuclear facility no later than 180 days before the introduction of nuclear material into the facility.
(As a good will gesture during the ill-fated "Paris Agreement" negotiations with the EU-3, Iran temporarily agreed to provide information more quickly, but has gone back to enforcing only the strict requirements of this agreement and no more once the EU-3 violated the Paris Agreement by demanding that Iran abandon enrichment entirely. The IAEA says that Iran can't go back on the agreement, Iran says since it never formally ratified the agreement, it can. This continues to be a source of conflict between Iran and the IAEA, which has asked Iran to not stick to the 180-day rule. So while there's a dispute as to the timing required disclosures, the fact remains that this is a non-operational site that has been disclosed by Iran as it is supposed to be, and not a "secret" weapons site. as the media makes it sound.)
In other words, Iran may be perfectly within its right NOT to have declared the facility earlier. Meanwhile the IAEA has asked Iran to allow IAEA access to the facility, according to CNN. So contrary to what Obama says, Iran is not "breaking rules" and his use of such deliberatly misleading language proves that Obama is another Bush.
However, if this turns out to be a non-nuclear facility --- such as the facility where they design and manufacture centrifuges but don't actually use nuclear material in them --- then Iran is not obligated to inform the iAEA of the facililty AT ALL even though the US has been using the IAEA to force Iran to disclose this potential bombing target (and that's perhaps what Iran has done in this report.)
This is good time to point out that Iran's enrichment program was never a secret and Iran had even invited IAEA experts to visit its uranium mines in the mid-1990s, long before the controversy over its allegedly "hidden" enrichment program.
UPDATE: Reuters says that this is pilot enrichment plant which is still under construction, and according to the IRanian information provided to the IAEA, no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility. So it isn't even operational. It is just a construction site. How dangerous and threatening can the media and right-wing blogs make a construction site sound, do you suppose? We'll see.
UPDATE:
US officials say Iran's nuclear plant is no secret to them, Los Angeles Times.
Iran nuclear site not a secret: Ahmadinejad, CBC.ca
So we're agreed then?
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