World

Ahmadinejad defiant about nuclear facility, sanctions

by smkovalinsky | September 25, 2009 at 05:16 pm

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Although at Friday's G20 Summit President Obama warned that a non-compliant Iran would be faced with "sanctions that bite", Iranian leader Ahmadinejad remains defiant even in the face of an Obama backed up by global leaders.

A disclosure revealing a secret, underground uranium-enriching plant which may serve to facilitate the building of nuclear weapons, has upped the ante for Obama, who has said that although his preference is for diplomacy in conflict resolution, the stand off with Tehran might possibly lead to "military action".

Obama stood earlier in the day with the leaders of Britain and France in accusingIran of working in secret for several years to build a covert underground plant for enriching uranium that could be used for developing nuclear weapons.

"The international community has spoken. It is now up to Iran to respond," Obama said at a closing news conference.

The fresh disclosure of the scope of Iran's disputed nuclear program added a new sense of urgency to Tehran's much-anticipated talks with the United States and five other powers on October 1 in Geneva.

Iran has maintained its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful electricity generation.

U.S. officials said Iran started building the covert plant as an alternate site for possible weapons development since the International Atomic Energy Agency's scrutiny at its Natanz facility made it difficult to conduct such activities there.

A defiant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted the facility near the holy city of Qom was legal and open for inspection by the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.