U.S. and Germany slam Iran’s uranium enrichment as further ‘escalation’

The United States and Germany said on Monday that Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 20 percent at a new mountain bunker site, this would be a “further escalation” that raised concerns Iran’s nuclear program was for military ends.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirmed on Monday that Iran has started enriching uranium up to 20 percent at an underground site at Fordow, near the Shi’ite Muslim holy city of Qom, and said all atomic material there was under its surveillance.

“The fact that the IAEA has made clear that they are enriching to a level that is inappropriate at Fordow is obviously a problem,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing.

Nuland said the Vienna-based IAEA’s assessment, previously reported by diplomats in Vienna, did not come as a surprise to the United States.

“If they are enriching at Fordow to 20 percent, this is a further escalation of their ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations,” Nuland said, referring to a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to halt its enrichment-related activities.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, meanwhile, believes “the start of uranium enrichment to 20 percent in the Fordo underground nuclear site is a step of further escalation,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

“With it, the international community’s concern that the Iranian nuclear program is serving military purposes is growing,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.

Westerwelle also said that Iran must immediately stop uranium enrichment, warning: “So long as Iran does not move, there is no alternative to tough sanctions,” the statement said.

And he expressed confidence that the European Union would agree new sanctions against Iran at a Jan. 30 meeting.

The U.N. atomic agency earlier confirmed that Iran had started enriching uranium up to 20 percent at the Fordo plant, sunk deep under a mountain 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Tehran.

Iran, which insists its nuclear drive is for exclusively peaceful purposes, has repeatedly said it will not abandon uranium enrichment despite four rounds of U.N. Security Council resolutions.