Response to today's Financial Times article

[Westminster Committee on Iran]

The report in yesterday’s Financial Times (20/2/09) that Iran has “built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb” gives cause for concern but should not be misconstrued as evidence that Iran is either developing a weapons capablility or has breached any of her international obligations. Indeed, the story is based on a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which also states that Iran has considerably slowed down the expansion of its contested uranium enrichment programme.



Whilst the report finds that Iran has enriched more uranium than the IAEA had previously thought, it must be emphasized that the uranium in question is enriched to a low grade, suitable only for nuclear energy purposes. The uranium is not a ‘stockpile’ that has been produced clandestinely but part of Iran’s ongoing nuclear programme that has been inspected by the IAEA in their routine inspection regime. There is also no evidence that Iran is attempting to further enrich the uranium to weapons grade and any attempt to produce fissile material would require a major reconfiguration of its existing nuclear plants which would be highly visible and take several months.