Iran:  Tension Rising – February 5, 2007

   LExpress.fr, February 5—Two cascades of 164 centrifuges were installed in the Iranian factory Natanz which allows for the production of enriched uranium at the industrial level.  In this time, in France Roland Dumas stirred things up in assuring that Iran's possession of a nuclear bomb would be a “factor of balance.”  This we learned from a diplomatic source.

A NEW STAGE IN THE CRISIS BETWEEN TEHRAN AND THE WEST

            This new equipment will soon be tested without uranium, which will later be injected, if the tests are conclusive, he specified, emphasizing that the 328 centrifuges were the first in a series of 3,000 whose installation is scheduled in the months to come.

            “The Iranians seem to have the intention of installing 6 cascades, about a thousand each, from now until spring and the rest of the 3,000 later on in June,” he added.  The preparations regarding the putting into service the subterranean site of Natanz were achieved last week.

            The installation of new cascades of centrifuges will mark a new step in the crisis which sets Tehran in opposition of the western powers after the adoption in December of the Security Council of the UN's sanctions condemning the pursuit of enrichment activities.

            Elsewhere, after the lively debate sparked by the remarks of Jacques Chirac last week, which openly envisioned the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power, Roland Dumas put his feet in his mouth.  The former socialist Minister of Foreign Affairs assured Monday on the French radio station Inter that if Iran possessed an atomic bomb, “this would be a balancing element in the region,” nevertheless pursuing:  “But this implies a treaty, controls, a climate other than that which currently exists, which is a threatening climate.”

            Ségolène Royal has taken quite the opposite position, who pronounced a prohibition of not only Iranian nuclear military but also civil.