Iran takes nuclear step

The World

Today is the second anniversary of when Iran first enriched uranium. The President marked the occasion by touring the nuclear plant and making an announcement about the installment of thousands of new centrifuges. Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges, so this analyst says the addition of another 6,000 is for a nuclear weapons capability, and he says there’s no economic purpose to this activity. But he says Iran’s new nuclear program is plagued by technical problems and the country is probably about two years away from being able to make a bomb. Nevertheless, Western diplomats were quick to criticize and Secretary Rice said the move will only further isolate the country while France said another round of sanctions might be in order. This analyst however says the sanctions obviously are not working. He says the Iranians are showing they can build centrifuges faster than Western countries can impose economic costs.

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