Germany sees new Iran nuclear plant as ‘escalation’

Germany said Monday that Iran’s enrichment of uranium at a new mountain bunker site amounted to a “further escalation” that raised concerns Iran’s nuclear programme was for military ends.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle 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 programme 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 January 30 meeting.

The UN atomic agency earlier confirmed that Iran had started enriching uranium up to 20 percent at the Fordo plant, sunk deep under a mountain 150 kilometres (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 UN Security Council resolutions.