Iran Nuke Roundup

Gertz..

1. U.S. warns Iran's continued advance will render its production of nukes invisible

2. Iran, Syria to take strategic ties to new level after Lebanon war

3. U.S. sanctions Iran bank that funded Hizbullah, other terror groups

4. U.S. intelligence sees Iran developing ICBM under guise of space program

1. U.S. warns Iran's continued advance will render its production of nukes invisible

WASHINGTON — An active Iranian uranium enrichment program could eventually render the United States unable to detect Iran's production of nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. official said."Once they're able to operate centrifuges — 164-machine centrifuges — in cascades and feed uranium hexafluoride into those centrifuges in the cascade and run those cascades over a sustained period of time, they will be able to acquire a nuclear weapon without us knowing about it," said Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph.

Officials said Iran has obtained nuclear expertise and components from China, Japan, Pakistan, North Korea and European countries. Washington has sought to recruit help from China and Russia to stop nuclear and missile proliferation to Teheran.

Joseph told a Sept. 6 briefing that Iran has been operating a 164-centrifuge cascade and was installing a second similarly sized facility for uranium enrichment. He cited Iranian statements saying the second cascade would begin operations in October 2006. Iran has announced plans to operate 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007.

"This is a large number of centrifuges that will produce a large quantity of highly enriched uranium," Joseph said.

So far, the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Iran would require another five years to produce its first nuclear weapon.

Joseph, who called for sanctions on Teheran, said Iran's nuclear weapon could be achieved even before "the end of the decade."

"My sense is that if we are talking about stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, we have to be able to stop them from acquiring the expertise, acquiring the technologies that will lead them to a nuclear weapons capability," he said.

Teheran has been enriching uranium without the knowledge of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been denied access to suspected Iranian nuclear facilities.

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