• English Site
• > World

'They Want the Bomb'

Obama Under Pressure to Get Tough on Iran

By SPIEGEL Staff

American mistrust of Iran is growing, despite the cautious rapprochement at last week's talks in Geneva. US President Barack Obama is coming under increasing pressure to take a hard line since the revelation that Iran has a second, previously undisclosed facility for uranium enrichment.

The president sat in front of her, casually dressed in an open-necked shirt. There was no one else in the room. It was the moment German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been waiting for.

And then she asked the question that only he, the leader of the Western world and commander-in-chief of the US armed forces, could answer: Was the United States truly determined to bomb Iran because of its nuclear program, if all threats came to nothing and all ultimatums had expired?

The president didn't hesitate before replying: "You can't bomb knowledge." Merkel was relieved, so much so that she would later pass on the sentence to her supporters like a trophy.

The scene unfolded in November 2007, at George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Ironically, Bush, the man who had allowed his military to march into Iraq without any plausible reasons, appeared to have lost his taste for waging war.

Different Signals

His successor in the White House is now sending different signals. US President Barack Obama began his career as an opponent of the Iraq war, but now, after moving to the White House, he too is making use of the superpower's military might. Obama is increasing US troop numbers in Afghanistan while, in neighboring Pakistan, his administration is attacking the Taliban with remote-controlled drones.

But the president's main adversary is the regime in Tehran. Obama has threatened Iran with "serious consequences" unless the country limits its nuclear program to civilian use. He is not ruling out a military strike against nuclear facilities in the mullah-controlled state. When asked what Washington will do if nothing else works, Obama replies: "All options are on the table."

The recent news that Iran has a second, previously secret uranium enrichment facility caused an uproar in the United States. A nuclear bomb in the hands of the mullahs would destroy the already fragile security architecture in the Middle East and trigger a regional arms race. Iranian mid-range missiles, which could possibly be equipped with nuclear warheads in the future, are a threat to Israel and could also reach southern Europe (see graphic).

Until now, the only known uranium enrichment facility was in Natanz, where the Iranian government has already installed about 8,000 centrifuges. Iran has been claiming for years that it is only interested in the civilian use of nuclear energy. And indeed, between February 2007 and November 2008, the engineers at Natanz only produced uranium with an enrichment level of up to 5 percent. A level of about 90 percent is needed if the material is to be used in a nuclear bomb.

The existing data is so precise because the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors the Natanz plant. Since March 2007, inspectors from the Vienna-based agency have paid 29 unannounced visits to Natanz. It is not entirely impossible to produce material for a bomb in such a highly scrutinized facility, but it isn't easy. For that reason, there have been speculations for years that Iran was operating other facilities concealed from the eyes of the world.

Underground Facility

Now those fears have a name: Qom. A second enrichment plant, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tehran, is currently being built near the Shiite holy city of Qom, hidden in an underground tunnel on a military base.

Western intelligence agencies heard the first rumors about the secret project in the second half of 2008. Since then, they have been searching for credible evidence to present to the global public. The CIA's claims that it found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- claims that were later refuted -- have not been forgotten. No one wants to see the same debacle repeated.

At the beginning of the year, several intelligence agencies hit pay dirt at the same time. The Israeli Mossad has a network of agents in Iran that focuses primarily on the country's nuclear program. Eyewitness reports supplied the desired details on the status of construction work. The CIA had obtained its own information, with French and British intelligence contributing their knowledge.

In the spring, the Western allies briefed German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and from then on, Chancellor Angela Merkel was also kept in the loop. When the IAEA received a letter from Tehran two weeks ago, Iran's leadership revealed information that was already an open secret among Western leaders. "Our patience has a limit," the normally measured IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said.