Diplomats: 'Defiant' Iran installed more enrichment centrifuges.

Diplomats: 'Defiant' Iran installed more enrichment centrifuges.(JPost).VIENNA - A UN watchdog report is expected to show that Iran has installed more uranium enrichment centrifuges at an underground site, potentially boosting output capacity of nuclear work major powers want it to stop, Western diplomatic sources say. Two sources said the Islamic state may have placed in position nearly 350 machines since February - in addition to the almost 700 centrifuges already operating at the Fordow facility - but that they were not yet being used to refine uranium.If confirmed in the next quarterly report on Iran's nuclear program by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, tentatively expected on Friday, it is likely to be seen as a sign of continued defiance by the Islamic state of international demands to suspend such activity.
Iran is currently engaged in high-level talks with the P5+1 powers, who are focused on stemming the advance of Tehran's contentious nuclear program. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano flew into Iran earlier this week, saying he was expecting to sign a deal with Iran soon to unblock an investigation into suspected work on atom bomb. Getting Tehran to halt its enrichment of uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent - which it started in 2010 and has since sharply expanded - was a key priority for world powers in their talks with Iran in Baghdad on Wednesday. Progress in Iran's nuclear program is closely watched by the West and Israel as it could determine how much time it would need to build nuclear bombs, should it decide to do so.
Fordow, estimated to be buried beneath 80 meters (265 feet) of rock and soil, gives Iran better protection against any Israeli or U.S. military strikes and the shift of nuclear work to the site is of particular concern for the West.The last IAEA report, published in February, said Iran had trebled output of 20 percent uranium since late 2011 after starting up production at Fordow near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom and later increasing it. The new report is not expected to show Iran increasing production. But the installation of possibly hundreds more centrifuges could set the stage for that ahead. Such machines spin at supersonic speed to raise the concentration of the fissile isotope of uranium.Iran has earlier suggested it would close down the production of 20 percent at Natanz - where the work started in 2010 - once Fordow was up and running. But it has yet to do so, Western diplomats say. Hmmmmm.......My thoughts on the P5+1 talks: "much bleating......very little wool".Read the full story here.