"Iran talks breakdown" - IAEA fails to reach deal on 'Iranian bomb research'.

"Iran talks breakdown" - IAEA fails to reach deal on 'Iranian bomb research'.(JPost).Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that Iran’s nuclear drive was accelerating and that Tehran had failed to heed the international call to stop its program. He spoke on the same day that the International Atomic Energy Agency said it failed to strike a deal with Iran, which aimed at allaying concerns about suspected nuclear weapons research by Tehran, a setback in efforts to resolve the standoff diplomatically before any Israeli or US military action.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, “Just yesterday, we received additional proof of the fact that Iran is continuing to make accelerated progress toward achieving nuclear weapons while totally ignoring international demands.” Netanyahu made his comments as he met with US Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan), who is visiting the region.
On Thursday, diplomatic sources said Iran had installed many more uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Fordow underground site. While the new machines are not yet operating, the move reaffirmed Iranian defiance of international demands on it to suspend enrichment and may strengthen the Israeli belief that toughened sanctions and concerted diplomacy are failing to make the Islamic Republic change course.
“The discussions today were intensive, but important differences remain between Iran and the UN that prevented agreement,” Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA’s chief inspector, told journalists after about seven hours of talks with an Iranian delegation in Vienna.
“At the moment we have no plans for another meeting.” The diplomatic sources who revealed the expansion of centrifuge capacity at Fordow also said satellite imagery indicated Iran had used a brightly colored tent-like structure to cover a building at Parchin, increasing concern about a possible removal of evidence of illicit past nuclear work there. In Washington, an official of President Barack Obama’s administration said the new centrifuges, while concerning, would not significantly change the amount of time Iran would need to “break out” of its treaty obligations and build a nuclear device. “This work... does not build confidence in their intent and it further demonstrates their failure to fulfill their obligations,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But it is also not a game-changer.” Western diplomats had expected no breakthrough on Friday but said Iran could offer a concession to inspectors – who want access to sites, officials and documents – in hopes of blunting their quarterly report on Iran that is due this week. In so doing, Iran would also seek to deflect a planned Western move to have the 35-nation IAEA board of governors, meeting next month, formally rebuke Tehran over its failure to cooperate with the agency’s inquiry. Any Iranian concession should therefore be treated with skepticism, one diplomat accredited to the IAEA said. The IAEA’s immediate priority remains access to Parchin, even though Western diplomats say it may now have been purged of any evidence of nuclear weapons research, possibly carried out a decade ago. Citing satellite images, diplomats said last week that Iran has demolished some small buildings and moved earth at Parchin. Diplomatic sources said the building believed to be housing an explosives chamber – if it is still there – had been “wrapped” with scaffolding and tarpaulin, hiding any sanitization or other activity there from satellite cameras.
Debka : Thursday, diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, disclosed that Iran had installed another 1,000 uranium enrichment machines in its fortified underground facility at Fordo, and was expanding its production of 20-percent refined uranium. Experts not bound by the IAEA’s diplomatic constraints report that enrichment climbed to 30 percent some months ago and was now on the way to 60 percent. At least 3,000 centrifuges were now spinning at Fordo.Read the full story here.