Iran's
newly disclosed nuclear fuel
facility will soon become
operational, an aide to
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei was quoted as saying on
Saturday.
"This new
plant, God willing, will soon
become operational and will make
the enemies blind,"
Mohammad
Mohammadi-Golpayegani, who heads
Khamenei's office, said,
according to the semi-official
Fars News Agency.
Mohammadi-Golpayegani, a cleric,
said the
construction of the plant was a
sign of Iran being at the
"summit of power," Fars
reported. He was speaking at a
ceremony marking the start of
the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Meanwhile Friday, Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said that
Israel "will not dare attack
Iran" and that if Israel does,
"the Iranians can defend
themselves." We are
not concerned [about an Israeli
attack]. Iran is a very big
country. Much larger and bigger
than what some people think and
imagine,"
Ahmadinejad told a news
conference.
"It's not a secret site. If it
was, why would we have informed
the IAEA about it a year ahead
of time," Ahmadinejad said.
"They [the
United States, Britain and
France] will regret this
announcement." The
statement came after Ahmadinejad
said Iran
was not obliged to tell the
Obama administration of every
uranium enrichment plant it has,
turning up the heat in a dispute
over Tehran's nuclear program.
Following the revelation of a
second uranium enrichment plant
in Iran, House Republican Whip
Eric Cantor issued the following
statement:
"Iran is a
real-time security threat to the
United States, Israel, and our
allies around the world. A
nuclear Iran is closer than many
thought it was yesterday, and
the problem is getting worse by
the day, not better.
Egypt's
foreign minister is warning that
a
nuclear-capable Israel and an
Iran pursuing nuclear weapons
could trigger a nuclear arms
race in the Middle East.
