The French news agency (AFP) on Feb. 14, reported according to the diplomats, who are posted to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Iran has begun real tests of P2 centrifuges with uranium gas with the aim of producing enriched uranium. Iran has begun testing advanced second-generation centrifuges, defying UN Security Council demands to end its uranium enrichment activities, Western diplomats said Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008.
“The Iranians are showing their face and it is clear that they want to develop their new centrifuges,” said one Western diplomat.
The tests are the exact “opposite” of what the United Nations expects from Iran, said a European diplomat.
In Washington, a senior US intelligence official on Wednesday said that Iran continues to develop capabilities that could be swiftly adapted for production of nuclear weapons.