AFP, Rome, Sept 25, 2009 – Italy on Friday backed international criticism of a new atomic site revealed in Iran and called on Tehran to disclose details of its nuclear programme.
’Italy supports the declaration of the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and France on the new uranium enrichment plant in Iran,’ the Italian government said in a statement.
’Italy is opposed to Iran developing a nuclear military programme and calls on Tehran to clarify its nuclear programme’ in line with International Atomic Energy Agency demands, Italy said.
Rome also urged Tehran to ’demonstrate in a practical fashion its willingness to deal with nuclear questions and other delicate subjects’ at negotiations with world powers in Geneva which start on October 1.
US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown disclosed earlier on Friday that Iran had admitted to the UN nuclear watchdog having built a second uranium enrichment plant.
They called on Iran to open the plant to UN inspections and threatened tough sanctions if Tehran failed to comply.
Obama said the secret facility had been built inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Tehran. The country’s first plant is at Natanz.
Uranium enrichment is required to fuel a nuclear reactor, but at highly refined levels can produce the core of an atomic bomb, which the West fears the Islamic republic is trying to covertly develop.