The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to report soon on hundreds of new centrifuges at Iran's new uranium enrichment plant, a diplomat told dpa Sunday in Vienna - ahead of an IAEA team expected in Tehran this week to seek clarity on its disputed nuclear aims. On the eve of that visit, Iran sent a confrontational message by announcing it was stopping oil exports to British and French companies.
The BBC, quoting an unnamed diplomat in Vienna - the IAEA's seat - had reported that Iran, which is suspected by some Western powers of building a nuclear weapon, may be poised to install thousands of new-generation centrifuges at the fortified Fordo plant near the city of Qom.
The facility was already fitted with the technical infrastructure required for the centrifuges, the broadcaster said.
Western diplomats told dpa, however, that Iran's nuclear engineers were nowhere near being able to actually operate thousands of new centrifuges at the site, even if there were plans to install them. The magnitude was more likely to be in the order of hundreds, one of them said on condition of anonymity.
"While these sort of advances are not welcome and a flagrant breach of UN Security Council resolutions, they are not as sensational as being portrayed in the press," he said.
The IAEA confirmed last month that uranium enrichment to a level of 20 per cent had started at Fordo, which has not officially been inaugurated.
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