Iran Starts Uranium Enrichment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks under a portrait of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini during a visit to the 2nd National Festival of Innovation and Prosperity in Tehran on February 8, 2010. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

Iran announced that it has started enrichment of its uranium to 20 percent, prompting fresh calls for sanctions. Iran’s Arabic language television channel, al-Alam, said production had started at the Natanz plant on Tuesday.

Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, told Reuters that “preparatory work” had began at 9:30 a.m. in the presence of representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Just hours after Tehran’s announcement, President Barack Obama spoke with reporters at the White House saying that the U.S. and its allies will soon produce a “significant regimen of sanctions” against the Islamic republic, which despite denials, is working on nuclear weapons according to the president.