Netanyahu Lays Out ‘Red Line’ on Iran’s 20 Percent Uranium Enrichment

US Reiterates 'Full Agreement' With Netanyahu on Iran

by Jason Ditz, September 28, 2012

Following up on weeks of pressuring US officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to lay out the “red line” on Iran himself, saying that Iran cannot be allowed to have 240 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium, which he claimed was “enough for one bomb.”

Absent in all of this is that one cannot make a nuclear weapon out of 20 percent enriched uranium in the first place. The figure seems to be an estimate of the amount of such uranium that, if further enriched to weapons-grade (over 90 percent) might conceivably be enough for one bomb.

Iran has been producing 20 percent enriched uranium for over a year now, as this is the level of enrichment needed to fuel the US-built Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), which produces medical isotopes for the country. The IAEA put their stock of the uranium at 189 kg.

Which would mean the red line would automatically start a war in the spring, something Netanyahu conceded in today’s interview, though he insisted if the US endorsed his red line Iran would probably stop producing the fuel.

The US did nothing to contest the Netanyahu statement, and instead continued to insist that they are in “full agreement” with whatever fool statements the Israeli leader is making at any given time.

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