Fresh Sanctions Warning For Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Germany has warned Iran it faces new UN sanctions after Tehran announced plans for 10 uranium enrichment sites in defiance of international demands.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, whose country is involved in talks on the dispute, said Iran must know the world's patience was "not endless".

Iran, he said, must fulfil its international commitments.

Western powers say Tehran is trying to develop nuclear arms while Iran says it needs nuclear energy for its economy.

The head of Iran's nuclear programme, Ali Akbar Salehi, accused the West of provoking his country into launching the plan to build 10 new plants.

However, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, said he believed that a diplomatic solution was still possible.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner accused Iran of "playing an extremely dangerous game" and a source in Russia's foreign ministry was quoted as saying Moscow was "seriously concerned by the latest statements of the Iranian leadership".

Asked by the BBC if military action by Israel against Iran was now more likely, Israel's ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, called for "all options to be on the table" without being more specific.

'Without ifs and buts'
"Iran's announcement of the expansion of its uranium enrichment clearly goes in the wrong direction," Mr Westerwelle said in a statement in Berlin.