Enough is enough. That seems to be the message in last week's resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which voiced serious concerns about Iran's nuclear activities and demanded that Tehran halt operations at a hitherto secret nuclear facility. That rebuke is a sign that patience is running out, but hopes of reining in Iran's ambitions demand more than strongly worded resolutions: The world must be ready to punish Iran for continued defiance of its wishes.
Suspicions have long swirled around Iran's nuclear program. It has been difficult to explain the rationale behind development of a nuclear energy program by the holder of the world's second-largest oil and natural gas reserves. Questions mounted as it became clear that Tehran was not being truthful about the scope of that program. Only when exposed by the IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, has the regime acknowledged the existence of secret facilities, even though it is supposed to disclose such sites when the decision to begin construction of them is made.
The most recent controversy surrounds a uranium enrichment facility that is being built in Fordo, near the city of Qom. The plant was only revealed to the IAEA in September, even though Tehran says construction began in 2007, in a response to the threat of an attack on another nuclear facility. Satellite imagery casts doubt over that claim, showing construction in fact began seven years ago. Moreover, the plant is located on a military base, underscoring concerns about the murky relationship between civilian nuclear energy companies and the military. Finally, the facility is going to house only some 3,000 centrifuges (the devices that create enriched uranium), a number too small to have any use for nuclear power generation but sufficient to create enough material to make one or two nuclear weapons a year.