Iran has the knowledge necessary to enrich uranium, U.N. weapons inspectors say. “We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich,” Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The New York Times. “From now on it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that’s a fact.” Inspectors found 1,300 centrifuges in use after a short-notice inspection at the Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday. Iran insists its program is peaceful, but weapons inspectors say it is geared toward manufacturing a bomb. Israel long has insisted that the tipping point for international action is not when Iran actually builds a bomb but when it masters the technology to enrich uranium that could be used to build one. The United States and others say the danger point is when Iran is close to making a bomb, which could take several more years.
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