Iran has revealed that it built a second uranium enrichment plant, the UN nuclear watchdog said Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had sent a letter on September 21 to inform the watchdog “that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country,” agency spokesman Marc Vidricaire said in a statement.

The New York Times reported that the facility was being built inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Tehran. Iran already has one enrichment plant at Natanz.

Vidricaire said: “the IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible.”

Read the full story

There are 25,000 Jews living in Iran. When Israel backed a plan to pay Iranian Jewish families $60,000 to settle in Israel, Society of Iranian Jews met the announcement with scorn, issuing this statement: “The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradable for any amount of money. Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran’s Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews.”