In a flamboyant rebuke to the international community, the Iranian nuclear chief said today it's the UN's fault that Tehran is planning to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities. The decision was necessary, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi told state radio, because the UN atomic watchdog demanded that Iran halt all enrichment activities. Yesterday, the cabinet ordered Iran's nuclear authority to begin construction on new facilities at five sites that have already been studied and propose five other locations for future construction within two months.
France, meanwhile, pressed for new sanctions against Tehran, the AP reports. The French defense minister said that the international community should "probably commit toward new economic sanctions against Iran," as it's been "clear for weeks that the extended hand of Barack Obama and the extended hand of the international community ... are not working."
(More Iran stories.)