(RTTNews) - The United States has strongly criticized a reported move by Iran to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities in defiance of U.N. demands, and said time was running out for the Islamic Republic to address the growing concerns of the international community about its nuclear program.

"If true, this would be yet another serious violation of Iran's clear obligations under multiple U.N. security council resolutions, and another example of Iran choosing to isolate itself," White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in Washington Sunday.

"The international community has made clear that Iran has rights, but with those rights come responsibilities," he said.

Referring to the 25-3 vote Friday of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors to censure Iran for hiding the existence of a uranium enrichment facility near Qom, Gibbs said as the overwhelming vote made clear, "time is running out for Iran to address the international community's growing concerns about its nuclear program."
Every member of the United Nations Security Council--including China and Russia, which have been reluctant in the past to rebuke Iran--voted for censure, an act the White House said reflected President's leadership and ability to build international consensus.

Gibb's comments came after Iran's state television reported that the cabinet ordered construction to begin at five new sites earmarked for enrichment plants and asked officials to locate sites for another five such facilities over the next two months. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said that Iran could start enriching uranium to the 20 per cent level on its own.

Western nations have long suspected Iran's uranium enrichment work which can be used to power nuclear reactors, but in highly purified form it can form the fissile core of an atom bomb. Tehran fiercely denies the charges, saying its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes only--that for producing electricity in view of its fast-depleting crude oil reserves.

The international community is also frustrated over Tehran's refusal to accept a nuclear fuel deal brokered by the IAEA aimed at defusing tensions over its enrichment program. The deal envisaged shipping abroad Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) for conversion into 20 per cent enriched uranium to fuel a medical research reactor in Tehran.

Iran insists it is ready to send its LEU abroad only if there is a simultaneous exchange of fuel inside the country.

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