Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided it was safe to go ahead and load Iran's first nuclear reactor with fuel on Aug. 21 - effectively making it active - after the US and Israel did not seem troubled by the prospect of the reactor going on stream, DEBKAfile reports. Either the two governments had been caught flatfooted, he figured, or come to terms with Iran's capacity to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Iran is to build 10 more uranium enrichment plants in fortified mountain caves.