PARIS — One day after it said it test-fired missiles capable of striking targets 1,250 miles from its soil, Iran said Tuesday that it would soon offer a timetable for international inspectors to visit a hitherto secret nuclear enrichment facility, but that it was not prepared to renounce its nuclear program or debate its “rights” to operate the previously undeclared plant.
The existence of the facility near the holy city of Qum was revealed last Friday by President Obama and the leaders of France and Britain, about the same time as the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency’s announcement that Tehran had informed it of the plant’s existence earlier in the week.
Coming only days before the first direct contact between the United States and Iran at international talks in Geneva on Thursday, the disclosure sharply raised tensions between Tehran and Washington, fueling suspicions that Iran is secretly seeking a nuclear weapons capacity — a charge it has long denied.
