Iran’s National Army Day is marked annually by boasts regarding Tehran’s military prowess and by threats against the West. Analysts are noting that this year’s speeches and weapons displays have been pointedly bellicose even by the high standards previously set by the Islamic republic. One announcement in particular has triggered alarm bells among Western observers of Iran’s nuclear program.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi announced that Iran will continue to work to build nuclear submarines. To do that – he added – Iran will need to enrich uranium to about 50% purity to fuel the engines. Western experts identified the claim as a relatively transparent pretext to inch towards weapons-grade enrichment levels:

Western experts doubt that Iran, which is under a U.N. arms and nuclear technology embargo, has the capability to make the kind of sophisticated underwater vessel any time soon that only the world’s most powerful states currently have. But experts have said Iran could use the plan to justify more sensitive atomic activity. U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, for instance, use uranium enriched to about 90 percent, also suitable for the explosive core of a nuclear warhead… Any move by Iran to enrich to a higher purity would alarm the United States and its allies, which suspect it is seeking to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs and want it to curb its nuclear program.

[Photo: CSIS PONI / Flickr]