Closed captioning of: War of words with Iran escalates
>>>
overseas tonight, the war of words between the u.s. and
iran
is escalating over the
nuclear program
and beyond. today, the iranians made new threats. we get the latest tonight from our tehran bureau chief.
>> reporter:
iran
announced today it has begun to enrich uranium at a second underground facility well protected from possible
air strikes
.
iran
insists its
nuclear program
is for peaceful purposes, but the west suspects
iran
of developing a
nuclear weapons program
. still,
defense secretary
leon panetta
had a blunt warning today about
nuclear weapons
.
>>
they
need to know
that if they take that step, that they're going to get stopped.
>> reporter:
president obama
approved but not yet implemented new sanctions that would target its ability to sell oil abroad. today a senior iranian official said
iran
wouldn't allow a drop of oil to pass through the strait of hormuz if petroleum exports are blocked. a fifth of oil passes through the water way.
>>
the
united states
will not tolerate blocking of the straits of hormuz, that's another
red line
for us and we will respond to that.
>> reporter:
iran
also warned the carrier "
uss stennis
" not to return to the
persian gulf
. that same carrier helped rescue 11 iranian fishermen from pirates last week. while the government called it a positive and humanitarian act, iranian state news agencies dismissed it as a
hollywood movie
. lester?
“ ”