Washington, Dec. 14 (ANI): The Obama administration has underscored the urgency of tough new sanctions against Iran in the wake of new revelations that Tehran has been working secretly on a trigger for a nuclear bomb.

“Now that work may have been done on a trigger mechanism, this certainly gives urgency, in the absence of any meaningful response from Tehran in terms of additional pressure on sanctions,” The Times quoted a senior US official, as saying.

He added: “The revelations that work has been done [on a nuclear trigger] do add a sense of urgency and these revelations certainly don’t hurt.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak used increasingly aggressive rhetoric over the threat from Iran.

Making clear that Israel reserves the right to launch a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Barak warned “all players not to remove any options from the table”, adding: “We do not remove it.”

“There is a need for tough sanctions, something that is well and coherently co-ordinated to include Americans, the EU, the Chinese, the Russians [and] the Indians,” he said.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Friday said that world powers would soon impose “significant additional sanctions” on Iran.

The intelligence documents had revealed that Iran has worked on a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. (ANI)