WORLD / Middle East
Iran says it joins nuclear club
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-04-12 14:25
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran wants to achieve
industrial-scale uranium enrichment, setting his country on a collision
course with the United States which fears Tehran wants to make an atomic
bomb.
On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said Iran had successfully produced the enriched
uranium needed to make nuclear fuel for the first time, triggering a
warning from Washington that Tehran's latest declared nuclear advance
could heighten international pressure.
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks in Mashhad, Iran's
holiest city Tuesday, April 11, 2006. [AP]
Ahmadinejad said in a televised address: "I am officially announcing that
Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear
technology. This is the result of the Iranian nation's resistance."
"Based on international regulations, we will continue our path until we
achieve production of industrial-scale enrichment," he told officials and
some ambassadors from regional states gathered in the northeastern city
of Mashhad.
The United Nations has said Iran must halt uranium enrichment, a process
Western nations fear Tehran wants to master so that it can develop
nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its aims are entirely peaceful.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that Iran's announcement could
force further talks among the U.N. Security Council powers.
"If Iran continues to move in the direction that it is currently, then we
will be talking about the way forward with the other members of the
Security Council and Germany about how to address this going forward," he
said.
The U.S. State Department said it was unable to confirm Iran's
announcement, and some experts said that even if Tehran's assertions were
accurate, it would still be years before the Islamic state was able to
produce a nuclear weapon.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the announcement gave
"more weight to the international community to act in a concerted
fashion", but some experts said it was unclear if Russia and China,
veto-wielding members of the Security Council, would be willing to back
sanctions.
DIALOGUE
China, which traditionally opposes slapping Iran with sanctions, urged a
diplomatic solution.
"We still believe that negotiations and a diplomatic solution are the
best way out of it," Wang Guangya, China's envoy to the United Nations,
said in New York on Tuesday in comments carried by the official Xinhua
news agency.
It was not immediately clear if Wang, who is also the current president
of the Security Council, was speaking in direct reaction to Iran's
announcement.
The Security Council has demanded Iran shelve enrichment activity, and on
March 29 it asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to report on its
compliance in 30 days.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to visit Iran later this week to
seek full Iranian cooperation with the Council and IAEA inquiries. The
announcement of advances in enrichment work casts an embarrassing cloud
over that trip.
The IAEA had no immediate comment.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has one nuclear power
plant under construction but has plans for more. It says it needs to make
its own nuclear fuel to secure supply and has rejected U.N. demands to
stop enrichment.
The high-profile announcement about Iran's nuclear achievements at a time
when tensions with the West are already high, puzzled some analysts. But
they said it could be grandstanding ahead of a possible softer approach
to follow.
"They can say, 'we reached our rights, we reached our goals and it is not
necessary to continue any more because we are able to do the job.' This
is my guess," political analyst Saeed Laylaz said.
A Western diplomat said it was possible Iran was "putting on this drama
to step back", but said this was still speculation. "It's totally the
wrong signal," the diplomat added.
Reflecting anxiety about the nuclear dispute, investors shifted into the
safe-haven Swiss franc after Iran's announcement, traders said. The
nuclear dispute has also been a factor helping to push up oil prices to
record levels.
The level of enrichment needed to trigger the nuclear chain reaction that
detonates bombs is far higher than the 3.5 percent Iran says it has
reached.
It would take Iran years to produce enough highly enriched uranium for
one bomb with its current cascade of 164 centrifuges. But Iran has told
the IAEA it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year,
enough to produce material for a warhead in a year.
Related Stories
� Iran has got enriched uranium
===========================================================================
� Iran: Enrichment goal is peaceful
===========================================================================
� Iran in nuclear technology step
===========================================================================
� US aims to dampen talk of striking Iran
===========================================================================
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Today's Top News
� Bush thanks Wu Yi for making 'equitable trade'
� Mystery of 121 human skulls cleared
� Environmental protection goals not met
� Jury transfixed by tape of 9/11 plane
� Penalties on shoes a lose-lose decision
Top World News
� Iran vows to ramp up uranium enrichment
� Report raises new questions on Bush, WMDs
� Al-Qaida figure backs Iraqi insurgents
� Karachi bomb death toll hits 57
� Prodi vows new govt amid election row
No comments:
Post a Comment