Tehran rebuffs calls for halting uranium enrichment
TEHRAN, April 13: Iran rebuffed renewed international calls to halt uranium enrichment, casting a shadow over Thursday’s visit by the head of the UN atomic watchdog.
Speaking after a series of meetings with senior Iranian officials in Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he could not yet confirm if Iran had enriched uranium to 3.5 per cent, as it had said.
“I cannot confirm that. Our inspectors have taken samples. They will report to the (IAEA) board,” he said.
Iran’s triumphant declaration on Tuesday that it had enriched uranium to a level used in power stations and wanted to expand production on a large scale, has drawn strong rebukes from major world powers, including China and Russia.
But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government has taken a firmer stance on the nuclear issue since taking power last August, remained defiant.
“Our answer to those who are angry about Iran obtaining the full nuclear cycle is one phrase. We say: Be angry and die of this anger,” he said on Wednesday, in comments reported by the official IRNA news agency.
“Today, our situation has changed and we are a nuclear country and we are talking to others from that position,” he said, adding that Iran would not retreat ‘one iota’ from its right to enrich uranium.
Washington and other Western nations accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to build weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
China said it would send a top envoy on arms control, Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai, to Iran and Russia on Friday to try to defuse the nuclear standoff.
“We hope the relevant parties can exercise restraint and not take measures that will escalate the situation,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Reflecting regional concern about Iran’s programme, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Cairo ‘cannot accept the appearance of a military nuclear force in the region’.
In a statement released after a meeting in Cairo with US Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, Aboul Gheit urged all sides to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iran issue.
Washington has said it wants a diplomatic solution to the dispute, but has left a military option open.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy dismissed talk of possible military strikes as ‘absolutely not topical’.
The Security Council has told Iran to halt all sensitive atomic activities and asked the IAEA to report on its compliance by the end of this month, prompting Mr ElBaradei’s one-day visit.
“I am going to discuss (bringing) Iran in line with the request of the international community, to take confidence- building measures, including suspension of uranium enrichment until outstanding issues are clarified,” Mr ElBaradei said.
‘WISHFUL THINKING’: “I would like to see Iran ... come to terms with the request of the international community,” he said on arrival in Tehran early on Thursday, shortly after President Ahmadinejad made his remarks.
Mr ElBaradei met Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, who told state television afterwards: “The discussions were very serious and we brought up many, many topics. We also complained about their (IAEA’s) performance.”
Mr ElBaradei later went into talks with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Diplomats at IAEA had cautioned against expecting any deal to emerge even before Mr Ahmadinejad’s latest defiant remarks.
“It’s wishful thinking to think Iran would shut down the nuclear process entirely now,” said a diplomat at the IAEA.
“They have obviously achieved a significant advance at the research and development level and want to present it as a fait accompli to strengthen their bargaining position with the West.”
Diplomats at the Security Council said the five permanent council members plus Germany would meet to discuss Iran in Moscow next week. But they said the council was unlikely to take action before receiving Mr ElBaradei’s report.
The level of enrichment needed for nuclear bombs is far higher than the 3.5 per cent Iran says it has achieved. Experts say it would take Iran two decades to produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb from its current 164 centrifuges.
But Tehran says it wants to install 3,000 centrifuges, which experts say could produce material for a warhead in one year. Iranian officials say the Natanz enrichment facility has capacity for 54,000 centrifuges. —Reuters
