Iran to press ahead with nuclear enrichment

Iran to press ahead with nuclear enrichment
By Gareth Smyth in Tehran
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: April 10 2007 10:40 | Last updated: April 10 2007 15:33


Two inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Tehran on Tuesday amid confusion over Iran’s nuclear programme a day after president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad announced the country had reached “industrial scale” enrichment.

A sceptical Russian foreign ministry released a statement saying it was “not aware of any technological breakthroughs in the Iranian nuclear programme”.

Although Iran has reduced its level of co-operation with the IAEA since the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions, the inspectors, who are on a routine visit, should be able to verify the number of centrifuges in operation.

The lack of specifics in Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s announcement had encouraged international speculation that Iran was making a political move designed to establish “facts on the ground”, possibly ahead of a nuclear deal with the West under which Iran kept a pilot enrichment scheme.

In an interview on Tuesday with IRNA, the official news agency, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, criticised the western media for reporting that Iran had effectively announced it had installed 3,000, a figure compatible with a research programme.

Instead, Mr Aghazadeh insisted that Iran would press ahead with installing 50,000 centrifuges, enough to generate fuel for its scheduled nuclear power programme.

“When we say we have entered industrial scale enrichment, (it means) there is no way back” he said. “Installation of centrifuges will continue steadily to reach a stage where all the 50,000 centrifuges are launched.

“I was concerned the foreign media would misuse the issue and pretend that Iran’s nuclear program would end up in installation of just 3,000 centrifuges.”

The apparently slow progress of Iran’s programme, monitored in reports from the IAEA , has for some time encouraged speculation that the centrifuges had been overheating and not performing well.

Jacqueline Shire, of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, which monitors Iran’s nuclear programme, said ISIS estimated Iran had installed around1000 centrifuges and would probably finish installing almost 3,000 by late May or early June.

But achievement of “industrial level” enrichment might be enough for Iran’s leadership to claim victory, even if it should compromise later.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Monday, shortly before Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s announcement, that Iran was,with the nuclear fuel cycle complete, ready to begin real negotiations.

Iran has long argued it would accept international limitation on its nuclear programme if its basic access to the technology were acknowledged.

But western countries, lead by the US, have argued that Iran cannot be trusted to enrich any uranium, as it might divert material into developing a nuclear bomb.

Iran’s nuclear programme has meanwhile been built up domestically by its political leadership as a nationalist cause, probably increasing the price Iran would seek in any negotiations.

In its report of Mr Aghazadeh’s interview, IRNA pointed out that Iran had become the eighth country in the world, along with Brazil, to operate the nuclear fuel cycle.

“Earlier, only the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council - Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States - plus Germany and Japan had a monopoly on nuclear fuel cycle” IRNA reported.