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Iran arrests people hired by CIA

Posted on: Mon February 08, 2010

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday ordered Iran s atomic chief to begin higher uranium enrichment, raising the stakes in a dispute with the West days after seeming to accept a UN-drafted nuclear deal.    

Ahmadinejad s declaration drew immediate fire from Britain, which said it was clearly a matter of serious concern, while US Defence Secretary Robert Gates called for mounting international pressure on the Islamic republic.    

In a speech at an exhibition on laser technology broadcast live on state television, Ahmadinejad blamed world powers for the stalemate over the nuclear fuel deal, but left the door open for possible negotiation over the proposal.    

 I had said let us give them (world powers) two to three months and if they don t agree, we would start ourselves, he said.

 Now Dr (Ali Akbar) Salehi, start to make the 20 per cent with the centrifuges, the hardliner told Iran s atomic chief, who was in the audience, referring to high-enriched uranium required as fuel to power a Tehran reactor.

Britain said that if Iran ploughed ahead with higher uranium enrichment, it would be in breach of five United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 Reports that Iran is planning to enrich some of their fuel to 20 per cent level of enrichment are clearly a matter of serious concern, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry said in a statement issued in London. Gates, meanwhile, called on the international community to stand united against Iran.    

 The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance of its intentions. The results have been very disappointing, Gates said after meeting his Italian counterpart Ignazio La Russa in Rome.    

 If the international community will stand together and bring pressure on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work. But we must all work together.     

Analysts called Ahmadinejad s comments an attempt to pressure Washington and drive a wedge between the six world powers, some of whom are still hesitant to back fresh sanctions against Tehran.    

 Ahmadinejad wants to put pressure on the West, especially the US. He was responding to those in the West who do not want Iran to strike a deal, Iranian analyst Mohammad Saleh Sadeghian told AFP.    

 I think that Iran prefers a swap deal over the option of producing the fuel of 20 per cent enriched uranium itself, he added.    

A Western analyst who asked not to be named said Iranian declarations such as Ahmadinejad s on Sunday were attempts to delay potential sanctions by dividing the six world powers without backing down on the nuclear programme.     

World powers fear that Tehran wants to enrich uranium to very high levels for use in an atomic weapons programme, and hence want to remove its low-enriched uranium (LEU) through the UN-drafted deal.     Iran insists its nuclear enrichment drive is purely peaceful.    

Tehran and world powers are locked in a stalemate over the UN-drafted deal, which envisages the Iran s 3.5 per cent LEU being sent to Russia and France for enrichment to 20 per cent and then returned as fuel for the Tehran reactor.

Meanwhile, Iran said on Sunday it had arrested seven people accused of stoking unrest after last year s disputed election, including some who were hired by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The arrests were reported before possible new anti-government protests on Feb. 11, when Iran marks the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah.

Opposition supporters have used such official occasions to try to revive their protests over the poll last June, which they say was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The authorities have rejected the vote fraud charge and portrayed the huge demonstrations that erupted after the vote as a foreign-backed attempt to undermine the Islamic Republic. They have made clear they will not tolerate more such unrest.

Western countries have dismissed allegations of meddling in Iran s internal affairs.

 Seven people organisationally linked to the counter-revolutionaries, the Zionist media and elements of the sedition have been arrested, IRNA quoted an Intelligence Ministry statement as saying, without naming them.

It said the detainees were also linked to a US- backed Farsi-language radio station and had received training in Istanbul and Dubai, for example in disrupting public order, spreading rumours and conducting sabotage.

Courtesy : The News