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Iran tells UN of enrichment plan

Posted on: Tue February 09, 2010

TEHRAN: Iran said on Monday it has formally told the UN nuclear watchdog of its plan to produce higher enriched uranium, sparking fresh warnings by world powers of new sanctions against the defiant Islamic republic.    

 Iran s official letter about commencing the 20 per cent enrichment activity in order to provide fuel for the Tehran reactor has been handed over to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the state-owned Arabic language Al-Alam television from Vienna.    

Iran s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced late on Sunday that Tehran would begin enriching uranium to 20 per cent from Tuesday, and that the IAEA would be informed of its decision beforehand.    

The announcement was met with a sharp riposte on Monday from world powers, which fear that Iran s nuclear enrichment programme masks a bid to make atomic weapons, despite Tehran insisting its purpose is entirely peaceful.    

French Defence Minister Herve Morin warned after meeting his US counterpart Robert Gates in Paris that both countries will push for new UN sanctions against Iran. We spoke about Iran. Our positions are in complete agreement, Morin told reporters at a joint appearance. We have no choice but to work on other measures.     

Gates, whose aides said earlier the United States would ask France to submit a sanctions motion at the council, which it currently chairs, said: We are very much agreed that action by the international community is the next step.     

Ehud Barak, defence minister of Israel which is widely believed to be the Middle East s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power, told a meeting of his Labour party that new sanctions were needed.    

He said Tehran s enrichment decision was further proof that Iran is deceiving the whole world and the correct response is to begin a determined campaign of decisive and permanent sanctions against Iran.     

Neither the United States nor Israel has ruled out taking military action against Iran s nuclear facilities.     French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile, insisted that Iran does not have the ability to enrich uranium to 20 per cent and accused Tehran of blackmail.     

The Iranians do not know how to make fuel for their existing medical reactor, he told reporters in Paris. For what purposes do they want to enrich it to 20 per cent?      Iran s announcement is really blackmail. One could call it diplomacy, but if that is what is then it is truly negative, Kouchner said.    

Doubts have also been expressed that Iran has mastered the enrichment process sufficiently to be able to produce the fuel it needs. They can t manufacture the fuel assemblies, said one diplomat close to the IAEA in Vienna.    

Karim Pakzad, at the IRIS institute for strategic and international relations in Paris, saw President Mahmoud Ahaminejad s move as a bluff, because the Iranian government is weakened domestically.     

On the domestic scene, Iran s opposition criticised Ahmadinejad s handling of the crisis. On the nuclear issue, which influential nation do we have on our side? Mir Hossein Mousavi asked in a talk to university students, his website kaleme.org reported on Monday.    

 Unlike you, we do not agree to proceed with an adventurist policy, to insult them one day and smile at them the next, he said. The opposition seeks relations with others based on our national interest without any extremism.     

Germany and Britain on Monday warned of fresh sanctions, while Russia, a close ally of Iran, reiterated that Iran should send its uranium abroad for higher enrichment in line with a UN-brokered deal.    

Salehi s announcement of plans to enrich uranium to 20 per centthe level required for reactor fuelcame just hours after he was ordered on Sunday to do so by Ahmadinejad.     The higher enrichment will begin at the Natanz plant from the day after tomorrow (Tuesday), Salehi said.    

Iran s main uranium enrichment facility is in the central city where it has continued sensitive atomic work defiantly for years despite three rounds of UN sanctions.     In a separate comment to the official IRNA news agency, Soltanieh said Iran s letter to the IAEA invited the agency s inspectors to be present at the site, since all nuclear activities of the Islamic republic are under the IAEA supervision. Salehi, however, said Tehran would stop further enrichment if the long-negotiated UN-drafted deal with world powers is concluded.

Courtesy : The News