iSafa
11 Apr 2006, 05:01 PM
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it had produced low-grade enriched uranium suitable for power stations and wanted to achieve industrial-scale production, setting itself on a collision course with the West.
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.
The United States, which has been leading the charge against Iran, said Tehran was "moving in the wrong direction" with its nuclear programme and if it persisted, Washington would discuss possible next steps with the U.N. Security Council.
"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," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised address.
"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.
Sanctions threat
So what happens next?
Mr ElBaradei will report back to the Security Council around the end of this month. He will presumably have to say that Iran has failed to suspend its enrichment as called for in the council statement last month.
Iran's announcement was timed to coincide with ElBaradei's visit
The council said that a suspension was necessary to help restore confidence in Iran's intentions, which were severely shaken by the discovery in 2002 of a secret enrichment programme going back some 18 years.
The council will then have to consider its next move. There will be those like the US, the UK and France who will call for the threat of sanctions.
However, Russia and China, which both hold vetoes, are against sanctions, partly because they do not think they will be effective and partly because of their own relations with Iran.
If the council is inactive, the European Union is likely to consider joining the United States, which has imposed trading restrictions on Iran, especially against investment in its oil industry, formalised in an Act of Congress in 1996.
However, the EU is unlikely go that far.
Its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has drawn up a list of possible measures, including travel restrictions on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear work, restrictions on dual-use technology that could have military applications, a ban on Iranian students studying certain sciences at EU universities and possibly a ban on export credits for some companies trading with Iran.
All that, though, has yet to be decided.
Protracted confrontation
In the meantime, Iran will presumably carry on with enrichment.
So far it has used only a cascade of 164 centrifuges to produce small amounts of enriched uranium. This is obtained by spinning uranium gas until the key parts have been separated.
The process is stopped at a certain point for nuclear power fuel but goes on if nuclear bomb material is sought.
To make quantities sufficient for any use, Iran would need to master the technology of using thousands of centrifuges, a plant for which is being built next to the pilot project at Nathan.
If it goes ahead with that effort, and that could take many months, if not two or three years, the confrontation will go to an even higher level.
There is already talk of the US planning a military strike against Iran, even if at this stage it appears to be contingency thinking only.
Iran says it is simply carrying out the rights it has under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
link (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-11T194252Z_01_OLI128256_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NUCLEAR-IRAN.xml)
link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4901406.stm)
soo, what do you think ?
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.
The United States, which has been leading the charge against Iran, said Tehran was "moving in the wrong direction" with its nuclear programme and if it persisted, Washington would discuss possible next steps with the U.N. Security Council.
"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," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised address.
"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.
Sanctions threat
So what happens next?
Mr ElBaradei will report back to the Security Council around the end of this month. He will presumably have to say that Iran has failed to suspend its enrichment as called for in the council statement last month.
Iran's announcement was timed to coincide with ElBaradei's visit
The council said that a suspension was necessary to help restore confidence in Iran's intentions, which were severely shaken by the discovery in 2002 of a secret enrichment programme going back some 18 years.
The council will then have to consider its next move. There will be those like the US, the UK and France who will call for the threat of sanctions.
However, Russia and China, which both hold vetoes, are against sanctions, partly because they do not think they will be effective and partly because of their own relations with Iran.
If the council is inactive, the European Union is likely to consider joining the United States, which has imposed trading restrictions on Iran, especially against investment in its oil industry, formalised in an Act of Congress in 1996.
However, the EU is unlikely go that far.
Its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has drawn up a list of possible measures, including travel restrictions on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear work, restrictions on dual-use technology that could have military applications, a ban on Iranian students studying certain sciences at EU universities and possibly a ban on export credits for some companies trading with Iran.
All that, though, has yet to be decided.
Protracted confrontation
In the meantime, Iran will presumably carry on with enrichment.
So far it has used only a cascade of 164 centrifuges to produce small amounts of enriched uranium. This is obtained by spinning uranium gas until the key parts have been separated.
The process is stopped at a certain point for nuclear power fuel but goes on if nuclear bomb material is sought.
To make quantities sufficient for any use, Iran would need to master the technology of using thousands of centrifuges, a plant for which is being built next to the pilot project at Nathan.
If it goes ahead with that effort, and that could take many months, if not two or three years, the confrontation will go to an even higher level.
There is already talk of the US planning a military strike against Iran, even if at this stage it appears to be contingency thinking only.
Iran says it is simply carrying out the rights it has under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
link (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-11T194252Z_01_OLI128256_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NUCLEAR-IRAN.xml)
link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4901406.stm)
soo, what do you think ?