Iran Says Nuke Program Is Near Completion

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – President Ahmadinejad boasted Tuesday that Iran will soon have mastered the production of nuclear fuel, but he added the country was far from producing enough fuel to power its Russian-built reactor.

Iran has been locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. America and its European allies have been seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad claimed that the world had finally accepted that Iran has the complete cycle of fuel production – from mining uranium to enriching it to the level required for consumption in a nuclear power plant.

“Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

“Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle,” he said. He did not elaborate or give any example of the West’s accepting Iran’s enrichment capability.

President Bush said Monday there was no change in his position that Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment before there can be any dialogue with Tehran.

“Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. That focus is based on our strong desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence,” Mr. Bush said Monday.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said Iran would talk to the United States if it “corrects its behavior,” one day after Prime Minister Blair advocated seeking Tehran’s help in ending the violence in Iraq.

The Iranian leader did not define the scope of any talks with America or say if Iraq or the nuclear dispute would be on the agenda of such discussions.

America and some of its allies allege that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its program is peaceful and for generating electricity.

Uranium enrichment at low levels can be used to produce fuel to generate electricity but at higher levels can be use to make atomic bombs.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have found unexplained plutonium and enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week’s IAEA meeting, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency’s attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.

The four-page report made available to The Associated Press also confirmed that Iran has continued uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

Iran has said it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. Officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades.

The Iranian leader said he hoped “to hold the big celebration of Iran’s full nuclearization in the current year.” Iran’s current calendar year ends on March 20.

Though Mr. Ahmadinejad did not specify, he appeared to indicate that Iran was on the verge of proficiency in the whole cycle of nuclear fuel – from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel.

But the Iranian leader acknowledged that his country still had a long way to go before it could produce amounts of enriched uranium sufficient to power the reactor it has built at Bushehr, southern Iran, with Russian technical assistance. The reactor is due to come on stream next year.

“We need time to produce enough fuel for one complete nuclear power plant,” he said.

Since revelations more than three years ago of a covert uranium enrichment program, Iran has moved to develop its capabilities, activating two small experimental enrichment plants and enriching small amounts of uranium to nuclear fuel level. Although that is far short of the weapons grade uranium that could be used for nuclear warheads, international concerns about Tehran’s ultimate intentions led the Security Council to set an Aug. 31 deadline for an enrichment moratorium – which Tehran has ignored. Officials have said they plan to have 3,000 centrifuges operating by next year – enough to make enough material for several nuclear weapons a year.

Suspicions also are focused on Tehran’s construction of a heavy water reactor that – when completed in the next decade – will produce plutonium waste, another pathway to nuclear weapons.

The IAEA declined comment on the Iranian president’s remarks.

The Bush administration, frustrated by U.N. Security Council inaction on sanctions against Iran, is pressing a new agenda – trying to deny Tehran U.N. aid for a plutonium-producing reactor that could be used to make nuclear warheads.

Diplomats from nations on the IAEA board say America is lobbying for denial of Iran’s request for help on its Arak research reactor, where Iran says it wants to produce radio isotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer.

Seven diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information, told The Associated Press separately Tuesday that they believed that the 35 member nations of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog would deny Iran’s request when the IAEA meets next week.

But even a total denial of technical aid for Arak, while symbolically important, is expected to do little to slow the eventual completion of the reactor, let alone Iran’s nuclear program. When finished – probably early in the next decade – Arak could produce enough plutonium for about two bombs a year.


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