/ 21 February 2007

Iran vows to pursue nuclear programme

Iran vowed on Wednesday to press on with its nuclear-fuel programme, ignoring a United Nations deadline to freeze uranium enrichment or face broader sanctions, but offered to guarantee it would not try to develop atomic weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant as a 60-day grace period Iran had been given on December 23 to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel was expiring.

”We … will continue our work to reach our right [to nuclear technology] in the shortest possible time,” student news agency ISNA quoted him as saying in the town of Siahkal.

With the deadline running out, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been unable to verify Iran’s programme is wholly peaceful after three years of investigations, was expected to report to the UN Security Council by Thursday that Tehran was pursuing enrichment regardless of pressure to stop.

The West suspects Iran is trying to make atom bombs behind the facade of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Tehran says it wants only an alternative source of electricity so it can maximise oil exports and prepare for when oil reserves run dry.

”Obtaining this technology is very important for our country’s development and honour,” Ahmadinejad said. ”It is worth it stopping other activities for 10 years and focusing only on the nuclear issue.”

Ultimate authority on nuclear matters lies not with Ahmadinejad but with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But senior Iranian leaders have all ruled out halting nuclear work as a precondition for talks on trade benefits from the West.

The Security Council, which two months ago banned transfers of nuclear technology and expertise to Iran, would consider wider sanctions — such as a travel ban on Iranians linked to nuclear activity — if Tehran had not frozen enrichment work by February 21.

Top Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani said after talks on Tuesday with IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei that Tehran would give necessary assurances during negotiations that it would never divert enrichment into bomb making.

‘Dangerous situation,’ says Blair

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iran appeared bent on acquiring nuclear arms despite sending out conflicting signals in reply to sanctions and the US military build-up in the Gulf.

”The statements emanating from Iran are contradictory, but … their nuclear-weapon ambitions appear to continue,” Blair told Parliament in London. ”We need to keep up the pressure because it’s a very, very dangerous situation.”

The Security Council is not expected to take action before the next consultations of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors on March 5 to 9, leaving a little more time for dialogue with Iran, said a diplomat close to the Vienna-based IAEA.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Khamenei, told the French daily Le Monde that Larijani’s message to ElBaradei was that Iran was flexible on formulas for a negotiated deal, ”but one cannot dictate the solution in advance”.

Asked if Iran could consider a temporary enrichment halt, Velayati said, ”Mr Larijani is open to all proposals, bar none”.

Western officials have dismissed previous signs of Iranian flexibility as stalling while it strives to master enrichment technology at its underground Natanz complex, ringed by anti-aircraft guns against feared US assault.

ElBaradei has urged both sides to take a mutual ”time-out” to enable talks — Iran would suspend enrichment rather than accelerate it from research level to ”industrial scale” as planned at its Natanz plant, while sanctions would be suspended.

As a possible compromise to jumpstart negotiations, Larijani has suggested Iran could pledge to refine uranium no higher than the 4% to 5% level, sufficient for power-plant fuel but far below the 80% needed for the fissile core of bombs.

But diplomats and analysts have said there is no technical method to guarantee a cap on enrichment levels.

ElBaradei cites intelligence estimates that Iran remains four to eight years away from learning how to build an atom bomb, assuming it wants one, leaving ample time for a diplomatic deal. He says neither sanctions nor war could erase Iranian nuclear ambitions. — Reuters