Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was set to irk Western powers again on Monday by announcing a stride forward in his country’s atomic drive as it marked the first Iranian national day of nuclear technology.
Just days after Iran released 15 British sailors to end a potentially dangerous stand-off with London, Ahmadinejad was to make a keynote speech at about noon at the country’s most sensitive nuclear site in Natanz.
”Today the president will tell of a great nuclear development at the Natanz celebration,” the government newspaper Iran said in an article entitled ”The last nuclear phase”.
This prediction was echoed by state television, which was repeatedly flagging ”the announcement of good news by Ahmadinejad” in his speech, although no official details have yet emerged over the substance of the announcement.
Any major announcement that Iran is nearing an industrial-scale enrichment of nuclear fuel is likely to strain further tensions with the West, which fears Iran is seeking atomic weapons and wants Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
But the Islamic republic insists its nuclear drive is solely aimed at supplying energy for a growing population.
Iran’s stated aim is to install 3 000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at a massive underground hall at the Natanz plant, and local media have speculated that the announcement will focus on progress towards this goal.
”What is the good news? Iran’s acquisition of the production of nuclear fuel on a semi-industrial scale,” the reformist daily Etemad Melli said.
Tehran originally wanted to have the 3 000 installed by March, but so far it has officially confirmed only that it has put in place two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece.
No suspension
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, signalled that Tehran is in no mood to suspend uranium enrichment, a sensitive process that can be used both in making nuclear fuel and atomic bombs.
”We are ready to negotiate and reach an understanding with Western countries in order to allay their worries, but not to close down our scientific programme,” he said, according to the Mehr news agency.
The nuclear day marks the first anniversary of Iran’s production of uranium sufficiently enriched to make nuclear fuel, and was being marked by a string of events at key installations across the country.
State-run bus and metro travel in Tehran was made free for the day in celebration, and bells at Iranian schools were rung in unison at 9am local time, state television reported.
The government sent out SMSs to Iranians to congratulate them over the nuclear celebrations, the Isna news agency reported.
A human chain of 15 000 members of Iran’s volunteer Basij militia was to surround another key nuclear facility outside the central city of Isfahan and a similar event was to be held at the heavy water plant in Arak.
More than 100 people gathered outside Iran’s atomic energy agency organisation headquarters in Tehran, burning United States and British flags. ”Nuclear energy will flow like blood through every minute vein of Iran,” read one placard.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are at least 1 000 centrifuges in Natanz at different stages of installation, but only about one-third have yet been fed with uranium hexafluoride gas feedstock.
The United Nations Security Council has already imposed two packages of sanctions against Iran over its failure to heed ultimatums from the world body to suspend uranium enrichment.
Last April, Iran announced it had succeeded in enriching uranium to 3,5%, good enough for nuclear fuel but still well off the 90% levels required to make an atomic weapon.
Larijani also reiterated previous warnings that continued Western pressure on its nuclear programme could affect Iran’s cooperation over its commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
”If they want to take the path of tension, they should know they will be faced with Iran’s serious reaction, and the continuation of this policy would challenge the NPT,” he said. — Sapa-AFP