Iran has achieved a landmark in its controversial uranium-enrichment programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, suggesting that the country now has 3 000 centrifuges fully operating.
”We have now reached 3 000 machines,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians gathered in Birjand, eastern Iran, in a show of defiance of international demands to halt the programme believed to be masking the country’s nuclear arms efforts.
Ahmadinejad has in the past claimed that Iran had succeeded in installing the 3 000 centrifuges at its uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz.
But Wednesday’s claim appeared to go further, with Ahmadinejad’s words and the tone and setting of his Wednesday speech suggesting he meant all 3 000 were running.
An official with knowledge of Iran’s nuclear activities confirmed that Iran does now have nearly 3 000 centrifuges operating at Natanz. But that official said it would take years for all the centrifuges to run smoothly without frequent breakdowns. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly about the sensitive programme.
The number 3 000 is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment programme that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full, industrial-scale programme that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons, should Iran choose to go the route.
Experts have estimated Iran would need only 1 500 centrifuges to produce one such warhead.
In Washington, the State Department could not confirm the accuracy of Ahmadinejad’s statement but said it is proof that that Iran is continuing to defy international demands.
”Generally, the Iranians have followed through on doing what they said they were going to do,” spokesperson Sean McCormack said. ”That isn’t to say that I am aware that they have reached the 3 000-centrifuge mark, but they have been very consistent in pushing toward the goals they have laid out for themselves.
”Whether it is 2 000 or 2 500 or 3 000 or 1 000 centrifuges, the irrefutable fact is that they are continuing to defy the international community, that they have refused the offers of negotiations and cooperation offered them,” McCormack said.
Centrifuges
When Iran first announced launching the 3 000 centrifuges in April, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Tehran had only 328 centrifuges up and running at Natanz’s underground facility.
In a recent report, drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency put the number of centrifuges working in Natanz at close to 2 000, with another 650 being tested.
Nobody was available on Wednesday for immediate comment from the Vienna-based agency.
But McCormack was also critical of the IAEA, saying the agency needs to go beyond examining past Iranian nuclear activities. ”The international community demands to know what is going on now and where Iran is headed right now. The IAEA is looking backward,” he said.
Uranium gas, spun in linked centrifuges, can result in either low-enriched fuel suitable to generate power in a nuclear reactor, or the weapons-grade material that forms the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
The US and some of its Western allies believe Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover for weapons development. Tehran denies this, insisting its nuclear programme is geared toward generating electricity, not a nuclear bomb.
US experts say 3 000 centrifuges are in theory enough to produce a nuclear weapon, perhaps as soon as within a year. Two rounds of UN Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to halt the enrichment.
Iran says it plans to expand its enrichment program to up to 54 000 centrifuges at Natanz in central Iran — which would amount to the level of industrial-scale uranium enrichment.
Rejection
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday reiterated his rejection of any suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities, or even a compromise over how Tehran will proceed beyond the 3 000 centrifuges.
”They say they’ve swallowed [bitterly accepted] these 3 000 and want to reach an agreement with us on what to do, at what speed, how many [centrifuges] a day or week,” Ahmadinejad said of latest Western pressures.
”Our response is: ‘Who are you to make comments about the Iranian nation … do we ask you how many machine you have?”’ Ahmadinejad added.
He also said he had bluntly refused a recent offer to negotiate with the US over Iran’s nuclear activities. ”I, as your representative, told those who brought the message that we didn’t ask for talks … If talks are to be held, it is the Iranian nation that has to set conditions, not the arrogant and the criminals,” he told the crowd.
”The world must know that this nation will not give up one iota of its nuclear rights … if they think they can get concessions from this nation, they are badly mistaken,” he concluded.
Iran says it is fully within its rights to pursue the enrichment to produce fuel under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. — Sapa-AP