Iran plans to expand nuclear activities

[Spring Onion]

Iran plans to expand nuclear activities

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 21 minutes ago


TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Sunday that Iran will expand uranium enrichment, in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution giving the Islamic Republic until Aug. 31 to halt the activity or face the threat of political and economic sanctions.

Ali Larijani called the U.N. Security Council resolution issued last week illegal and said Iran won't respect the deadline. "We reject this resolution," he told reporters.
"We will expand nuclear activities where required. It includes all nuclear technology including the string of centrifuges," Larijani said, referring to the centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium.
He said Iran had not violated any of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, and that the U.N. had no right to require it suspend enrichment. "We won't accept suspension," he said.
Larijani said the Security Council resolution contradicted a package of Western incentives offered in June to persuade Tehran to suspend its enrichment activities. He reiterated that Iran would formally respond to the incentives package on Aug. 22.
Iran has said it will never give up its right to produce nuclear fuel, but has indicated it may suspend large-scale activities to ease tensions with the West.
Larijani said the world should blame the United States and its allies for acting against their proposed package and seeking to deny Iran its rights under the NPT.
The United States has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains its program is peaceful and intended to generate electricity.
In February, Iran for the first time produced a batch of low-enriched uranium, using a cascade of 164 centrifuges. The process of uranium enrichment can be used to generate electricity or to create an atomic weapon, depending on the level of enrichment.
Iran said it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at its enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran, by the end of the year. Industrial production of enriched uranium in Natanz would require 54,000 centrifuges.
Hard-liners within Iran's ruling Islamic establishment have called on the government to withdraw from the NPT in response to the U.N. resolution, but the government has not heeded the call.
Withdrawal from the treaty could end all international oversight of Iran's nuclear program.

 

[Owais]

Russia to host Iranian nuclear energy delegation


MOSCOW (updated on: August 22, 2006, 15:25 PST): Russia will host a high ranking delegation of Iranian atomic energy officials this week as calls grow in the West for Tehran to be punished if it refuses to give up its nuclear ambitions, Russian news agencies said on Tuesday.

Itar-Tass said the delegation, including the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mahmoud Jannatian, will arrive in Russia later on Tuesday to visit the Kalinin nuclear power station around 300 km (200 miles) north-west of Moscow.

Russia is building a 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port of Bushehr. The $1 billion project is due to be completed in late 2007 and Russia expects to bid for several similar projects planned by Iran.

"The Iranian delegation plans to hold talks with our company on the pace of the construction and on preparations for its start-up," Tass quoted a spokesman for state company Atomstroiexport as saying.

The visit is expected to last until Saturday.

Interfax news agency quoted another Russian state concern, Rosenergoatom, as saying that talks will also cover training personnel for Bushehr at the Kalinin power plant.

The five permanent UN Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and Germany have offered a package of incentives for Tehran to suspend nuclear research and enrichment of plutonium, needed to make a bomb.

The council has adopted a resolution giving Iran until Aug. 31 to accept the deal or face possible sanctions.

Russia has so far opposed any sanctions against Iran, saying they would only stoke further defiance by Tehran. However, Russia has supported the UN resolution.

Russia also says its contract to build the Bushehr plant has nothing to do with the stand-off over Iran's nuclear project.

Tass quoted officials from the state agency Rosatom as saying the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, was expected to visit Russia later this month.

 

[Owais]

Iran set to reject key demand in atomic package




TEHRAN (updated on: August 22, 2006, 13:52 PST): Iran, due to reply on Tuesday to a proposal by world powers aimed at defusing a nuclear row, insisted it would not stop enriching uranium as they demand.

Refusing to suspend the work, which Iran says is aimed only at generating electricity but which the West sees as a disguised bid for atom bombs, would be tantamount to rejecting the package of incentives offered in return, Western diplomats say.

But refusal would not yet trigger immediate action by the UN Security Council, which passed a resolution last month giving Iran until Aug. 31 to halt enrichment or risk sanctions.

"We are not treating (Tuesday) as a deadline because it is not the Security Council deadline," one Western diplomat said. "If Iran flatly refuses to suspend enrichment, then there will, fairly soon, be more talks in the Security Council."

A senior Iranian official said Iran would hand a written response to the package, either to EU ambassadors in Tehran or more likely to Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, in Brussels.

Tensions rose further as diplomats close to the UN nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were denied access to an underground site under construction where Iran plans industrial- scale production of enriched uranium.

A senior diplomat said blocking inspectors this way could be a violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since the UN inspectors have a right to verify design information during the construction of a nuclear facility.

Iran denied hindering access to the Natanz installation for an International Atomic Energy Agency team visiting to gather information for an Aug. 31 report to the Security Council.

The United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia offered a package of economic and other incentives in June, aiming to persuade the Islamic Republic to stop work that the West says is helping build nuclear warheads.

Iran, which has denounced the deadline as illegal and worthless, said it would reply by the end of the Iranian month of Mordad, Aug. 22. The world's fourth largest oil exporter insists it will not abandon what it calls its right to enrich uranium for use in nuclear power stations.

IRANIAN HARD LINE

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in Iran, vowed on Monday that Iran would not be deflected from its pursuit of nuclear energy. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also been a vociferous opponent of compromise.

Other Iranian officials have stated plainly that Iran will not stop enrichment.

Iran has said its reply will be "multi-dimensional", suggesting no simple 'yes' or 'no'. Officials have also said Iran wants more talks to resolve the dispute.

Such an approach, say diplomats, could lay bare divisions in the Security Council where the United States, France and Britain back sanctions but Russia and China, the other two veto-wielding members and both key trade partners of Iran, oppose them.

"If they reject suspension, that's rejection of the package (for Western capitals)," said another Western diplomat. He added that Russia and China might take a different view.

"If they said suspension was negotiable, there would be pressure on (the six powers) to think about it."

Analysts say Iran is probably calculating that any move towards sanctions would start with modest steps, such as travel bans on officials or asset freezes, which it could tolerate because the country's coffers are brimming with petrodollars.

US President George W. Bush said on Monday the international community should "work in concert" over Iran. Washington has previously warned of swift UN action if Iran fails to meet UN demands.

United States says it wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff but has refused to rule out military action.