IRAN SAYS THEY ARE NOW A NUCLEAR STATE AND CAN NOW ENRICH URANIUM TO 80%
FEB 11 2010
Iran will start building two new nuclear enrichment sites in
the upcoming years, the Islamic Republic's Atomic Energy Organization chief
told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"Hopefully, in the upcoming Iranian year [starting in March], we will be
starting construction of one or two sites," Ali Akbar Salehi said.
Iran has one enrichment plant in operation.
The Tehran nuclear chief also said that Iran's newly launched 20 percent
nuclear fuel production was going "very well."
Salehi also said Iran had the capacity to enrich uranium up to a level of 100
percent -- above the level experts say is needed for a bomb -- but he said the
country had no intention of refining the material to that level.
"There is no limit on enrichment. We can enrich up to 100 percent ... We have
this capacity and capability. But we never had the intention and we do not
have the intention to do so, unless we need [to]," Salehi said.
Salehi said Iran's production of 20 percent nuclear fuel, which it says
started on Tuesday, would be limited to the needs of a Tehran medical reactor
of around 1.5 kg per month.
He also said Iran will have "good news" on improved nuclear enrichment
centrifuges in coming months, adding the construction of new enrichment sites
would start from March.
Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary
of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic on Thursday that the country
was now a nuclear state, but insisted that Iran had no intention to build
nuclear weapons.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian
nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the
charge, saying its nuclear program is just geared towards generating
electricity.
"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20
percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," Ahmadinejad said,
referring to the recently begun process of enriching Iran's uranium stockpile
to higher levels.
Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be
used to create material for atomic weapons if enriched further to 90 percent
or more.
"We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent
but we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it," the Iranian
president said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
Iran angers World powers over uranium enrichment
Iran announced Tuesday it was beginning the process of enriching its uranium
stockpile to a higher level. The international community reacted by starting
the process to impose new sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has said it wants to further enrich the uranium - which is still
substantially below the 90 percent plus level used in the fissile core of
nuclear warheads - as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that
provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing
cancer treatment.
But the West says Tehran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel
rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the
uranium to make nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's position that it was not seeking to build
nuclear weapons.
"When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe
in manufacturing a bomb," he told the crowd. If we wanted to manufacture a
bomb, we would announce it ... our nation has the courage to explicitly say it
and build it and not fear you."
MK Tzachi Hangebi, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
told U.S. officials in Washington that imposing sanctions on Iran isn't
Israel's only option, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.
Hangebi also emphasized that the leaders in both the Israeli coalition and
opposition have no difference of opinions regarding the Iranian issue.
Hangebi made the comments during the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's
meetings with White House officials in Washington.
In a telepone conversation on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad told Syria's Bashar
al-Assad that Israel should be resisted and finished off if it launched
military action in the region, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Thursday.
"If the Zionist regime should repeat its mistakes and initiate a military
operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once
and for all," he told Syria's Bashar al-Assad
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