Iran to go ahead with disputed atomic work

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times

Iran to go ahead with disputed atomic work*

From correspondents in Tehran

October 05, 2007 05:36am
Article from: Reuters

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said overnight Iran had overcome
difficulties en route to a nuclear energy industry and no one could stop
it, a day after France called for wider European sanctions to rein in
Tehran.

Diplomats said Iran had installed close to 3000 centrifuge machines,
enough to start refining usable amounts of nuclear fuel, but would need
to run them in unison at high speeds for long periods to attain that
threshold.

The UN nuclear watchdog director told the Financial Times newspaper on
Wednesday that Iran was feeding uranium into centrifuges for enrichment
at only 10 per cent of their capacity and remained "far from having a
nuclear weapon", assuming Tehran wanted one.

Western powers fear Iran's declared quest for nuclear-generated
electricity is a front for mastering the means to build atom bombs. They
sponsored two sets of UN sanctions against Tehran and are preparing to
draft harsher penalties.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner wrote to his European Union
counterparts urging them to explore widening financial sanctions on
Iran, saying the world could not afford to wait for UN action. Russia
and China have held up tougher UN steps.

"I announce to the whole world that the Iranian nation has passed the
difficult points (on its nuclear path)," Mr Ahmadinejad said in remarks
carried by Iran's official news agency IRNA.

"And no power can stop this nation from making more and more (atomic)
achievements," he said.

Previous remarks about an enrichment breakthrough by Mr Ahmadinejad,
including a proclamation in April of industrial capacity, have lacked
evidence and elicited scepticism abroad.

Diplomats close to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency
originally expected Iran to have 3000 centrifuges running by May or
June. But in July the IAEA reported a slowdown in the program which
continued at least into mid-September.

A French diplomat said UN inspectors now believed Iran would have 3000
operating by the end of October.

He said Tehran was still experiencing technical problems, and some
breakage, but the program was doggedly proceeding.

&uot;So much of this has been about political boasting, though," said an
EU diplomat accredited to the watchdog International Atomic Energy
Agency in Vienna, cautioning that forecasts of advances were linked to
what Iran told inspectors.

"Running a large number of centrifuges in parallel over a sustained
period at full speed - that would be a technical achievement they have
not thus far shown they can do."

Some diplomats and analysts believe Iran's slow enrichment pace has also
been politically motivated - to blunt US-led pressure for stiffer sanctions.

Six world powers agreed last Saturday to delay toughening sanctions
until November at the earliest to await an IAEA report on whether Iran
is carrying out a plan agreed with inspectors to clarify past secret
aspects of its program.

But, concerned Iran is buying time to perfect enrichment, the powers
have reiterated Tehran must suspend nuclear activity and permit
wider-ranging inspections as called for by UN resolutions to earn trust
and negotiations on trade benefits.