Iran Defies U.N. Nuclear Watchdog
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Shrugging off an ultimatum from the U.N. nuclear agency, Iran revealed Tuesday that it started converting tons of raw uranium as part of a process that could be used to make nuclear arms.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors unanimously adopted a resolution Saturday demanding that Iran freeze all uranium enrichment - including conversion - and warned it faced being taken before the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
Describing his country as a victim of "pressures imposed by the United States," Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazadeh said that of the more than 40 tons of uranium being mined for enrichment "some (already) has been used."
Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for generating electricity or to create highly processed uranium needed to make nuclear bombs.
Iran insists its aims are peaceful, and President Mohammad Khatami suggested his country would not bargain on enrichment. He said Iran was determined to exercise its right to peaceful nuclear technology - even at the risk of severing ties with the IAEA, thereby removing all international oversight.
"We will continue along our path even if it leads to an end to international supervision" of Iran's nuclear activities, Khatami said at a military parade in Tehran.
Iran is not prohibited from enrichment under its obligations to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But for months, it has faced international pressure to suspend such activities as a good-faith gesture.
A State Department spokesman said there was "no peaceful justification" for Iran's conversion of raw uranium into nuclear weapons ingredients.
"Iran is continuing its unrelenting drive to make nuclear weapons" and its defiance should come as no surprise, said spokesman Kurtis Cooper, who was with Secretary of State Colin Powell in New York for U.N. meetings.
Suspicions that the Iranian government might be striving to produce atomic weapons have risen since it was revealed almost two years ago that it had run a clandestine enrichment program for 18 years.
In announcing that his country had started conversion into uranium hexafluoride gas, Aghazadeh said the U.S.-led international pressure was meant to deny Iran access to nonmilitary nuclear technology.
"Tests are going on successfully" to make uranium hexafluoride gas, Aghazadeh said.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency had been "notified for some time about the conversion test" and was monitoring activities at Iran's Isfahan site. She said, however, that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei "continues to call on Iran, as did the board, to suspend such a test as part of their confidence-building measures."
Aghazadeh did not detail the stage of conversion, or the amounts involved.
A senior diplomat familiar with Iran's nuclear activities, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Iran apparently began conversion in late August but had stopped at a precursor of uranium hexafluoride.
He suggested the pause could be linked to indecision within Iran's leadership on whether to defy the IAEA board or give in and freeze all enrichment-related activities, including conversion.
Aghazadeh suggested Iran's course remained open, saying his government "will decide on the basis of our national interests" what to do.
Even before the comments by Aghazadeh, the large scale of Iran's project had heightened concerns that it was preparing for full uranium conversion at its Isfahan facility, going beyond laboratory testing.
The resolution passed Saturday by the IAEA's governing board demanded that Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment. It specifically expressed alarm at the conversion plans involving the more than 40 tons of raw uranium.
Converted into uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, more than 40 tons of raw uranium could yield more than 200 pounds of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium. Experts say that would be enough for five crude nuclear weapons.
The IAEA resolution, suggesting Iran may have to answer to the U.N. Security Council if it defied the demands, said the next board meeting, in November, would "decide whether or not further steps are appropriate" in ensuring Iran complied.
Iran says it is stopping short of enrichment. But the resolution also calls for a halt of related activities, including making, assembling and testing centrifuges - and producing uranium hexafluoride.
The resolution also recognized that nations have a right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
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I think Syria knows which way the bread is buttered and is withdrawing from
lebanon so they don't give us an excuse to put them on our hitlist
if Bush is re-elected...now Iran on the other hand, they're just ASKING
for it.
