Iran moves closer to confrontation with West over uranium

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran took his country closer to confrontation with the West on Sunday, ordering scientists to enrich Iran’s stockpiles of uranium to the higher level needed for nuclear power.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered higher uranium enrichment, raising the stakes in its dispute with the West, instead of agreeing to a UN brokered proposal aimed at defusing the crisis over Iran’s suspect nuclear program. - Reuters/File photo

Mr Ahmadinejad’s order was the culmination of a series of confusing statements by the regime in the last week. If it is carried out, it will scupper what was hoped to be a looming deal to transfer most of Iran’s uranium abroad for further processing. Many in the West want uranium processing to take place outside the country so that fears over a weapons programme are allayed and the country’s nuclear plans are better monitored.

European nations and America were already leading calls for more sanctions to be applied to Iran in the absence of a deal. Now if further enrichment starts, they are likely to put proposals to the United Nations security council soon.

Mr Ahmadinejad made his announcement with characteristic melodrama. In a speech filmed live for state television, he accused the West of “playing games” over the proposed deal and then turned towards Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, who was in the audience.

“I now ask Dr Salehi to start work on the production of 20 per cent fuel using centrifuges,” he said.

Like previous demands by Mr Ahmadinejad that his scientists build 20 new uranium enrichment plants, the stream of statements may be designed to rally support at home as much as to spread confusion abroad.

The wave of protest against his re-election last June has subsided since the country’s main cities were convulsed by demonstrations in December, but is heading for a new peak this week, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Opposition activists and exile groups are said to be organising an infiltration of government rallies planned for Thursday.

Under the deal, put forward in October by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran would transfer three-quarters of its uranium, currently enriched to 3.5 per cent, to Russia for processing to 20 per cent. It would be handed back as fuel rods that could be used only in a research reactor in Tehran.

Once enriched to 20 per cent, uranium needs to be further processed to 90 per cent for weapons purposes, but analysts believe Iran now has or is close to having the technical means to achieve that enhancement.

The total sum involved in the deal is significant as it would reduce the quantities still in Iran to below the level needed to build a nuclear weapon. For that reason, Iran’s negotiating partners have rejected the idea of handing over stockpiles bit by bit.

Last week, Mr Ahmadinejad appeared to accept the deal’s terms, but Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister, on Friday reiterated conditions that are unacceptable to the West, including allowing Iran to determine the quantities involved.

In his speech yesterday, Mr Ahmadinejad said: “We had told them to come and have a swap, although we could produce the 20 per cent enriched fuel ourselves. We gave them two to three months’ time for such a deal. They started a new game.”

This apparent decision to cross the line of further enrichment came in spite of meetings, described by Mr Mottaki as “very good”, with Yukiya Amano, the new head of the IAEA.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Ahmadinejad’s order would be “a deliberate breach of five United Nations Security Council Resolutions”.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German defence minister, said: “Today’s statement shows that farce is being played out just like we have seen in the past, that the outstretched hand of the international community has not only not been taken but pushed back.”

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said in Rome: “If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work.”

Popularity: 1% [?]