AFP, November 6 – Iran again defied the international community over its nuclear programme, announcing it would soon embark on fresh nuclear fuel work and was seeking investors for uranium enrichment activities.
Officials said Sunday Tehran would be converting a fresh batch of uranium ore — the precursor step before enrichment — in a flagrant rejection of calls from Europe and the United States for Tehran to halt all such activities.
The state press also said the government had given the country’s atomic energy agency the go-ahead to look for foreign and domestic investors in uranium enrichment, even though this practice remains suspended.
The decisions appear a fresh sign of Iran’s determination to make full use of the nuclear fuel cycle, despite the international pressure to cease all enrichment-related activities as proof it is not seeking a nuclear bomb.
They come three weeks ahead of a meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog which could theoretically send Iran to the Security Council and amid mounting concerns about the direction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.
"The government is authorising the Iranian atomic energy agency to seek Iranian or foreign investors — from the public or private sectors — for the Natanz enrichment project," the press said, apparently quoting from an official directive.
According to the press, the decision was taken on Wednesday by the cabinet.
The central town of Natanz is the site of Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant, which is to host thousands of centrifuges which spin at supersonic speeds to enrich the uranium.
The enrichment process provides the fuel for civilian nuclear power stations but in highly enriched form the uranium can also be used to make the explosive core of a nuclear bomb.
Iran also said on Sunday that it will be converting new consignments of uranium at its plant outside the central city of Isfahan, after resuming this crucial part of the fuel cycle in August following a suspension.
"We have told the (International Atomic Energy) Agency that we are going to inject new initial materials (uranium ore) into the production chain," Javad Vaidi, an official from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state television.
Iran says it only wishes to enrich to the low-level purity required for reactor fuel but its enemies have accused Tehran of seeking to make a nuclear bomb.
European countries, led by Britain, France and Germany, had attempted to persuade Iran to permanently suspend uranium enrichment as a watertight guarantee that its nuclear programme was peaceful.
However the talks came to a shuddering halt when the Islamic republic in August resumed its uranium conversion activities, the precursor of enrichment.
Iran has vehemently maintained that its right to enrichment is enshrined under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a position reaffirmed on Sunday by foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
"We will never abandon our right to the nuclear fuel cycle," he told reporters, at the same time stating that "the door is open to discussions, nothing has been closed."
International concern about Iran’s nuclear policy of hardline Ahmadinejad’s administration has intensified after he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
On the horizon now looms the November 24 meeting of the IAEA, where the United States and Europe could call for Tehran to be hauled up before the UN Security Council if it does not halt all uranium enrichment related activities.
Previous attempts for such a move have foundered over the opposition of Russia and Moscow is once again expected to play a key role in November’s meeting.
Iran also moved to weigh the scales in its favour by last week allowing UN inspectors access to the Parchin military site, where Washington alleges Iran may be testing high-explosive charges with an inert core of depleted uranium.
