By Bob Drogin
Los Angeles Times (Excertps ) – Iran has steadily expanded its program to enrich uranium and defied a United Nations Security Council deadline for an immediate freeze of nuclear activities before it gains the capability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons, the UN nuclear watchdog agency said here yesterday.
The six-page report by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is almost certain to trigger moves by the Bush administration and its European allies for stiffer UN sanctions against the Iranian regime.
The Security Council voted unanimously in December to impose a 60-day deadline for Iran to stop a pilot program unconditionally that has begun small-scale uranium enrichment, as well as to stop construction of a heavy water reactor and installation of a much larger enrichment facility.
But ElBaradei’s report indicated the Iranians instead have pushed the program into higher gear since November. A senior United Nations official who briefed reporters said there had been no progress in resolving the IAEA’s major outstanding concerns.
"There is limited cooperation," he said. "In my view, it’s fairly limited."
Most significantly, the report confirmed that Iran has begun installation of 3,000 gas centrifuges in an underground facility at Natanz and plans to "bring them gradually into operation by May 2007."
If true, specialists here said, the facility conceivably could produce enough enriched uranium in a year for a nuclear bomb. Earlier this week, ElBaradei was quoted as saying he believed the facility would not be operational for another six months.
Iran insists it will only produce low-enriched uranium to fuel civilian reactors at electric power plants, but the international community fears the effort could be extended to produce weapons-grade material. Iran ultimately hopes to install 54,000 centrifuges, a facility large enough to fuel 20 bombs a year…
The focus now moves to the Security Council in New York, which is expected to meet next week to consider further actions against Iran.
Possible new sanctions could include a travel ban on certain Iranian officials, a prohibition against export guarantees and other financial support for Iran, and an expansion of the nuclear embargo to an arms embargo…
An Iranian dissident group said, however, Tehran was circumventing one facet of the sanctions resolution by renaming companies involved in Iran’s nuclear program and otherwise disguising them, or setting up new ones.
The National Council of Resistance in Iran said firms under sanctions that were renamed were the Farayand Technique Co. and the Pars Thrash Co. It identified new companies set up to work on Iran’s enrichment programs while avoiding sanctions.
All are headed by Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s atomic energy programs, and some employ others on the Security Council’s list of those involved in Iran’s nuclear program, said the group, the political wing of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, which advocates the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic government.
There was no independent confirmation of the information provided by the group, which the United States and the European Union list as a terrorist organization. But it has revealed past secret Iranian nuclear activities subsequently verified by the IAEA or governments.