Ahmadinejad vows Iran will enrich uranium to higher levels

Al-Shorfa and wire services
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-12-05

A protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in front of the Iranian embassy in Caracas, Nov. 25. (Reuters/Laura Vera)

TEHRAN — Iran will adhere to its plans to enrich its uranium to 20 percent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Dec. 2, rejecting international attempts to reach a deal to cease enrichment amid fears that Iran’s objective is to build a nuclear weapon.

Negotiations with world powers have soured and Iran says it will build ten new enrichment plants. Civilian nuclear power requires uranium that has been enriched to about three percent, but weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to 90 percent.

Iran claims that its nuclear programme is entirely for civilian purposes.

Nations trying to negotiate a deal with Iran suggested that its uranium enrichment for civilian nuclear energy could be regulated if Iran were to send its uranium to Russia to manage the process. But Iran rejected the deal, saying it would only agree to a simultaneous swap of fuel within its own borders.

In his Dec. 2 address in Isfahan, Ahmadinejad said that the countries with which Iran is negotiating, the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia, known as the P5+1, had imposed too many conditions. He called a resolution passed last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "illegal," which condemned Iran’s development of a uranium enrichment site in secret.

In what it said was a response to the censure, Iran announced on Nov. 29 that it would build another ten uranium enrichment sites, although experts doubt the country has the resources to do so.

Ahmadinejad said Israel and the West could not "do a damn thing to stop Iran's nuclear work."

Russia, previously considered an ally of Iran, joined the vote at the IAEA headquarters, condemning Iran for covering up a second nuclear facility in the mountains near Qom. In return, Ahmadinejad criticised Russia on Dec. 1, saying it had "made a mistake" in condemning Tehran.

Existing UN sanctions are meant to prevent the flow of any items or technology that might aid Iran in enriching uranium or developing nuclear weapon delivery systems. The sanctions range from actual sales or supplies to dealings with named individuals.

Source:

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.