Iran
claims nuclear project breakthrough
Sun. 30 Apr 2006
The Sunday Telegraph
By Philip Sherwell in New York
Iran is developing an advanced centrifuge that would allow it to
accelerate its controversial uranium enrichment programme, a senior
official told state television yesterday.
Mohammad Saidi, the vice-president of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organisation, made the claim a day after the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had ignored a United
Nations ultimatum to end enrichment work.
A more sophisticated breed of centrifuge would allow scientists to
speed up purification of uranium towards the 90 per cent level
required for bomb-making. They recently achieved an initial
enrichment level of 3.6 per cent - the purity required to generate
electricity. "We have told the agency [IAEA] that we are studying
and conducting research on different types of machines," Mr Saidi
said. "We cannot limit ourselves when we have an enrichment
programme."
His comments were supported by a television interview with
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's nuclear chief. "As for more advanced
machines - we indeed have plans to develop such machines," he said.
"Having the advanced type of centrifuges and the new technology
enables one to multiply production."
Britain will this week introduce a draft resolution at the UN
Security Council for a mandatory order to Iran to halt enrichment
after it ignored Friday's deadline to cease the work voluntarily.
But diplomatic deadlock looms as Russia and China say that they
will veto any moves to impose sanctions or enforce action against
Iran.
Teheran snubbed requests by the IAEA for an explanation of recent
claims by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Iran's centrifuge
operations. The hard-line leader revealed that Iran was conducting
research on the P2 centrifuge, based on technology acquired from
the secret network of A Q Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear
scientist - even though Teheran had long insisted that it had
abandoned such work.
In referring to even more sophisticated centrifuges, Mr Saidi may
have been alluding to the P3, which Pakistan is known to have
developed.
The Sunday Telegraph was last week supplied by the main exiled
opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI), with a detailed breakdown of locations, scientists and
front companies involved in building the P2.
The work is focused on two sites - at Ab-e Ali, in northern
Teheran, and in secret underground facilities at the Natanz
enrichment plant. Testing on P2 prototypes is being conducted at
Ab-e Ali, in two huge workshops, under the guidance of Chinese and
North Korean nuclear experts, according to the NCRI, which revealed
the existence of Iran's clandestine nuclear programme in
2002.
The successful construction of P2 centrifuges would be a giant leap
for the regime's nuclear ambitions as they would quadruple the
enrichment speed of the present P1 machines.
A country that masters enrichment will have the capacity to
manufacture nuclear weapons. Teheran says its programme is a
peaceful effort to generate electricity, but the West is convinced
that it is secretly trying to build an atomic bomb.
After disclosing details of Iran's P2 programme, Maryam Rajavi, the
NCRI leader, told The Sunday Telegraph: "There is no doubt that the
clerical regime is only interested in deceiving the world community
and the IAEA, in order to buy time and obtain nuclear weapons.
There is no room for appeasement toward this regime."
Mr Ahmadinejad insisted yesterday that Teheran would "never"
renounce its nuclear programme. "Iran's decision to master nuclear
technology and the production of nuclear fuel is
irreversible."
Other officials said that Iran would allow the resumption of full
IAEA inspections if its case was removed from the attention of the
UN Security Council, but the offer was viewed as meaningless by
Western officials.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, urged his Iranian
counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, to suspend uranium enrichment and
co-operate fully with the IAEA. But Russia remains opposed to any
punitive UN action.