TEHRAN (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced yesterday that Iran is running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuclear program — a long-sought Iranian goal that adds new urgency to U.S.-led efforts to impose tougher sanctions on the hard-line Islamic republic.
The president’s assertion is sharply at odds with the assessment of the U.N. nuclear-monitoring organization, which Thursday put the number of centrifuges considerably lower, at close to 2,000. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said enrichment had slowed and that Iran was cooperating with its investigation.
“The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday, in remarks carried by the state television network, “but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week.”
Iran said in April that it was operating 3,000 centrifuges, but the IAEA said at the time that Iran had only 328 centrifuges going at its underground enrichment facility at Natanz, in central Iran 200 miles south of Tehran.
In the latest report, drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the organization said 650 centrifuges were being tested in addition to the 2,000 it had confirmed.
The IAEA said it had found an increased willingness by the Iranians to answer questions after years of stonewalling. The Bush administration has pushed the case that Iran must do more, including a suspension of the processing of uranium used in nuclear arms. Mr. Ahmadinejad’s announcements were taken to mean that he disagrees with the U.N. about what he is doing.
The U.N. Security Council has so far adopted two sets of sanctions targeting Iranian people and businesses involved in the country’s nuclear and missile programs. The resolutions ordered other nations to stop supplying Iran with sensitive materials and technology.
Iran’s clearly stated goal for the Natanz facility, the only site now open to full IAEA monitoring, is to run 54,000 centrifuges — enough for dozens of nuclear weapons a year. Uranium gas, spun in linked centrifuges, can result in either low-enriched fuel suitable to generate power, or in “weapons-grade” material that forms the core of nuclear warheads.
The United States insists Iran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. The Iran government says it only wants to master the technology to meet future civilian power needs and argues it is entitled to enrich uranium under a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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