Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Tehran to expand uranium enrichment on industrial scale

Rice urges strong response from security council
· ElBaradei due to arrive for talks this morning

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Thursday April 13, 2006
The Guardian


The Iranian government said yesterday that it planned to go ahead with a large-scale uranium enrichment programme capable eventually of producing enough material for a nuclear bomb, delivering a further rebuff to the United Nations security council. The announcement came hours before Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, was scheduled to fly to Tehran.
The international community was still reeling from Iran's surprise announcement on Tuesday that its scientists had successfully enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said: "The security council will need to take action. It is time for strong steps

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said he was "seriously concerned" and that the Iranian decision was "deeply unhelpful". Even China and Russia criticised the move.
Mohammed Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's atomic energy agency, said yesterday that Iran would eventually install 54,000 centrifuges at the Natanz plant.

While it may be 10 years before they are installed and working efficiently, once they are up and running Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb within 25 to 73 days, according to analysts.

Mr Saeedi told state-run television: "We will expand uranium enrichment to industrial scale at Natanz." He said he had informed the IAEA, as required by international treaty, that Iran planned to install 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by the end of the year and that it would then expand to 54,000 centrifuges, though he did not say when.

Under the non-proliferation treaty Iran is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, but the west suspects its ultimate aim is to produce a weapon.

Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who acts as a spokesman for Iran, warned that pressuring Iran "might not have good consequences for the area and the world".

Mr ElBaradei arrives in Tehran early today. Whether he meets the supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, or the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or, lower down the leadership chain, one of the heads of the Iranian nuclear agency, will indicate how seriously the Iranians are about brokering a compromise.

Mr ElBaradei, who is due to fly out of Iran tomorrow, has to report to the UN security council by April 28 on whether Iran has suspended its enrichment programme.

Russia and China, both permanent members of the security council and holders of a veto, have until now been reluctant to impose even limited sanctions and, like the Foreign Office, are totally opposed to the use of military force. But both countries yesterday joined the US and Europe in criticising Iran's enrichment breakthrough.

Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the UN, issued an unusually strong message to Iran, criticising it over its decision to press ahead with uranium enrichment and calling on it to stop. China has close economic ties with Tehran, particularly as a big importer of Iranian oil. But he expressed opposition to military action.

Mikhail Kamynin, a Russian foreign ministry spoksman, was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as criticising the Iranian uranium move: "We believe that this step is wrong. It runs counter to decisions of the IAEA and resolutions of the UN security council."

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, warned against dramatising the situation and reiterated Moscow's opposition to military action.

The French government described the Iranian move as worrying, while the German government said it was a step in the wrong direction.