Tehran - Amidst fanfare and in defiance of UN demands, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday announced that scientists had successfully enriched uranium at the Natanz plant in central Iran, calling it a 'historic achievement' for the country.
'Iranian scientists succeeded on April 9 in completing uranium enrichment at the required level for the country's nuclear fuel cycle,' Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Mashad in north-eastern Iran, carried live by state-television.
'This is a historic achievement for the Iranian nation and our scientists have now reached the height of science and technology,' the president said in a ceremony attended by local officials who interrupted the president's speech several times with chants of 'Allahu Akbar' - God is Great.
The move comes in defiance of the March 29 demand by the UN Security Council that Iran suspend uranium enrichment efforts within 30 days to ease international concerns that it is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Iranian officials Tuesday repeated past assurances that they would only use the enriched uranium to fuel the country's nuclear power plants that are being constructed.
'We are not after atomic bombs,' the president insisted in an earlier speech Tuesday.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran was 'moving in the wrong direction.'
The news 'only further undercores why the international community has serious concerns about the regime's nuclear ambitions,' McClellan was quoted as saying by Bloomberg financial news agency. The spokesman was travelling with US President George Bush to Missouri.
UN Security Council members in New York declined comment.
Ahmadinejad vowed to continue cooperation with the UN's nuclear oversight panel, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and to allow IAEA supervision of the country's nuclear sites.
But the president stressed that Iran would not retreat from its right acknowledged within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
'We will continue this technology until having reached the necessary capacity to provide our nuclear power plants with fuel,' the president said.
Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran had always, and would always, seek peace with the rest of the world but warned the West against any pressure.
'We sincerely advise the West not to repeat the bitter experiences of the past and respect the internationally acknowledged right of Iran (to pursue nuclear technology),' he said, referring to a similar scenario with Iraq which eventually led to war.
Vice-President Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh spoke before the president took the podium, giving details of the Natanz achievement. The first unit of converted uranium (UF6) was enriched at a scale of 3.5 per cent for industrial use, said Aqazadeh, who is also head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.
Aqazadeh held up several stainless steel canisters, saying they contained the first yellow cake, as the material is known, that had been produced. After he spoke, two groups of costumed celebrants ran through the auditorium and up onto the stage, praising Allah and holding up the canisters.
The Security Council failed to agree on consequences if Iran defies its demands, and last week, Washington indicated it may act on its own, possibly by tightening economic sanctions against the country and expanding international efforts to halt the transport of nuclear materials and other technologies that could lead to the production of atomic weapons.
I heard the speech Of presedent Ahmadi nejad yesterday live in the cnn.In which he was seaking of the islamic resolution and the iranian nuclear technology for peace process.and that they have successfully enriched uranium.
My mother is an iranian and my father is a pakistani. I was surprised to hear loud roars of Marg bar Amrika and marg bar israel (may america and israel die)and it was live broadcasted in the cnn but it wasnt translated wooooowww.
while the pakistani government is so scared os america that President musharraf is almost the servant of america and many other muslim coutries have the same type of government. May Allah give them Islamic govenmaents like iran.
Ameeeen :brother:
I try to keep a balanced view on such things, but Iran is sitting on something 9% of the worlds oil reserves, which are expected to last longer than those in Saudi. What on earth do they need "peaceful" nuclear power for? Even in the West many don't want it and in my country, the UK, there is an active debate as to whether we should replace nuclear power stations at all as they are de-commissioned.
Based on the evidence, I simply don't believe them - they want the Bomb. And if they keep trying to get it an Israeli and American response is inevitable. Mahmoud has publically called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". OK, I agree that was more of a political stunt than a serious threat, but I doubt an Israeli government would take the chance. If I was an Israeli citizen, I certainly wouldn't want them to.
I try to keep a balanced view on such things, but Iran is sitting on something 9% of the worlds oil reserves, which are expected to last longer than those in Saudi. What on earth do they need "peaceful" nuclear power for? Even in the West many don't want it and in my country, the UK, there is an active debate as to whether we should replace nuclear power stations at all as they are de-commissioned.
Based on the evidence, I simply don't believe them - they want the Bomb. And if they keep trying to get it an Israeli and American response is inevitable. Mahmoud has publically called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". OK, I agree that was more of a political stunt than a serious threat, but I doubt an Israeli government would take the chance. If I was an Israeli citizen, I certainly wouldn't want them to.
People didn't take Hitler serious either when he said he was gonna take the Rhineland. You can't afford those type of chances.
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