IRAN’S PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared progress on two fronts in his country’s nuclear programme, both of which were said by Western experts to bring Iran closer to a bomb.
Mr Ahmadinejad said yesterday that scientists had mastered the fabrication of fuel pellets from natural uranium, and had tested two new types of centrifuge used to enrich uranium, “with a capacity a few times higher than the existing centrifuges”.
The pellets are intended for use at a heavy water reactor being built at Arak that Iran says will be used to make isotopes for medical use.
Western governments say plutonium will be made at the Arak reactor and that the centrifuges are ultimately intended for weapons-grade uranium. Both plutonium and highly enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear bomb.
The announcement by the Iranian president, made at the formal opening of a fuel fabrication plant in the city of Isfahan to mark Iran’s official “nuclear technology day”, raises the stakes in future negotiations over Iran’s refusal to abide by UN security council resolutions demanding the suspension of uranium enrichment.
On Wednesday senior officials from the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China instructed the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to make contact with his counterpart in Tehran.
They also urged Iran to take advantage of the Obama administration’s stated readiness to hold direct talks.
In his speech, Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran had “always been for talks”, but on the condition that negotiations had “to be based on justice and respecting rights”.
The remarks echo a formula frequently used by the Iranian leadership that make progress in negotiations conditional on basic changes in US foreign policy.
Arrangements are now being discussed between Brussels and Tehran to set up a new round of face-to-face talks on proposals to provide economic and technical aid to Iran if it suspends uranium. However, there is little optimism about the chances of such talks succeeding.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Mr Ahmadinejad had been careful not to rule out talks ahead of presidential elections, which are due to be held in June.
However, he added: “An internal consensus has not been reached in Iran. There is a powerful minority that believes any opening to the US could undermine the regime.”
Since failed talks in Geneva in July, the Iranian nuclear programme has made significant strides.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in February that Iran had manufactured a tonne of low enriched uranium – enough, according to some estimates, to make a bomb if enriched further to weapons-grade purity.
If the advanced centrifuges mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad were perfected and used in large numbers, it would reduce the amount of time needed to make a bomb.
The possible alternative route to a nuclear weapon, using plutonium, is less of an immediate concern to the West.
The Arak reactor is not expected to become operational for at least three years, but IAEA inspectors are not being allowed access to it.