UN: UN security council members have loudly criticised Iran's declaration that it has achieved significant progress in uranium enrichment in defiance of international demands for a nuclear freeze.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, yesterday said the council, which convenes on Iran at the end of this month, should take "strong steps to make certain that we maintain the credibility of the international community".
Russia and China, the two council members most sympathetic towards Iran, added their voices to EU governments and told Tehran its actions ran counter to UN decisions.
A security council statement on April 28th called on Iran to suspend all enrichment-related work within 30 days.
Senior officials from the five permanent members of the council will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to evaluate a response to the Iranian move. However, Moscow has warned against the use of force to deal with Tehran.
Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, said military strikes on nuclear facilities would create "a dangerous explosive blaze in the Middle East, where there are already enough blazes".
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, announced triumphantly on Tuesday that Tehran had joined "nuclear countries" capable of enriching uranium, but only for peaceful use in nuclear energy production.
Other officials said that for the first time, Iran had enriched uranium to the 3.5 per cent level in a cascade of 164 centrifuges.
If confirmed, this would be a big step towards mastering nuclear technology, but Iran could still be years away from producing highly enriched uranium needed for atomic bombs.
The Iranian announcement nonetheless raised the stakes in the nuclear dispute, exacerbating tensions already running high on reports that the US was preparing plans for possible military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.
"This is not a question of Iran's right to civil nuclear power," Ms Rice said yesterday. "This is a question that the world doesn't believe Iran should have the capability and technology that could lead to a nuclear weapon."
Diplomats in Europe said the Iranian move was designed to create facts on the ground: to underline Iran's determination to keep a small-scale research enrichment programme and the inability of the outside world to stop it.
A regime insider told the Financial Times recently that Iran's leadership had decided to seek a compromise, based on holding out for 164 centrifuges while carrying out industrial enrichment in Russia.
Until now, however, such a proposal has been adamantly rejected by the US and European governments, which have demanded that all enrichment activities be moved to Russia.
Diplomats were waiting for UN chief inspectorDr Mohamed ElBaradei, who was due in Tehran last night, to clarify what Iran had actually achieved.
Mr ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is due to report back to the security council at the end of the month on Iran's co-operation and compliance. The enrichment progress is part of a string of technological breakthroughs Iran has claimed in recent weeks. - (Financial Times service)