The Hindu : International : Iran set to resume uranium processing

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Friday, Sep 03, 2004

International

International

Iran set to resume uranium processing

By Ian Traynor

TEHERAN, SEPT. 2. Iran has told U.N. nuclear inspectors that it is about to process dozens of tonnes of raw uranium into the gas which centrifuges can turn into nuclear bomb material, a disclosure certain to reinforce U.S. arguments that Teheran is embarked on a secret atomic weapons programme

Confidential report

A confidential report by Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, supplied to diplomats yesterday and obtained by the London-based Guardian newspaper, says that Iran has recently told his inspectors that in ``August/September'' it would convert 37 tonnes of crude uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas. This is the gas spun at high speed through cascades of large centrifuges to be enriched, either to low levels for use as nuclear power station fuel, or to high levels for weapons purposes.

The news will encourage U.S.-led hawks to seek to punish Iran for its alleged nuclear ambitions. The U.S. Undersecretary of State, John Bolton, said: ``Iran's announcements are further strong evidence of the compelling need to take Iran's nuclear programme to the Security Council.

His email to the Associated Press news agency continued: ``The United States will continue to urge other members of the IAEA board of governors to join us in this effort, to deal with the Iranian threat to international peace and security.''

Last year Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment programme.

More sceptical diplomats following the two-year mystery of its nuclear project said the Iranians were entitled under their international commitments to process the uranium, that they had notified the IAEA well in advance, and that there was no evidence of them enriching uranium to levels required for a weapon.

Mr. ElBaradei's report is the prelude to a meeting of the IAEA's 35-strong board in two weeks' time at which the issue will loom large.

In recent weeks the war of words between Teheran and the U.S. and Israel on the nuclear issue has worsened. The European troika of Britain, France, and Germany, which has been trying to defuse the row by dialogue with Teheran, is also becoming suspicious of Iranian intentions. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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