Iran’s big “punch” at the west? Ahmadinejad claims Iran is now officially a nuclear state

ahmadinejadWhile I slept, all the violence in Iran was going on, the government shot at opposition protesters, killed some, and took others to jail. But what was the so called “punch” from Iran? Apparently it was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of higher-grade enriched uranium and declared that his country is now a “nuclear state,” although he continued to deny that Iran has any intention of building nuclear weapons according to the Washington Post.

Addressing a huge crowd of government supporters in central Tehran on the 31st anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad defiantly declared that the state’s uranium-enrichment facility near Natanz has produced an unspecified quantity of uranium enriched to 20 percent just two days after starting the process.

“We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or even 80 percent, but we don’t enrich [to that level] because we don’t need it,” Ahmadinejad said. Reiterating his denials of any plans to build nuclear weapons, he told the throng, “When we say that we don’t build nuclear bombs, it means that we won’t do that because we don’t believe in having them. The Iranian nation is brave enough that if one day we wanted to create an atomic bomb, we would announce it publicly and would create it.” Addressing Western powers, he added: “We are not afraid of you.”

Iran announced Monday that it would begin increasing the enrichment level of some of its uranium the next day, from a current maximum of 3.5 percent to 20 percent, ostensibly to provide fuel for a 41-year-old, U.S.-built research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Although it falls short of the 90 percent enriched uranium needed for the fissile material in nuclear weapons, the plan to produce 20 percent enriched uranium was met with swift condemnation from the United States and its allies, which began moving to impose tougher international sanctions on Iran. Three rounds of U.N. Security Council have been imposed on Iran for producing low-enriched 3.5 percent uranium, which Tehran has said it needs to fuel nuclear power plants.

Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran’s uranium-enrichment work “will continue until the needs of the country are totally met.” He went on to claim, without specifying amounts, that production of 20 percent enriched uranium would triple in the next few days.

However, Ahmadinejad’s remarks Thursday were contradicted by new U.S. assessments that indicate Iran is experiencing surprising setbacks in its efforts to enrich uranium. The assessments suggest that equipment failures and other difficulties could undermine Iranian plans for dramatically scaling up its nuclear program.

Former U.S. officials and independent nuclear experts say continued technical problems could also delay — though probably not halt — Iran’s march toward achieving nuclear-weapons capability, giving the United States and its allies more time to press for a diplomatic solution. In recent months, Israeli officials have been less vocal in their demands that Western nations curtail Iran’s nuclear program.

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February 11, 2010 · Filed Under Iran


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