TEHRAN, 3 September 2007 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran had achieved a key target in its atomic drive by operating more than 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges in defiance of world powers. His announcement came as Iran answers questions over its nuclear program to the UN atomic agency under a plan the watchdog’s chief Mohamed El-Baradei warned could be a “last chance” for the Islamic republic.
“They (world powers) thought that by issuing any resolution Iran would back down,” Ahmadinejad told Islamist students, referring to the two previous sanctions resolutions imposed against Tehran by the UN Security Council. “But after each resolution the Iranian nation took another step along the path of nuclear development,” he said, according to the website of state broadcasting.
“Now it has put into operation more than 3,000 centrifuges and every week we install a new series” of centrifuges, he said. The installation of 3,000 centrifuges has always been earmarked by Iran as the key medium-term goal of its nuclear program, a milestone it had originally hoped to reach by March.
However, a UN atomic energy agency report obtained by AFP last week said that Iran was still well short of 3,000 centrifuges. It said that as of Aug. 19 Iran had twelve 164-centrifuge cascades operating at its uranium enrichment plant in the central town of Natanz, or a total of 1,968 centrifuges. A further 656 centrifuges were under development, it added.
Diplomats expect that the timetable Iran agreed with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to answer outstanding questions over its atomic drive would avert further sanctions action for the next few months. The IAEA has welcomed Iran’s willingness to answer the questions as “a significant step forward,” but the United States has already expressed major reservations over the agreement.
The past UN resolutions have called on Iran to suspend enrichment without any conditions, a concession Tehran has always steadfastly refused to make, and the IAEA deal makes no mention of Iran halting the process. The Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday repeated warnings that Iran would “reconsider” its cooperation with the UN atomic agency if the Security Council imposed a third set of sanctions.
“If there is a new United Nations (Security Council) resolution we will reconsider our cooperation with the IAEA and we will study different options,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. He did not specify what the options were but top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has already warned that any further sanctions will render Iran’s cooperation with the agency “sterile
Baradei, however, warned in an interview to appear today that Iran may be missing its “last chance” if it failed to resolve the nuclear dispute by the end of the year. “By November, or December at the latest, we should be able to state whether the Iranians are keeping their promises. If they don’t keep them, Tehran will have passed by an important chance, perhaps the last,” Baradei told Der Spiegel.
Meanwhile, Iran has unexpectedly replaced the head of its Revolutionary Guards force, promoting an experienced war veteran to the top of the elite institution at a time of mounting tensions with the United States.
Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaafari, a commander from the 1980-1988 war with Iraq and an expert in strategic warfare, was appointed head of the Guards in a decree issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The former Guards head Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi was appointed a special military adviser to Khamenei in a move described by analysts as a well-earned promotion to an influential political position. The decree gave no reason for the change, which had not been anticipated and came two weeks after US officials said President George W. Bush was considering blacklisting the force as a terror group to block its assets.
