TEHRAN/WASHINGTON, 8 November 2007 — Iran has reached a key target of 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday, vowing to ignore UN resolutions calling for a halt to Tehran’s sensitive nuclear work. “We have now reached 3,000 machines,” Ahmadinejad told a rally in the northeastern city of Birjand.

In Washington, a senior US official said Iran has shown again it intends to press ahead with its nuclear program, in defiance of the world community, by announcing its latest move on uranium enrichment. “There’s a rational expectation, based on history, that they are indeed continuing to push forward on their nuclear program in defiance of the international community,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

He told reporters that he could not confirm Tehran’s announcement that it has reached a key target of 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, but said Iran has usually met its targetted goals. McCormack said, pointing out that the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had experts in Iran and would be issuing a report next week.

Scientists say that in ideal conditions 3,000 centrifuges can make enough highly enriched uranium in a year’s time for a nuclear bomb.

The Iranian president also said that the Islamic republic “could not care less” about UN Security Council resolutions aimed at halting Tehran’s nuclear drive. The IAEA confirmed in August that Iran had 12 cascades of 164 centrifuges (1,968) running simultaneously to enrich uranium and that 656 others were either under construction or being tested.

The centrifuges are located at an underground nuclear facility at Natanz in central Iran. Iran has so far defied international calls to suspend enrichment, the process by which nuclear fuel is made, as well as — in highly purified forms — the core of an atomic bomb.

Speaking at the rally, Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran would continue ignoring Security Council resolutions, which have imposed two rounds of sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend enrichment. “Some people say implement the resolutions but we say the resolutions are based on a wrong report,” he said.

“They should know that the Iranian nation could not care less about the sanctions,” Ahmadinejad said, adding that the Iranian people “will not retreat an iota from any of their rights, especially nuclear rights.” Iran denies Western charges that it is trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear program, and says it only wants to enrich uranium for civilian energy purposes. The sanctions target Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

But the United States has imposed a set of unilateral sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance and alleged support of terrorism. Washington has blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard corps and its Qods force, accused of arming and training insurgents in Iraq. It has also blacklisted major Iranian banks and successfully encouraged virtually all major European banks into cutting business with the Islamic republic.

However, Iran’s status as the world’s fourth oil exporter and OPEC’s second largest means it can not allow itself to become detached from the world economy. Iran and the IAEA agreed on a timetable in August for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear program.

The IAEA has been probing Iran’s program for the past four years but has so far failed to conclude whether it is peaceful or not. The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog is poised to publish a new report this month on Iran’s cooperation in providing answers that is to serve as a key part of further talks at the UN on whether to impose a third round of sanctions.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is also due to report to major world powers before mid-November on Iran’s willingness to give up uranium enrichment in exchange for political and trade incentives.

Security Council permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany, back the drive for a third Security Council resolution unless upcoming reports show “a positive outcome.”

Although Washington insists it wants a diplomatic solution, it has never ruled out a military option, with President George W. Bush raising the prospect of “nuclear holocaust” and “World War III” if Iran acquires atomic weapons.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday she would urge a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis in talks with Bush this week and that any further sanctions should be agreed by Russia and China, both major energy and trade partners of Tehran.