ISFAHAN, Iran: Iran announced further progress in its disputed nuclear program yesterday in a move likely to arouse fresh Western concern a day after world powers said they would invite Tehran to direct talks on the row.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying Tehran was ready for negotiations if they were based on respect and justice, announced Iran had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle and it had also tested new, more advanced machines for enriching uranium.
Speaking at the same televised event to mark Iran’s National Nuclear Day, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Gholomreza Aghazadeh, said it was now running 7,000 enrichment centrifuges. In February, Iran had said the number was 6,000.
Western analysts say Iran has in the past exaggerated progress to boost its bargaining position with major powers and a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was skeptical.
“It doesn’t appear that there has been any dramatic change in the progress of the program, except for some additional centrifuges being put in place,” said the diplomat, making a comparison to the last IAEA report in February.
It was also not clear how many of the total figure announced by Iran were actually enriching, the diplomat added.
The United States and its Western allies suspect Iran’s nuclear work is aimed at building bombs and wants it to stop enrichment activity, which can have both civilian and military uses. Iran denies the charge and rules out any halt.
Washington reacted cautiously to Ahmadinejad’s comments on Iran’s readiness for negotiations. US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday: “We want to engage Iran and we ... have said so very clearly and publicly, and so we wait for Iran to reciprocate.”
