TEHRAN, 22 June 2004 — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that it was essential for the nation to master the nuclear fuel cycle, but again denied the country was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. “It is essential because if the Iranian people cannot” produce their own nuclear fuel, “they will be dependent on outside sources and if these countries decide not to supply us, our stations will be useless,” Khamenei said in a speech carried on state television.
The all-powerful leader, however, did not say when Iran would resume enriching uranium, an activity that is currently suspended in line with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA is investigating Iran’s bid to generate atomic energy, which the United States says is merely a cover for a weapons program. Iran denies the charge. The question of the nuclear fuel cycle is a serious concern at the IAEA, which fears it could eventually be used for military purposes.
Khamenei repeated the government’s assertions that this was not a risk. “Iran is not trying to make an atomic bomb, because it does not need this to unravel its enemies,” he said, employing a term commonly used to refer to the United States and Israel.
“It is by relying on faith, determination and unity that the people can defeat their enemies,” said Khamenei.
On Friday, the IAEA passed a British-French-German sponsored resolution that strongly criticized Iran for failing to cooperate enough with UN inspectors and calling for the probe to be stepped up and concluded within a few months.
The renewed pressure has sparked many officials here to call for a revision of ties with the IAEA, the international body charged with overseeing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“If the Europeans are in fact worried that we could have a nuclear weapon, we will reassure them: No, we do not want to have such weapons,” Khamenei said. “But if it bothers them that Iran masters nuclear technology and that this technology is home-grown, and if they want to oppose this, we say to them that the Iranian people will never accept the language of force,” he added.
The US holds that Iran, OPEC’s No. 2 exporter and world No. 2 for natural gas reserves, does not need nuclear energy.
Khamenei replied to this, saying “our enemies want our oil to run out so that we will be dependent on them.”
Russia is currently helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant at the southern city of Bushehr, but Moscow and Tehran have yet to agree on a fuel supply deal.
In the meantime, Iran has been pressing on with mastering the entire nuclear fuel cycle itself, a program that is technically permitted by the NPT.
Meanwhile, members of Iran’s now-dominant conservative camp are increasing their calls for the country to resume uranium enrichment and cease tough UN inspections in retaliation to yet more criticism from the IAEA.
According to top national security official and nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, Iran will soon decide its next step after being chastised by the UN nuclear watchdog for failing to ease suspicions over its atomic program. Rowhani has already suggested Iran could resume uranium enrichment activities, the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle that the IAEA had demanded be halted pending the conclusion of its inquiry into its program.
Although officials say resuming enrichment is not in immediate view, other retaliatory measures — such as resuming the assembly of centrifuges — do appear to be under consideration.
Many of Iran’s hard-liners want the leadership to take a much tougher line.
Measures proposed by some hard-liners include pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), refusing to ratify the NPT additional protocol allowing tougher inspections and getting back down to enriching uranium.
Each would provoke a major crisis with the IAEA, which in turn could decide to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for sanction. “We should continue our peaceful nuclear activities and the Majlis should not ratify the addition to NPT,” cleric and hard-line MP, Mohammad Reza Faker, told the student news agency ISNA.
“In our discussions with the Europeans and the IAEA, we committed ourselves to suspending enrichment in order to facilitate the job for the Europeans to close Iran’s case at the IAEA. But now, as they have not lived up to their part of the deal, it is time to take the country’s interest into account and to boldly go forward.”
