Iran balking at IAEA demands
Published: April 11, 2007 at 9:19 AM
TEHRAN, April 11 (UPI) -- Iranian officials are resisting calls by the International Atomic Energy Agency to install monitoring cameras in an underground uranium enrichment facility.
The U.N. agency has told Tehran the surveillance was required at the facility in Natanz before uranium is loaded into centrifuges, and on Tuesday two IAEA inspectors arrived in Tehran to press the demand.
However, since the U.S. Security Council imposed sanctions on the country, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly said Iran would reduce its cooperation with the IAEA.
Monday, Ahmadinejad announced Iran had reached "industrial scale" enrichment of uranium and other officials scaled up rhetoric about the program, the Financial Times reported.
In an interview Tuesday with the state IRNA news agency, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Tehran would press ahead with installing 50,000 centrifuges.
"When we say we have entered industrial scale enrichment, (it means) there is no way back," he said.
Enriched uranium can be used to create nuclear power but it is also used in nuclear weapons, which Tehran claims is not the goal of its program.
The U.N. agency has told Tehran the surveillance was required at the facility in Natanz before uranium is loaded into centrifuges, and on Tuesday two IAEA inspectors arrived in Tehran to press the demand.
However, since the U.S. Security Council imposed sanctions on the country, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly said Iran would reduce its cooperation with the IAEA.
Monday, Ahmadinejad announced Iran had reached "industrial scale" enrichment of uranium and other officials scaled up rhetoric about the program, the Financial Times reported.
In an interview Tuesday with the state IRNA news agency, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Tehran would press ahead with installing 50,000 centrifuges.
"When we say we have entered industrial scale enrichment, (it means) there is no way back," he said.
Enriched uranium can be used to create nuclear power but it is also used in nuclear weapons, which Tehran claims is not the goal of its program.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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