Iran forges ahead with nuclear centrifuges

TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Iran is pressing on with bringing new uranium-enriching centrifuges online despite U.N. sanctions, an Iranian government spokesman said Monday.

At a Tehran news briefing, spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said work was under way on bringing about 3,000 centrifuges into the nuclear enrichment cycle in the central city of Natanz, Iran's IRNA news agency reported.

He reiterated the government's stance the country has a sovereign right to develop nuclear electricity generation, and said it was open to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency.

"Iran is conducting all its (nuclear) activities under the supervision of inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Elham said.

Late in December, the U.N. Security Council authorized economic sanctions against the country for its nuclear program many countries fear is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.