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Iran steps up nuclear programme
27/01/2007 22:01 - (SA)
Tehran - Iran has started installing 3 000
nuclear centrifuges, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said on
Saturday, in a new sign Tehran was defying UN calls to halt a
programme the West fears is being used to make atomic bombs.
The UN security council imposed sanctions on Iran on December
23 and gave the Islamic Republic 60 days to suspend uranium
enrichment, a process which can be used to make fuel for nuclear
power plants or material for nuclear bombs.
Once Iran has 3 000 machines in place and running smoothly,
it could make enough material for at least one warhead in a
year. But Tehran says its aims are entirely peaceful.
"We are now installing 3 000 centrifuges," Alaeddin
Boroujerdi, head of parliament's foreign affairs and national
security committee, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA
news agency.
"Installing and using 3 000 centrifuges establishes Iran's
strength in nuclear technology," he said in comments to a
meeting of a conservative political grouping.
Boroujerdi's remarks followed reports earlier this month
from diplomats, who said inspectors from the UN watchdog, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had concluded Iran
was ready to start installing the centrifuges.
He did not give a date when installation would be completed,
only saying: "By God's will, it will done by the assigned date."
Diplomats close to the IAEA said it would take several
months to have all the machines in place and operational.
The United States has said Iran must suspend enrichment as a
precondition for talks on its nuclear programme and would face
tougher sanctions if it did not halt the work.
In Washington, the White House reiterated the US stance
that the installation of the centrifuges would be a "major
miscalculation" by the Iranian government.
UN sanctions imposed last month banned the transfer of
sensitive materials and know-how to Iran's nuclear and missile
programmes. The United States has also imposed sanctions on two
big Iranian state banks..
- Reuters
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