Iran has built a landmark 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday, despite international pressure to halt its atomic work. "We have now reached 3,000 machines," a defiant Ahmadinejad told a rally in the north-eastern city of Birjand.
Scientists say that in ideal conditions 3,000 centrifuges can make enough highly enriched uranium in a year's time for an atom bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in August that Iran had 12 cascades of 164 centrifuges (1,968) running simultaneously to enrich uranium and that 656 others were either under construction or being tested.
The UN Security Council has passed two rounds of sanctions to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to supply fuel for power generation or for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Iran has so far defied the resolutions, insisting it has a right to enrichment as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "Some people say implement the resolutions but we say the resolutions are based on a wrong report," Ahmadinejad told the rally.
"Iran will not give any credit to these resolutions." "They should know that the Iranian nation could not care less about the sanctions," the hard-line president said, vowing "these people will not retreat an iota from any of their rights, especially the nuclear rights."
Iran denies Western charges that it is trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme, and says it only wants to enrich uranium for civilian energy purposes.
The sanctions target Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but the United States which is spearheading international efforts to thwart Iran's atomic work has imposed a set of unilateral sanctions against Iran over its nuclear defiance and alleged support of terrorism.
Washington has blacklisted Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps and its elite Qods force, accused of arming and training insurgents in Iraq. It has also blacklisted major Iranian banks and urged European and Asian banks to halt their transactions with Tehran. Iran and the IAEA agreed on a timetable in August for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear programme.
The IAEA has been probing Iran's programme for the past four years but has so far failed to conclude whether it is peaceful or not.
The IAEA is poised to publish a new report this month on Iran's nuclear ambitions to serve as a key part of further discussions at the UN on whether to impose a third round of sanctions on Tehran. Although Washington insists it wants a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off with Iran it has never ruled out a military option. Iranian leaders have vowed a crushing response to any aggression, while hinting at a disruption in the flow of oil supplies through the strategic Gulf waters.