President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday ordered Iran's atomic chief to begin higher uranium enrichment, raising the stakes in a dispute with the West days after seeming to accept a UN-drafted nuclear deal.
Ahmadinejad's declaration drew immediate fire from Britain, which said it was "clearly a matter of serious concern," while US Defence Secretary Robert Gates called for mounting "international pressure" on Iran. Ahmadinejad in a speech at an exhibition on laser technology broadcast live on state television blamed world powers for the stalemate over the nuclear fuel deal, but left the door open for possible negotiation over the proposal.
"I had said let us give them (world powers) two to three months and if they don't agree, we would start ourselves," Ahmadinejad said. "Now Dr (Ali Akbar) Salehi, start to make the 20 percent with the centrifuges," the hard-liner told the atomic chief, who was sitting in the audience. Britain said that if Iran ploughed ahead with higher uranium enrichment, it would be in breach of five United Nations Security Council resolutions.
"Reports that Iran is planning to enrich some of their fuel to 20 percent level of enrichment are clearly a matter of serious concern," a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry said in a statement issued in London. US Defence Secretary Gates, meanwhile, called on the international community to stand united against Iran. "No one has tried more sincerely to reach out and engage with Iran than President (Barack) Obama," Gates said after meeting his Italian counterpart Ignazio La Russa in Rome.
"The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance of its intentions. The results have been very disappointing." "If the international community will stand together and bring pressure on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work. But we must all work together." The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which brokered the nuclear fuel proposal, offered no immediate comment on Ahmadinejad's latest remarks.
World powers fear Tehran wants to enrich uranium to very high levels for use in an atomic weapons programme. Iran insists its nuclear enrichment drive is purely for peaceful purposes.
Ahmadinejad insisted that world powers "unconditionally" accept exchanging Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) for high purity 20 percent enriched uranium to be used as nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor, which makes medical isotopes.
Ahmadinejad's statement comes just days after he indicated in an interview on state television last Tuesday that Iran was ready to send its LEU abroad for conversion into 20 percent nuclear fuel. ILNA news agency reported that foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that enriching uranium to 20 percent was Iran's "right and not in contradiction to the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty)" to which Tehran is a signatory.
Iran and world powers are locked in a stalemate over the UN-drafted deal, which envisages the Islamic republic's 3.5 percent LEU being sent to Russia and France for enrichment to 20 percent and then returned as fuel for the Tehran reactor.
Iranian officials have opposed this proposal, saying they would prefer a simultaneous exchange on Iranian soil, a plan rejected by world powers.
Ahmadinejad said Sunday that if the world powers "come forward and say 'we will exchange (uranium) unconditionally and cooperate on your reactors and medicine'... fine then we will cooperate" too. Salehi too emphasised that world powers have little time left to enter into a fuel deal with Iran. "If they do not enter this fuel exchange we have to be ready for 20 percent enrichment," Fars quoted him as saying.
He said Iran had "received messages" for the exchange and there was "optimism in talks... but not much time was left" for the world powers.