Posts Tagged ‘Tehran’
Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Tehran/Vienna, Feb 9 (DPA) Iran Tuesday started the 20-percent uranium enrichment process, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization said.
‘The process started in the research hall in the Natanz plant and a cascade of 164 centrifuges have been prepared for the 20-percent enrichment process,’ Ali-Akbar Salehi said.
‘This cascade can produce 3 to 5 kilogrammes of 20-percent uranium per month for the Tehran medical reactor,’ he added.
He said the process would be supervised by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in the capital Tehran.
A spokesman at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna confirmed that inspectors of his agency were present in Natanz, explaining they had already been there for a routine visit.
However, he said the IAEA would not comment on the activities in Natanz.
A Vienna-based diplomat said that while there was a possibility that Iran had already started the actual enrichment, the preparation stage of the process usually takes some time.
Salehi further said that the new process line was separate from the routine enrichment line of 3.5 percent.
He added that the monthly production of 3 to 5 kilogrammes of the 20-percent-enriched uranium would be twice the quantity the Tehran reactor would need per month.
The atomic chief reiterated that Tehran was still prepared to hold negotiations for nuclear cooperation ‘if the world powers stopped wasting time and acting more rationally.’
Unlike similar occasions in previous years, Iran kept the ceremony comparatively low profile. Apparently only state-run television was present at the site but has not yet sent any footage.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the new enrichment process had nothing to do with the IAEA-brokered plan to ship low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing later into fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.
Tags: Tehran, Vienna
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Tehran, Feb 9 (DPA) Iran Tuesday started the 20 percent uranium enrichment process, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation said.
‘The process started in the research hall in the Natanz plant and a cascade of 164 centrifuges have been prepared for the 20 percent enrichment process,’ Ali-Akbar Salehi told ISNA, apparently on his way to the Natanz plant.
‘This cascade can produce 3 to 5 kilograms of 20 percent uranium per month for the Tehran medical reactor,’ he added.
He said the process would be supervised by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stationed in the capital Tehran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the new enrichment process had nothing to do with the IAEA-brokered plan to ship low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing later into fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.
‘The talks on the uranium exchange deal could still be continued but as we have to build new nuclear power plants in the near future for covering our energy and medical needs, we also have to consider the relevant fuel for these plants,’ Mehmanparast said.
Salehi claimed on Monday that Iran would build 10 new enrichment plants within the next Persian year which starts on March 21.
‘Some plants need uranium with a (enrichment) grade of 3.5 percent and others would need a 20 percent grade, therefore we have to act according to our needs,’ Mehmanparast added.
Iran has been sending conflicting signals on its latest enrichment drive. The foreign ministry said that the new enrichment process had nothing to do with the fuel swap, but Salehi claimed the higher-grade enrichment would be stopped as soon as the swap deal was realised and implemented.
Mehmanparast rejected Western charges that Iran’s position was just a delaying tactic and termed the charges as ‘political games and merely rhetoric’.
‘We have clear plans and we have clear nuclear rights and we cannot wait forever for others to make up their minds (whether to cooperate with Iran or not),’ he said.
‘The issue of the medical Tehran reactor is a humanitarian one as we cannot make sick patients wait for political agreements but should rather seek their cure,’ the spokesman added.
Mehmanparast also said that plans by world powers to impose renewed sanctions on Iran would be futile.
‘Such moves would be a mistake and just lead into another dead-end,’ he said while reiterating that such threats would not make Iran withdraw from its nuclear projects.
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Written by admin on 09 February 2010
Tehran, Feb 9 (DPA) Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh has been given a six-year jail term for his involvement in the post-election protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, opposition websites reported Monday.
Aminzadeh, who served under the reformist president Mohammad Khatami, was a supporter of Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi in last June’s presidential election.
Aminzadeh was one of Ahmadinejad’s fiercest critics before the election and, along with the opposition, accused the president of election fraud and refused to acknowledge his re-election.
Numerous reformist officials, students, journalists and dissidents were arrested after the election on charges of having planned to topple the Islamic establishment and sentenced to long jail terms.
Nine have been sentenced to death and two have already been executed due to their links to radical monarchist groups abroad.
Opposition websites also reported that nine journalists, belonging mainly to opposition groups, have been arrested within the last 48 hours, bringing the number of detained journalists since the June election to 55.
Reports and statistics posted by opposition websites cannot be independently verified as the Iranian government banned foreign media from directly covering the protests and related news last July.
Iranian opposition groups plan to use the February 11 mass rallies marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution to renew their protests against President Ahmadinejad.
Police and security forces have warned that all protest gatherings during the annual state-run rallies will be treated harshly.
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Written by admin on 08 February 2010
Tehran, Feb 8 (DPA) Iran claimed that it would build 10 new enrichment sites within one year, the state media reported Monday.
The head of the Iranian Atomic Organisation, Ali-Akbar Salehi, said the new sites would be built within the next Persian year which starts March 21.
The government announced last year that the country needed 10 new enrichment sites to meet its needs, but so far only five sites have been chosen.
Salehi also said late Sunday that he would follow an order by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and officially inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday about Iran’s decision to begin enriching uranium to up to 20 percent.
The process would begin Tuesday at the Natanz enrichment plant in central Iran in presence of IAEA inspectors, he added.
Salehi said the 20-percent enriched uranium for a medical reactor in Tehran had been sought from abroad, but the lack of an agreement with global nuclear powers had forced the country to do the enrichment by itself.
Iran wavered several times on a deal brokered by the IAEA in October which envisaged Iran ship its uranium, enriched to about 3.5 percent, to Russia and France for further enrichment and fabricated into nuclear fuel.
‘We are still ready to make the exchange deal,’ he said. ‘And whenever an agreement is made and as soon as we receive the fuel from abroad, we will stop the enrichment process.’
Contradictory remarks came from the Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said Ahmadinejad’s order to start 20-percent uranium enrichment had nothing to do with the fuel swap deal.
Ramin Mehmanparast told the official news agency IRNA that Iran was still eager to either purchase, exchange or produce the required 20-percent enriched uranium for the Tehran reactor or ‘follow up all the three options simultaneously’.
But he added that due to growing global demand for nuclear fuel, Iran’s future fuel needs would exceed the current quantity and the country should use all its potential to produce the fuel by itself.
Mehmanparast also said Iran’s final aim is to build 20 nuclear power plants to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity.
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Written by admin on 08 February 2010
Tehran, Feb 8 (DPA) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that his country would soon start enriching uranium to 20 percent on its own if world powers ‘continue playing games’ with the Islamic republic.
‘We are still interested in cooperation (with the West), but if they wanted to continue playing games with the Iranian nation, then we would be prepared to do the 20 percent by ourselves,’ he said Sunday at a laser technology conference in Tehran.
Ahmadinejad said the Iranian Atomic Organisation (IAO) was ready to start the uranium enrichment and would eventually do so.
‘I had given them (world powers) a time range of two to three months to accept the deal, but if they don’t, (IAO chief Ali Akbar) Salehi should start the 20-percent enrichment process,’ Ahmadinejad said.
He said last week that Iran was ready to complete a uranium exchange deal brokered in October by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to export its 3.5-percent low-enriched uranium for 20-percent fuel processed by Russia and France for use in the Tehran nuclear reactor.
‘The way is open for understanding (with the world powers), we never blocked the way, but we do not waste any time for irrelevant discussions and start the 20 per cent by ourselves,’ Ahmadinejad said.
Western officials at the annual Munich Security Conference over the weekend criticised Iran for not having a concrete plan for uranium exchange, and accused Tehran of pursuing a secret programme to manufacture an atomic bomb.
‘We will not allow them to deprive Iran from technological progress and growth,’ Ahmadinejad said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano Saturday in Munich. Amano said Iran had not made any counterproposal for the uranium exchange.
Official news agency IRNA reported that Salehi would inform the IAEA Monday about the Iranian decision to start the enrichment process at 20 percent and begin the process itself Tuesday at the Natanz enrichment plant in central Iran in presence of IAEA inspectors.
Salehi said that Iran had preferred to provide the necessary 20 percent enriched uranium for the Tehran reactor from abroad, but as no understanding has yet been reached, the country was forced to do the enrichment by itself.
‘We are still ready to make the exchange deal,’ he said, ‘and whenever an agreement is made and as soon as we receive the fuel from abroad, we will stop the enrichment process.’
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Written by admin on 08 February 2010
Tehran, Feb 8 – Iran has conducted a successful test of its first domestically developed radar-evading aircraft, a senior military official said.
The prototype of the aircraft named ‘Sofreh Mahi’(flatfish) which staged a ‘successful flight’ passed all radar-evading tests, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Air Force General Aziz Nasirzadeh said Sunday.
The General said that once the flatfish-shaped aircraft passes further tests and its features and capabilities are completed, the Defense Ministry will start its mass production.
‘Production of the actual size as well as mounting and testing weapons and a number of systems on the aircraft are the next phases before we can start its mass production,’ Fars News Agnecy quoted Nasirzadeh as saying.
Iran in June successfully tested a home-made radar-evading Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with bombing capabilities.
‘This airplane is a model drone built on a one-seventh scale for the defence ministry,’ Commander of the Iranian Army Air Force General Hassan Shah Safi said, adding that the UAV bomber would be produced in virtual size and would join the Iranian Air Force fleet in the near future.
The UAV has been designed and manufactured for reconnaissance and bombing missions, considering its radar-evading capability, the official said.
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