AP Features, February 22nd, 2007
Iran on Thursday said that a suspension of its nuclear activities would go against its rights as well as international regulations, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"Tehran considers suspension contradictory to its own rights, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and international regulations," the agency quoted Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying.
The comment was the first reaction to a report by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna, Austria based U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The report on Thursday said that Iran has expanded its disputed uranium enrichment program instead of complying with a U.N. Security Council ultimatum to freeze it.
The finding clears the path for harsher Security Council sanctions against Tehran.
In the report, the IAEA detailed recent activities showing Tehran expanding its enrichment efforts _ setting up hundreds of uranium-spinning centrifuges in an underground hall and bringing nearly 9 tons of the gaseous feedstock into the facility in preparation for enrichment.
Also, the report said Iranian officials had informed the IAEA that they would expand their centrifuge installations to have thousands of them ready by May. The hookup would enable large-scale enrichment.
ElBaradei also said that the country continues the construction of a nuclear reactor that will use heavy water and a heavy water production plant, also in defiance of U.N. demands.
The report precedes Security Council deliberations on whether to impose new sanctions to punish Tehran for its persistent nuclear defiance.
Because Tehran considers uranium enrichment its inherent right, Iran was not in a position to "positively answer a request by the ... U.N. Security Council to suspend enrichment activities," Saeedi said.
Both enriched uranium and plutonium produced by heavy water reactors can produce the fissile material used in nuclear warheads.
Iran denies it has any nuclear bomb-making intentions, saying it needs the heavy water reactor to produce radioactive isotopes for medical and other peaceful purposes and enrichment to generate energy.
Saeedi also said that ElBaradei's report acknowledged that new monitoring cameras were being installed by the IAEA while the agency was also increasing inspections in Iran in the past months.
"The report shows that negotiations and comprehensive understanding are the only solution for Iran's nuclear case," Saeedi concluded.
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