World News

Enriching uranium to 20%

Salehi’s announcement late Sunday came just hours after he was ordered by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to start enriching uranium to 20 percent to provide nuclear fuel to the Tehran reactor.

“We will inform the IAEA in a letter of our intention to enrich uranium to 20 percent,” Ali Akbar Salehi told the Arabic-language al-Alam television on Sunday.

“The higher enrichment will begin at the Natanz plant from the day after,” he added.

Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility is in the central city of Natanz where it has carried on the sensitive atomic work defiantly for years despite three rounds of U.N. sanctions.

Salehi, however, said that Tehran would stop the higher enrichment program if a long-negotiated deal with world powers is concluded.

The U.N.-drafted deal envisages shipping out Iran’s low-enriched uranium (LEU) of 3.5 percent abroad to be converted into 20 percent enriched uranium for Tehran’s research reactor, which makes medical isotopes.

“Our proposal (to swap the LEU with the fuel) is valid but if we receive the fuel then we will stop the enrichment” of 20 percent uranium, Salehi said, leaving the door open for a last minute deal.

Iran’s decision to enrich uranium to a higher level has raised the stakes in Tehran’s dispute with the West over its nuclear program and drew immediate condemnation from Britain and the United States.

“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 office said in London.

“International pressure”

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on Sunday for mounting “international pressure” on Iran.

“The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance of its intentions. The results have been very disappointing,” Gates said in Rome.

Iran insists the swap of uranium take place gradually inside the country, an option opposed by world powers who want the Islamic republic’s LEU sent abroad to allay their fears that Tehran’s ultimate goal is to produce atomic weapons.

Gates is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Monday where the two could possibly discuss Tehran’s latest stance.

This month France holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, and Washington hopes to see Paris use this position to introduce a strong motion calling for action against Tehran.

But the allies fear that fellow veto-wielding permanent council member China could torpedo tougher action.

“France has been taking a very tough stance on Iran,” a senior US official in Gates’ party told AFP. “We want to take up the resolution while the French are chairing the U.N. Security Council.

Australia meanwhile on Monday strongly condemned Iran’s decision to enrich uranium to a higher level, with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith branding the move a “serious provocation” that “risks testing the patience of the international community.”