Iran flouts UN order
Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not want to suspend enrichment
Also In The News
|
Thousands of people who lost money when their company pension funds collapsed are entitled to compensation from the government, the High Court has ruled. |  |
Thursday, 22, Feb 2007 08:10
Iran is steadily expanding its uranium capabilities rather than freezing them, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.
In December the UN security council requested a report from the agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, to establish whether the middle eastern country had complied with the UN's resolution on its nuclear potential.
Released today to the security council in New York and member states, the report showed that uranium enrichment, which can be used to fuel power plants or create nuclear warheads, is continuing in Iran.
Two cascades of centrifuges have been installed at Iran's Natanz enrichment plant with another two close to completion, the report said.
Further sanctions could now be imposed on Iran.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said: "The hope is that the sanctions show the Iranians the isolation that they are enduring, that that isolation is likely to increase over time, and that it's time to take a different course.
"There are people in Iran who recognise that the path that they're on is not a useful path, not a constructive path, and there are better ways to do this."
But responding to the IAEA report, an Iranian official said that UN demands have no legal basis.
"This report shows that the best way to resolve this international issue is to return to the negotiating table and reach a broad agreement," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told the Reuters news agency.
Earlier today British prime minister Tony Blair played down reports that a military conflict may be on the agenda.
"I think what is important is to pursue the political and the diplomatic channel. I think it is the only sensible way that we are going to get a solution to the Iranian issue," he told the Today programme.