Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he speaks to the families of soldiers killed during the 1980-88 war with Iraq in Mashad, 924 km (574 miles) east of Tehran, Iran Monday. - REUTERS
TEHRAN (Reuters):
THE WORLD'S leading powers, including Russia and China, joined to condemn Iran yesterday for advancing its atomic programme in defiance of the United Nations, but Moscow said force could not resolve the dispute.
President Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad declared on Tuesday that Iran had produced its first batch of enriched uranium and would now press ahead with industrial-scale enrichment.
His announcement kept Tehran on a collision course with the United Nations and with Western countries convinced Iran seeks atomic arms, not just fuel for power stations as it insists.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.N. Security Council, which last month told Tehran to halt all enrichment work, would need to take up the issue again.
When the council reconvenes, Rice said, it should take "strong steps to make certain (to) maintain the credibility of the international community".
She did not say what those steps might be, but her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said they would be stronger than the presidential statement already issued by the Security Council.
SANCTIONS A POSSIBILITY
Asked about the possibility of sanctions on Iran, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "That's a possibility as well, that's one option that's available."
Russia and China, key players on the Iran issue with veto rights at the Security Council, have hitherto opposed sanctions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the use of force could not solve the stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme.
"If such plans exist they will not be able to solve this problem. On the contrary they could create a dangerous explosive blaze in the Middle East, where there are already enough blazes," he said.
BUSH DISMISSES SPECULATION
U.S. President George W. Bush this week dismissed media reports of plans for strikes on Iran as 'wild speculation' and said force might not be needed to curb its nuclear ambitions.
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Tehran's enrichment move was "not in line with what is required of them by the international community".
Russia's Foreign Ministry urged Iran to stop all enrichment work. But a senior Iranian official ruled out any retreat.
"Iran's nuclear activities are like a waterfall which has begun to flow. It cannot be stopped," said the official, who asked not to be named.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei will visit Iran on Thursday to seek full Iranian cooperation with the Security Council and IAEA inquiries.
The IAEA, whose inspectors are in Iran investigating nuclear sites, has given no comment on Iran's statements. But an agency diplomat said: "The timing was strange but it may have been intended by them to improve their bargaining position."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged all parties to return to talks to defuse the crisis.
"I appeal to everyone to actively work to search for a diplomatic solution and to cool down the rhetoric and not to escalate," Annan told Reuters after a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in The Hague.
"DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES"
Three European states behind a deal to suspend enrichment which broke down last year weighed in with criticism of Iran.
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said the announcement was "deeply unhelpful" and undermined confidence. His German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Iran was "going in precisely the wrong direction" for a return to negotiations.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said it was a worrying step and Iran should stop its "dangerous activities".
The U.S. State Department said it was unable to confirm that Iran had enriched uranium and some experts said even if Tehran's assertions were accurate, it would still be years before the Islamic Republic was able to produce a nuclear weapon.
The level of enrichment needed for nuclear bombs is far higher than the 3.5 percent Iran says it has reached.
It would take Iran about two decades to yield enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb with its current cascade of 164 centrifuges. But Tehran says it wants to install 3,000 centrifuges, enough to produce material for a warhead in a year.
