WarSclerotic

Iran’s nuclear headway : Voice of Russia.

Ali-Akbar Salehi. Photo: EPA

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and acting foreign minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that Tehran was now capable of making nuclear fuel plates and rods.

Mr. Salehi said that Tehran had built a facility in Isfahan to develop the technology required for power nuclear reactors.

Salehi also told the local media that “despite futile Western efforts” Iran had so far produced almost 40 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium to supply fuel to a research reactor in Tehran.

The statement comes ahead of the planned resumption on January 20 of the talks in Istanbul with  the six international mediators, that is Russia, China, the US, France, Britain and Germany. After a 14-month break in talks the Big Six expected the issue of  nuclear fuel supplies to Iran to dominate the agenda of the Istanbul parley, which they hoped would help restore an atmosphere of trust between the sides. Now Tehran gives everyone to understand that it no longer needs such fuel.

In Moscow analyst Georgy Mirsky sees all this as an Iranian attempt to bolster its positions ahead of the talks, though.

They can say whatever they please because there is no way we can possibly make sure it’s true or not…  I believe the message is that  “despite all your sanctions and pressure, we keep moving ahead and soon are going to have tens of thousands of centrifuges…. We have already obtained 20 percent enriched uranium and we did it all by ourselves… We now have a full cycle and we are even making fuel rods too…”

In light of this, many remain downbeat about the results of the upcoming Istanbul talks, pointing to Tehran’s persistent unwillingness to halt uranium enrichment. Earlier this week, Iran invited ambassadors from several countries, not least Russia and China, to inspect its nuclear facilities in Natanz and Arak in an alleged attempt to prove “the purely peaceful nature of the Iranian atomic program”. Some experts believe, however, that the move is little more than an attempt to play both ends against the middle ahead of the Istanbul talks. Vladimir Isayev, of the Institute for Oriental Studies with the Russian Academy of Sciences, fully subscribes to the standpoint.

Tehran knows perfectly well that EU countries will reject such an invitation because the role of examining nuclear sites is up to the IAEA, not the EU, Isayev says. In any case, Iran will certainly use the EU’s reluctance to interact as a plausible pretext to go ahead with uranium enrichment, Isayev contends.

Pacifying Tehran’s nuclear ambitions is surely a tricky task, which will be high on the agenda of parleys between Iran and the P5 plus 1 group in Istanbul on January 20. Meanwhile, Israel and some Gulf nations have repeatedly warned Tehran against obtaining a nuclear weapon by 2015, which Tel Aviv cautioned may well prompt its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. It is only to be hoped that negotiators in Istanbul will do their best to prevent this worst-case scenario from ever seeing the light of day

This entry was posted on January 9, 2011 at 4:57 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.