Iran Says Enrichment Program Moving Forward; Ahmadinejad Possibly in Political Trouble

Iran yesterday dismissed reports that its uranium enrichment program has stalled, although it acknowledged that its efforts to build 3,000 centrifuges have fallen behind schedule, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 9).

“We are moving toward the production of nuclear fuel, which requires 3,000 centrifuges and more than this figure,” said government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham.  “This program is being carried out and moving toward completion.”

Iranian officials had said they would complete the 3,000 centrifuges by the end of 2006, but the program has been slowed in part by accidents, according to Atomic Energy Organization chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

“We had installed 50 centrifuges,” he told reporters earlier this month.  “One night, I was informed that all the 50 centrifuges had exploded. … [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad called me and said, ‘Build these machines even if they explode 10 times more’” (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Jan. 15).

Ahmadinejad’s persistent push for the nation’s nuclear program has contributed to unusual domestic political opposition, the London Guardian reported today.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has apparently approved recent criticisms by lawmakers and newspapers, according to the Guardian.  He is rumored to have refused meetings with Ahmadinejad because he blames the president for recent U.N. Security Council sanctions, the Guardian reported.

“Ahmadinejad’s golden era is over and his honeymoon with the supreme leader is finished,” said political commentator Eesa Saharkhiz.  “The countdown to his dismissal has already begun.  There is a probability that he cannot even finish his current four-year period” (Robert Tait, The Guardian, Jan. 16).

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