Iran Says Nuclear Program Here to Stay

Iran’s president said yesterday that international pressure cannot force his nation to abandon its nuclear program, Reuters reported (see GSN, July 24)

“Iran will never abandon its peaceful (nuclear) work,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on state television.  “Our nuclear work is legal and why should we stop it?”

Ahmadinejad said that Iran had “some thousand centrifuges which are spinning every day.” Iran had about 2,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in operation in early June, according to diplomats, who said they expected Tehran to have about 3,000 centrifuges installed by late July.

Tehran has stepped up negotiations in recent weeks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but Ahmadinejad said further U.N. sanctions would not impede its nuclear program.

“Let's say they issue resolution number 300,” he said. “What will happen?  It should be remembered that Iran is obtaining nuclear technology.  They have to eventually accept that.”

IAEA inspectors are expected to arrive in Tehran today to visit the Isfahan uranium conversion facility, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.  Next week, inspectors plan to visit the Arak heavy-water reactor (Hafezi/Hosseinian, Reuters/Washington Post, July 25).

Meanwhile, Russian and Iranian officials met yesterday to resolve a dispute on payment for the Bushehr nuclear power plant that Russia’s state nuclear contractor is building for Iran, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We are now in a crisis situation, and the current stage of talks is aimed at finding a way out of it,” said Irina Yesipova, spokeswoman for the Russian nuclear plant construction firm Atomstroiexport. 

“It is obvious that Iran has broken the trust of our subcontractors” by missing payments, she said (Stephen Boykewich, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 25).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.