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Iran Continued to Advance Nuclear Work Up to Freeze Deadline Last Year, Official Says
Iran built a “considerable” number of uranium enrichment centrifuges before its suspension of sensitive nuclear activities went into effect last November under an agreement with the European Union, an Iranian official said in comments published Saturday (see GSN, July 22). “Today, the number of centrifuge machines manufactured and ready to function is considerable,” chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told the conservative daily Kayhan. Rohani added that Iran “continued to manufacture and assemble centrifuge machines” until the freeze took effect, according to Agence France-Presse. Meanwhile, Tehran has made efforts to reassure the European Union that its nuclear policy will not change under hard-line President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “With the change of government … the attitude of the Islamic republic with regard to the nuclear issue and our strategic objectives will not change and the next government will continue the same policy,” Asefi said. He warned, however, that European nations should not use “the language of threats” against Iran, in response to French President Jacques Chirac’s remarks last week indicating that Iran’s case could be referred to the U.N. Security Council if a permanent solution is not achieved in negotiations (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 23). Asefi also confirmed that Rohani presented a letter to the British, French and German foreign ministers ahead of a pending EU proposal for Iran, Reuters reported. “We clarified to the Europeans that if the minimum requirements expected by the Islamic republic are not taken into account, we will not accept their proposals,” Asefi said. He added that by “minimum requirements” Tehran meant the “right to a peaceful nuclear technology” (Reuters/Yahoo!News, July 23). Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad made his first visit to the Isfahan uranium conversion facility, the Associated Press reported Friday (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press, July 22).
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