Middle East News
Iran: Russian fuel won't stop Iran enrichment process (Roundup)
By DPA
Dec 17, 2007, 11:49 GMT

Tehran/Moscow - The delivery of nuclear fuel by Russia for Iran's Bushehr power plant in southern Iran will not stop the country's uranium enrichment process, Iranian Vice-President Gholam- Reza Aqazadeh told state television Monday.

'The Russian nuclear fuel is only for Bushehr and we will continue uranium enrichment in the Natanz plant (central Iran) to provide nuclear fuel for our local power plants to be completed in the future,' said Aqazadeh, who is also head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

Aqazadeh's statement came as Russia on Monday delivered its first shipments of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr power plant, setting a definite timeline for the start-up of the controversial plant.

The fuel left Russia's Novosibirsk chemical plant after all payment conflicts stalling Russia's completion of Iran's first nuclear power plant were resolved last week, the Foreign Ministry said.

Russian state contractor Atomstroiexport said the Bushehr plant could be completed six months from the first fuel deliveries.

In the first shipment from Russia, Iran will receive 82 tons of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr plant, Iran's ISNA news agency quoted an unnamed nuclear official as saying earlier Monday.

'The completion of our local nuclear power plants will take a couple of years so does our nuclear fuel production but we want to complete both simultaneously so that the local power plants would immediately be provided with fuel and become operational,' Aqazadeh said.

He added that Iran has currently 3000 centrifuges in Natanz but wants to increase their number to 50,000 which would be necessary to produce nuclear fuel of a 1000 megawatt plant for at least one year.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said earlier that Iran needed 'another four to five years' to operate 50,000 centrifuges.

Aqazadeh predicted that the electricity from the Bushehr plant could join the national electricity network within the second quarter of 2008.

'The Russian nuclear fuel delivery also has a political message for the world: Russia, as a United Nations veto power, has herewith acknowledged the peaceful and civil nature of Iran's nuclear programmes,' the vice-president said.

'The other UN veto powers and Germany should acknowledge the same fact, as well. There is indeed neither justification nor a legal basis for keeping the Iranian nuclear dossier at the UN Security Council,' he added.

Iran might still face a third UN Security Council resolution, including financial sanctions, for having rejected the main international demand of suspending its uranium enrichment programme.

President Ahmadinejad once again rejected this demand in a TV interview on Sunday saying that Iran's nuclear programmes, including enrichment, 'would go ahead with full gas,' and the country would not be intimidated by sanctions or military threats.

The United States and some European countries have pushed for sanctions against Iran, alleging that the Bushehr plant is a cover for ambitions to build nuclear weapons.

But a US intelligence report released two weeks ago seemed to support Iranian and Russian claims that the Islamic state's nuclear programme was purely for civilian use.

News of the US report buoyed Russian-Iranian talks to move forward on the Bushehr plant. Russia has repeatedly pushed back the start-up date for the plant, citing delays in payments from Tehran.

On a visit to Iran in October, Putin promised his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Russia would complete the power plant, but did not specify a deadline.

Observers say Russia had delayed fuel deliveries because it does not fully trust Ahmadinejad and fears an international backlash amid concern over Iran's nuclear programme.