ISFAHAN, Iran: Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to trumpet the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions on Thursday, including advances in its controversial uranium enrichment project.
A day after insisting that Tehran has no plans to build a nuclear bomb, Ahmadinejad is expected to announce the testing of a new generation of centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province.
The ISNA student news agency said on Wednesday he will also announce the inauguration of a fuel manufacturing plant in Isfahan to mark national nuclear day.
Six world powers on Wednesday decided to invite Iran for direct talks on its nuclear programme which they suspect is aimed at making atomic weapons but which Tehran insists is civilian and purely peaceful.
Uranium enrichment is at the heart of global fears that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons because the process can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the fissile core of an atom bomb.
ISNA said that on Thursday Ahmadinejad will also announce the inauguration of the fuel manufacturing plant (FMP) in Isfahan during the current month.
“The FMP will have the ability to produce the fuel for the 40-megawatt reactor in Arak,” the heavy water nuclear plant in Markezi province, Abdollah Solatsana, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, told ISNA.
He also said that by changing the “production specifications,” the FMP can produce fuel for the Bushehr nuclear plant being built by Moscow.
Fuel specifications have to conform to Russian technical specifications for the Bushehr plant which will be operated by Russian engineers for at least a year once it goes on stream.
World powers fear that Iran could configure the Arak plant in a way that it can be used to help make an atom bomb, but Tehran says the reactor is planned to make isotopes only for agricultural and health purposes.
In a February report UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was unable to clarify whether the Arak facility was intended solely for peaceful purposes as claimed by Tehran.
On February 25, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, said it was now operating 6,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at Natanz.
But in its most recent report on February 19, the IAEA said 3,964 centrifuges were actively enriching uranium there.
It said another 1,476 were undergoing vacuum or dry run tests without nuclear material, and an additional 125 centrifuges had been installed but remained stationary.
On Wednesday Ahmadinejad, in a speech in Isfahan, insisted that Tehran has “never sought to make a bomb.”
But Iran has defied five UN Security Council resolutions calling for a freeze in its enrichment activities, including three resolutions imposing sanctions.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France, and Germany said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been tasked to invite Iran for direct talks on its nuclear plans.
“We strongly urge Iran to take advantage of this opportunity to engage seriously with all of us in a spirit of mutual respect,” they said after meeting in London.
“We reaffirm our unity of purpose and collective determination through direct diplomacy to resolve our shared concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme, in line with the package proposals for cooperation with Iran.”
Since taking office in January, US President Barack Obama has made a series of diplomatic overtures to Iran on regional issues and finding a solution to the nuclear crisis.
To mark the Persian New Year, he urged Iranian leaders pursue a “new beginning” with Washington. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties for three decades.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by saying that Tehran was ready to reciprocate if Washington changes its attitude.
