Iran will press ahead with uranium enrichment: Iranian nuclear chief

TEHRAN,June 30(MNA) – Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Fereydoun Abbasi said on Friday, Reuters reported. Speaking in Russia, Abbasi said that production of nuclear fuel would “continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change.” Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, he said work at Iran’s underground Fordo plant - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue. Iran produces uranium enriched to 20 percent at Fordo. The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program may have military dimensions. Iran says it is enriching uranium only to fuel a planned network of nuclear power stations, and for medical purposes. Abbasi said Iran’s only existing nuclear power plant - which has suffered repeated delays - had been “brought back online” three days ago and was working at 1,000-megawatt capacity. A UN nuclear agency report said in May that the Russian-built Bushehr plant was shut down, giving no reason. “Thankfully in the last days, no concrete defects with the plant have been reported to me,” Abbasi said. Hopes for a resolution to the nuclear dispute were boosted this month with the election as president of Hassan Rohani, who has promised a more conciliatory approach to foreign relations than confrontational predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As chief nuclear negotiator under reformist President Mohammed Khatami from 2003 to 2005, Rohani struck a deal with European Union powers under which Iran temporarily suspended uranium enrichment-related activities. They were resumed after Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 and have been expanded. Saeed Jalili, the current chief negotiator, has espoused a “no compromises” stance that was criticized even by other conservatives in the election campaign for failing to yield any progress in talks, triggering more sanctions against Iran. Asked whether there would be any change in Iranian policy after Rohani’s election and whether it could suspend 20 percent enrichment, Abbasi said Iran’s nuclear program was aimed at producing electricity and medical isotopes only. “In line with these two goals of course the production of energy will not stop,” he said. Fordo is under the monitoring of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, he said. “We will of course continue our work at this centre.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the nuclear stand-off could easily be resolved if the West were to stop being so stubborn. While stating that the West is more interested in the change of the country’s political system than ending the dispute, Ayatollah Khamenei did express a desire to resolve an issue which has led to ever tighter sanctions on Iran’s oil sector and the wider economy. But analysts say it remains uncertain whether Iran with Rohani as president will be more amenable to the demands of world powers that it halt enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent and stop work at Fordo. Abbasi also said Iran would soon give to the Vienna-based IAEA a list of planned nuclear reactor sites. He spoke in front of a model of the Bushehr reactor at the Islamic state’s stand at the nuclear industry fair in St Petersburg.