VIENNA, May 18: Iran used stocks of high-quality uranium gas from China in order to hasten a breakthrough in enrichment for a programme the West fears could be hiding nuclear weapons work, diplomats said on Thursday.

“The Iranians have sought to accomplish a technological achievement for political purposes and chose the Chinese feedstock gas because of its quality, which ensures a better (uranium) enrichment process,” said a diplomat with access to intelligence sources.

The diplomat said Iran had ‘wanted to declare it had done uranium enrichment and were in a hurry’, as they wanted to have a fait accompli before the UN Security Council could move against them.

A second diplomat said Iran had indeed used UF6 supplied by China but had also tried out some of its own feedstock gas — which intelligence sources say is believed to contain contaminants that can cause the centrifuges used in enrichment to crash.

The Security Council had given Iran until April 28 to halt enrichment, which makes fuel for nuclear power reactors but can also produce the raw material for atomic bombs.

The Iranians ‘did not use their own UF6 because they wanted to be completely sure’ they could turn out enriched uranium in time, the first diplomat said, referring to uranium ore converted into uranium hexafluoride gas, which is the feedstock for making enriched uranium.

Iran defied the Council’s calls, and the world body is now deadlocked over whether to issue a resolution that would legally oblige Iran to stop uranium enrichment.—AFP