President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking just days before an Aug 31 deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to halt uranium enrichment — the West’s biggest worry in Iran’s atomic programme — or face possible sanctions.
“No one can deprive a nation of its rights based on its capabilities,” Ahmadinejad said in his speech to inaugurate the heavy water project.
The Arak project, once complete, will produce plutonium as a by-product that could be used to make atomic warheads. But the reactor that will produce this is still being built.
Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to master technology to produce nuclear weapons. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants to produce electricity.
“Iran is not a threat to anybody, not even to the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad said, using Iran’s term for Israel, which the Islamic Republic does not recognise.
Although Iran faces possible sanctions if it does not heed the UN deadline, divisions among world powers over how to handle the Islamic republic could delay any action. The Los Angeles Times reported that Washington had indicated it was ready to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade if necessary. Analysts say sanctions imposed by just a few states would have limited impact.
Iran is likely to raise further fears in Western capitals by pressing ahead with the heavy water project near Arak, 190km southwest of the Tehran.
An Iranian official said the project is not a proliferation risk because heavy water has no military use. Diplomats say it is not a constructive step.
“It’s not a proliferation risk in itself, but the associated operations — still to be constructed — would be. And the timing seems particularly poor,” said a Vienna-based diplomat familiar with operations of the UN nuclear watchdog in Iran.—Reuters