TEHRAN, Feb 10: With the United States preoccupied with Iraq and North Korea, Tehran has revealed that the discovery of domestic uranium deposits is set to make it self-sufficient in nuclear fuel, depriving its arch-foe of any leverage over Iran’s atomic energy programme.
President Mohammad Khatami’s announcement of Iran’s development of the deposits near the central city of Yazd and its construction of an array of plants to process them means Iran will no longer be dependent on a Russian ally vulnerable to US pressure.
Last year, in the face of insistent demands from Washington, Moscow announced it was demanding the return of all spent nuclear fuel as a condition for pressing ahead with a nuclear power station in the southern port of Bushehr which it is helping to build.
“The supply of nuclear fuel from Russia allowed for some control, but with Iran going self-sufficient, you have to worry that the uranium will escape all control,” one Western diplomat told AFP.
Iran pulled no punches in the revelation of its plans, broadcasting Khatami’s announcement in its entirety on prime time television on Sunday evening.
“We cannot leave our future in the hands of others who can be the target of all manner of influences,” said Khatami, in a clear reference to the US pressure on Russia.
“It is for us Iranians to decide if we prefer to use our own (nuclear) fuel although that will in no way change our agreements with (the Russians).”
Iran’s bid for nuclear self-sufficiency was a “long-term” programme, the head of state stressed, adding that the Islamic regime remained committed to developing nuclear energy for peaceful ends.
To tap the “major reserves” of uranium ore found some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Yazd, Iran plans an array of facilities, Khatami said.
A uranium oxide plant has already been completed in the central city of Isfahan, which will be complemented by an enrichment plant under construction near Kashan to its north.
Work has also begun in Yazd province on a plant to produce concentrated “yellow cake”, while a further facility at an undisclosed location will complete the cycle, turning out finished fuel entirely made in Iran.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, was at pains to stress that the Islamic regime remained ready to submit its nuclear plants to international inspection to disprove US-led “propaganda” that it was engaged in a covert weapons programme.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei would be welcome to tour Iran’s nuclear facilities during a planned visit to the country later this month, he said.
“It is a visit for exchanges of views, not for inspection purposes, but if he wants to visit our projects, we will welcome him,” Aghazadeh told state radio Monday.
“The political propaganda by certain media and countries like the United States is aimed at poisoning minds.”
ElBaradei’s visit was organized after Washington released satellite images of two then undeclared nuclear facilities which it charged were engaged in producing fissile uranium as part of a covert weapons programme.
It was not immediately clear if the two sites, near the towns of Nantanz and Arak, were among those declared by Khatami on Sunday.
An IAEA spokeswoman played down any immediate concerns, saying the UN agency placed no controls on the mining or processing of uranium, only on its enrichment.
“We have been aware of this mine and the intentions of Iran to exploit it,” spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Vienna.
“We have no safeguards on natural uranium. These safeguards are enforced up to a certain degree of enrichment.”
But diplomats here said the announcement could only increase Western suspicions at a time when Iran was still resisting strong pressure from the European Union to sign up to the IAEA additional protocol — an enhanced inspections regime.
All 15 EU states have signed the protocol, although the United States is only adopting an amended version which excludes “activities or locations of direct national security significance”.—AFP