"Now we have 5,000 running centrifuges," Iranian state media quoted Aghazadeh as saying. It remained uncertain whether all of the centrifuges were actively processing uranium gas, work that typically begins only after Iran tests the machines for reliability, Reuters reported.
Iran insists that its uranium enrichment program is aimed strictly at civilian energy development, and Tehran has rebuffed international calls to halt the effort.
"Suspension of nuclear enrichment is not in our vocabulary," Aghazadeh said. "In the next five years we should install at least 50,000 machines."
According to one high-level diplomat, "Iran could well have 6,000 centrifuges on line by the end of the year. If you add the number of machines that were in the process of installation as of Nov. 7, you would come close to the number they claim are working today" (Hafezi/Dahl, Reuters I, Nov. 26).
Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani yesterday urged IAEA officials to end a probe of his country's atomic ambitions if the United States could not identify a military component in Tehran's nuclear program within a set amount of time, the Tehran Times reported.
Larijani, now speaker for the Iranian parliament, also accused the agency of being swayed by allegations put forward by intelligence agencies in select nations (Tehran Times, Dec. 1).
France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday criticized Iran for scaling back its cooperation with the IAEA investigation since September, Reuters reported.
"(This has been) two months of utter disrespect for the agency and members of this board," the countries said in a statement to the agency's 35-nation governing board, which met last week.
The countries expressed strong concern about Iran's refusal to give the agency design specifications for a nuclear power station planned at Darkhovin and a research reactor already being built.
Iran's nuclear program "continues and intensifies a threat to the stability of a troubled region," the statement added (Sylvia Westall, Reuters II, Nov. 28).
Russia is encouraging U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to establish diplomatic ties with Iran and work to resolve the nuclear impasse through dialogue, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Moscow hopes “the new administration understands that there is no alternative to the political process and dialogue at all levels,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, adding that Washington would have to normalize relations with Tehran to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Russian representatives are appealing directly to Obama's transition team on Iran, according to Ryabkov. “We are doing it through our embassy in Washington, D.C. and our contacts with people who are around Barack Obama,” he said (Meyer/Pinchuk, Bloomberg, Nov. 26).
Iran said that Obama could improve ties with Tehran by offering talks without preconditions, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
"If these changes are really genuine, and not cosmetic, then there would be optimism that there would be a change" in U.S. foreign policy, said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. "We are fully prepared to sit at the negotiating table with all countries provided that there are no conditions and all are on equal footing" (Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 1).
The Bush administration does not plan to take action on a potential U.S. interests section in Iran, leaving Obama to decide whether to pursue the office, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.
"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," she said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Nov. 27).
Source: NTI
