Posted on 02/10/2003 1:46:22 PM PST by RCW2001
Mon February 10, 2003 03:57 PM ET
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States expressed "very grave concerns" on Monday about Iran's plan to enrich uranium for its energy program and said the move only made sense in the context of an attempt to make nuclear weapons.
Iran's atomic energy chief, Gholamreza Aqazadeh, said on Monday the country had started an ambitious nuclear energy program and was poised to begin processing uranium.
On Sunday, President Mohammad Khatami said Iran possessed uranium ore reserves and had begun mining operations in the Savand area, 125 miles from the central city of Yazd.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "We continue to have very grave concerns that Iran is using its supposedly peaceful nuclear programs ... as a pretext for advancing a nuclear weapons program.
"Iran's ambitious and costly pursuit of a complete nuclear fuel cycle only makes sense if it's in support of a nuclear weapons program," he told a daily briefing.
Iran, a signatory to nuclear non-proliferation pacts, insists its program is purely peaceful and it has invited U.N. inspectors to verify its nuclear facilities later this month.
But the United States has repeatedly questioned the Iranian government's intentions and has lobbied in Moscow to stop the Russians providing equipment and fuel to a nuclear power plant under construction in the southern port of Bushehr.
Last year President Bush included Iran in an "axis of evil." along with Iraq and North Korea, on the grounds that all three were allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction and had links with groups that Washington calls terrorist.
Boucher said the United States was particularly concerned at Iran's announcements because they appeared to contradict assurances that Russia would provide the nuclear fuel and then take all the spent fuel back for reprocessing.
"It puts a goodly part of the nuclear fuel cycle outside the control of whoever is providing the reactor and the fuel... That would only make sense in the context of a weapons program," he said.
IAEA VISIT LATER THIS MONTH
Boucher said the United States urged Iran to sign the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which imposes a tighter supervision regime.
The director-general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due to visit Iran on Feb. 25 and his agency expects to visit two nuclear facilities which came to public attention last year.
"We look forward to Dr. ElBaradei's report at the appropriate time," Boucher said.
In the meantime, he added, the United States would cooperate with other governments to try to prevent Iran from moving toward developing nuclear weapons.
Boucher declined to confirm or deny that U.S. officials met Iranian officials in Europe last month to discuss aspects of a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the United States had sought a pledge of humanitarian assistance and an assurance that Iran would not interfere in military operations. Iran denied the report on Sunday.
"We've taken opportunities to discuss items with Iran that are of concern to us, to discuss matters that are in our interests," Boucher said, including previously known contacts which have taken place over the past few years.
He noted that the report said the United States was seeking facilities similar to those it sought during the campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, but he did not confirm that Washington had made a repeat request.
In the case of the Afghan campaign, the United States asked Iran to let it use Iranian territory for search-and-rescue operations and not to let Taliban fugitives cross the border.
Iran makes KICK MY A$$ NEXT announcement.
For sure, if there were ever any expectations those three would live up to their reputation as Evil, they certainly are being fully met.
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