Posted on 03/10/2003 1:22:48 PM PST by anotherview
Mar. 10, 2003
US rejects Iran's claim that its nuclear facilities are for energy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
The White House rejected Iran's contention that its nuclear program is strictly for energy production, charging anew Monday that Tehran seeks atomic weapons and calling it a "matter of great concern."
The Bush administration has long expressed such concerns, but new reports suggest Iran is moving closer to building a nuclear weapon than international authorities had previously believed.
"Iran now openly says that it is pursuing the complete nuclear fuel cycle," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, referring to the process of exploring for and mining uranium, the raw material needed for nuclear reactors; enriching the uranium; and waste management. Iran denies it trying to build nuclear bombs.
"We completely reject Iran's claim that it is doing so for peaceful purposes," Fleischer said, pointing out that the country sits on one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called Iran's nuclear weapons program "robust."
Fleischer said Iran tried to secretly build a uranium enrichment plant and heavy water plant, the latter to support a reactor for producing weapons-grade plutonium.
The Washington Post and Time magazine reported that a nuclear power facility at Natanz in Iran is closer to enriching uranium than previously thought. The plant has hundreds of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium that could be used in advanced nuclear weapons, they reported.
When the project is completed in 2005, Iran will be able to produce enough enriched uranium for several nuclear bombs each year, the Post reported.
An Iranian opposition group reportedly exposed the pilot uranium enrichment plant, an account Fleischer bolstered.
"Iran admitted the existence of these facilities only after it had no choice, only because they have been made public by an Iranian opposition group," he said. "There is no economic justification for this, and it does remain a matter of great concern."
Fleischer said the situation exposed holes in international-inspection efforts, a point apparently meant to back up President George W. Bush's case in Iraq, where weapons inspectors have reported some cooperation by Baghdad, and no evidence of a nuclear program.
The spokesman did not say how the administration planned to confront the new revelations about Iran. It is unclear how close Iran is to building a bomb, a senior administration official said.
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