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Ahmadinejad declares: I come in peace for mankind. (AP file photo)
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| By Associated Press August 26, 2006 |
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Iran took another leap toward a nuclear bomb by launching heavy water production and Israel must draw the conclusions and "prepare itself militarily," a senior Israeli lawmaker said Saturday.
Israel's government declined comment on Saturday's inauguration of the heavy water plant, which went into operation despite international demands that Iran roll back its nuclear program.
Iran's president said in a speech during the opening ceremony Saturday that Iran will never abandon its nuclear program and reiterated that nuclear weapons production is not the goal. He said the program poses no threat to any other country, including Israel which, in his words, "is a definite enemy."
Israeli legislator Ephraim Sneh of the Labor Party, a partner in the ruling coalition, warned in a statement that Iran's heavy water production marks "another leap in Iran's advance toward a nuclear bomb."
Sneh, a former deputy defense minister, said Iran's progress shows that international efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons are insufficient. "Israel has to draw the conclusions and to prepare itself militarily," said Sneh.
When asked to elaborate in a subsequent telephone interview, Sneh would only say that Israel should improve its defensive capacities against Iran's looming nuclear threat. He said he expressed his personal view, not that of the government.
Israel's official position is that it will let international diplomacy play itself out, and Israeli leaders have been evasive when asked about possible military action against Iran. In 1981, Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction.
Silvan Shalom. a legislator and former foreign minister from the hawkish Likud Party, called on the world to stand up against the Iranian threat.
"This is a crucial time for the international community. Will it once again cave in to the Iranians or will it put an end to the dangerous plans of Iran?" he said. "It would be best for the world to express its determination today at the very last moment before it is exposed to an existential threat. Israel must prepare so that it can prevent the dangerous developments if the world continues to waffle."
The significance of "heavy water"
While Iran's hardline president declared Saturday that his nation's controversial nuclear program poses no threat to any other country, he took care to say that also includes Israel, "which is a definite enemy."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke after inaugurating a heavy-water production plant, which went into operation despite U.N. demands that Iran roll back its nuclear program. Tehran says is for peaceful purposes, but Western countries fear it could eventually be used to develop a nuclear bomb.
During a speech, Ahmadinejad declared that Iran would never abandon its nuclear program and repeated that nuclear weapons is not the goal.
"Basically, there is no talk of nuclear weapons. There is no discussion of nuclear weapons," he said. "We are not a threat to anybody even the Zionist regime, which is a definite enemy for the people of the region."
Iran is under a Thursday deadline established by the U.N. Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment or face political and economic sanctions. Tehran has called the Security Council's resolution that set the deadline "illegal" and has insisted it won't give up its nuclear program.
Iran also responded on Tuesday to an incentives package presented by the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany. Tehran said it would be open to negotiations but did not agree to the West's key demand for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment as a precondition to talks.
On Saturday, Ahmadinejad affirmed Iran's right to develop nuclear technology even if sanctions are imposed.
"They may impose some restrictions on us under pressure. But will they be able to prevent the thoughts of a nation? Will they be able to prevent the progress and technology to a nation? They have to accept the reality of a powerful, peace-loving and developed Iran. This is in the interest of all governments and all nations whether they like it or not," he said.
The Iranian president last year called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Though the West's main worry has been uranium enrichment, it also has called on Iran to stop the construction of a heavy-water reactor near the plant that Ahmadinejad inaugurated.
Iran has been a building the reactor for two years but is not scheduled to complete it until 2009.
Nuclear weapons can be produced using either plutonium or highly enriched uranium as the explosive core. Either substance can be produced in the process of running a reactor.
Reactors fueled by enriched uranium use regular -- or "light" -- water as a "moderator" in the chain reaction that produces energy. Reactors using "heavy water" contains a heavier hydrogen particle, which allow the reactor to run on natural uranium mined by Iran, forgoing the enrichment progress.
But the spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in a bomb.
Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the heavy-water plant's production is 16 tons of heavy water with a purity of 15 percent per year and 80 tons of heavy water with a purity of nearly 100 percent annually. He said the heavy-water facility will be used to treat AIDS and cancer and for other medicine and agricultural purposes.
Mohammed Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's atomic organization, called the plant "one of the biggest nuclear projects" in the country, state-run television reported.
The Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency will report on the state of Iran's program by mid-September. If IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's report finds that enrichment is continuing, the council is then likely to move toward sanctions.
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