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The deputy secretary of the Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Javad Vaeidi, a senior nuclear negotiator, delivers his speech to students, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 14, 2006 |
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Israel gave a measured response to reports that Iran had begun a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or bombs, continuing its policy of deferring to the international community to resolve the contentious matter.
The deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Council, Javad Vaeidi, said Tuesday that Iran has resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium, showing the country was determined to proceed with its atomic development despite international moves to restrict it.
"Israel believes that Iran has for too long been playing games with the international community and we support fully the decision to bring the Iranian nuclear program to the UN Security Council," said foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "We believe only if the regime in Tehran understands that the international community is indeed serious, there is a chance that these sort of cat and mouse games played by the regime will cease."
Javad Vaeidi, told reporters that Iran would resume negotiations with Moscow next week over its plan to enrich uranium on Russian soil - a proposal designed to allay fears about Iran using enrichment to build nuclear weapons.
Iran had said Monday that negotiations with Russia, due to resume Thursday, had been indefinitely postponed.
"The talks with Russia remain valid," Vaeidi said, adding that an Iranian delegation would go to Moscow. "The final date of this visit will be Feb. 20."
However in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said his government was considering whether this date was suitable, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.
Vaeidi gave no indication whether Iran was looking more favorably at the plan now that international pressure over its nuclear program was increasing. Previously Iran said the plan is not satisfactory but is worth further negotiations.
Vaeidi told a press conference that enrichment of uranium resumed last week at Iran's main enrichment plant in Natanz.
Asked if Iran had resumed large-scale enrichment, as required for producing fuel for nuclear reactors, Vaeidi replied: "No."
"We need time to have 60,000 centrifuges," he said, referring to the devices used in the enrichment process.
Diplomats in Vienna, Austria, the site of the U.N. nuclear agency, had said Monday that Iran had started small-scale enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for an atomic bomb.
The world has long sought to stop Iran from enriching uranium, fearing that the process would bring it to the threshold of possessing nuclear bombs. On Feb. 4, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council and simultaneously called on its government to suspend all enrichment-related activities.
Instead, the Iranian government decided to suspend certain aspects of its co-operation with the IAEA and steam ahead with enrichment.
"According to the presidential order (last week), and to the law passed by the parliament (last year), the order of resumption of uranium enrichment was issued," Vaeidi told the press conference.
The United States had criticized Iran for restarting enrichment on Monday when White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: "They're continuing to choose defiance and confrontation over cooperation and diplomacy."
Moscow had proposed that Iran ship its uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched to a level suitable for nuclear reactors. It would then be returned to Iran for use at the Russian-built Bushehr plant, which is due to begin operating this year.
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"Israel is not the 'bad cop' of the region that everytime there is a problem, Israel has to solve it."
David Menashri, head of the center of Iranian studies at Tel Aviv University.
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Germany expressed disappointment Monday after it was announced that the Iranian-Russian talks had been postponed. Germany, Britain and France, who have been negotiating with Iran without success, had seen the Russian plan as a solution to the dispute over Iranian enrichment.
While Iran says its nuclear program is designed solely to generate electricity, the United States and some allies say the program is a cover for producing an atomic bomb. Israel is one of those countries. But while its political and military leaders have said it would not tolerate a nuclear Iran on its doorstep, Israel has taken a backseat in the efforts to prevent that.
"Israel is not the 'bad cop' of the region that everytime there is a problem, Israel has to solve it," said David Menashri, head of the center of Iranian studies at Tel Aviv University. "It's not exclusively the problem of Israel and it's not a problem that requires a solution that is 'made in Israel."'
Israel's military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, has said he did not believe diplomatic pressure would resolve the crisis and some Israeli officials have indicated in the past that military action may eventually be necessary to put a halt to Iran's nuclear ambitions. However, Israel has repeatedly refrained from saying it would lead the charge.
Menashri concurred, saying "the world has to find a way of dealing with this problem." But he added, "the clock of nuclear energy in Iran is ticking and this a threat for everyone. But Israel has to be sensitive to it more than others."
Iran insists that as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which provides for peaceful nuclear development, it is entitled to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors.
Presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham reiterated Monday that unless the world allowed Iran to exercise its rights under the treaty, the country would withdraw from it.
If the world does not accept Iran's right to enrich uranium under the NPT, "there is no reason to continue our current nuclear policy while we are deprived of the positive aspects of the treaty," Elham said.
The world powers do not trust that Iran would confine enrichment to what is required for reactors because of its history of concealing aspects of its nuclear program. When the IAEA referred Iran to the Security Council, it accused the country of breaching the treaty.
The IAEA is to issue another report on Iran to the March meeting of its 35-nation board of governors. After that, the Security Council is expected to consider taking steps against the country.
Iranian ambassador to Turkey warns Iran would defend itself if attacked
Iran's ambassador to Turkey on Monday warned that Iran would defend itself if attacked, and said his country was ready to resolve the international dispute over its nuclear program through dialogue, a Turkish news agency reported.
"We are fully ready to solve the problems through negotiations and dialogue," the semiofficial Anatolia news agency quoted the Iranian ambassador, Firouz Dowlatabadi, as saying. "But if others want to make war and want to impose that on us, we would have no choice but to defend ourselves."
Dowlatabadi said Iran would not allow other countries to dictate how it can use its nuclear technology.
"We are ready to give every kind of assurances," Dowlatabadi said. "But stopping our peaceful activities is out of question."
Turkey, a NATO member neighboring Iran, said it regards the presence of nuclear weapons and their proliferation as a serious security threat after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Israel and Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but secular country, have close defense ties. Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize the Jewish state in 1948.
AP contributed to this report.
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