Iran says it will build 10 nuclear plants, beef up military

BEIRUT
— Iranian officials trumpeted new nuclear and military ambitions Monday
in the face of domestic political discord and stepped-up international
talk of tightening economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, announced that Tehran
had informed the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that it intended to
launch construction of 10 new nuclear-fuel plants in the Persian
calendar year starting March 2010 and begin producing 20 percent-enriched uranium to provide fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.

Up until now, Iran has only produced reactor-grade 3.5 percent-enriched uranium and has managed to build only one functioning nuclear-fuel plant.

“The 20 percent enrichment begins on Tuesday under
supervision of inspectors and observers from the International Atomic
Energy Agency,” or IAEA, Salehi said in an interview published on the
Web site of Iran’s state-owned Al-Alam television news channel.

As of Monday morning, diplomats and arms inspectors in Vienna,
home to the IAEA, had yet to receive anything in writing, said an
official in the Austrian capital who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Western diplomats have vowed to pursue tougher sanctions against Iran
to pressure it into curbing sensitive components of its nuclear and
missile programs that they suspect are the cornerstones of an eventual
atomic-weapons capability.

Iranian military officials also announced plans to
build new military planes, aerial drones and anti-aircraft missiles in
a flurry of pronouncements hailing national achievements ahead of
annual commemorations of Iran’s
1979 Islamic Revolution on Thursday, when a burgeoning opposition
movement and security forces are expected to clash on the streets of Tehran and other cities.

The eight-month political crisis continues to divide
the Iranian political establishment. The Fars news agency, close to the
Revolutionary Guard, reported that pro-government Iranians transferred
to the capital from the provinces for Thursday’s event had signed a
petition demanding the arrest of opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister; Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker; and Mohammad Khatami, a former president.

Another official hinted at upcoming purges of the
nation’s security forces. “Well-known intelligence and military
elements were instrumental in the post-election sedition,” said
intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi, according to the news Web site Aftabnews.ir.

Experts and international inspectors have concluded that Iran’s
nuclear program has been stagnant in the months since the country’s
domestic political crisis erupted following the re-election of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Any move to escalate the program could alarm Western nations and Israel.

Iran lacks a
plant to turn enriched uranium into fuel plates for the medical
reactor. Few experts believe it has the infrastructure to build 10
enrichment facilities any time soon.

Ahmadinejad ordered Salehi to produce the 20 percent-enriched uranium fuel on Sunday. Salehi said the fuel would be produced at Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility but left the door open to a compromise.

Western officials accuse Iran of failing to respond to a U.N.-backed offer to transfer the bulk of Iran’s low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for 20 percent-enriched fuel plates to power the ailing Tehran
medical reactor. Iranian officials say they want to conduct the fuel
exchange on their own soil, a condition the West has rejected.

Salehi said Tehran’s move to further enrich uranium was only meant to help cancer-stricken Iranians.

“We will stop enrichment as soon as we get the necessary fuel for the reactor,” he said.

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(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.

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