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PARIS — As it prepares for two sets of negotiations with outsiders on its disputed nuclear program starting on Wednesday, Iran said on that it was converting some of its enriched uranium into reactor fuel, the state news agency IRNA reported, potentially limiting the expansion of stockpiles that the West fears could be used for weapons.
PARIS — The top Iranian atomic energy official was quoted on Wednesday as saying that his country had begun to install more sophisticated enrichment devices at its Natanz nuclear site. The development coincided with the start of a new round of talks with negotiators from the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Iranian officials are to meet on Wednesday in Tehran with Herman Nackaerts, the deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, who has been pressing for months for access to a restricted military area at Parchin, 20 miles south of Tehran. International inspectors suspect that the site may have been used for testing bomb triggers.
Fereydoon Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, said that scientists began putting in the new centrifuges last month, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency. “We have produced the machines as planned, and we are carrying out the installation gradually, to complete the tests relevant to the new generation,” he was quoted as saying.
“Differences remain but we will work hard to try to resolve these differences,” Mr. Nackaerts told reporters before leaving Vienna for Tehran, IRNA said.
Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear regulatory body, late last month that it planned to install the new equipment at Natanz, southeast of Tehran, to speed up the production of enriched uranium, a move that seemed likely to worry the United States, Israel and the West.
The Iranian side is led by Iran’s representative at the I.A.E.A., Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh. The two negotiators last met in Tehran on Jan. 16.
But another Iranian news agency, Fars, quoted Mr. Abbasi as saying that the new centrifuges were designed to enrich uranium to a purity of less than 5 percent, not to the 20 percent level that prompts concerns about use in nuclear weapons.
Shortly before the talks, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said dialogue was “the only solution” to the nuclear issue, IRNA reported, adding that Iran was already a nuclear country and “it is impossible to retreat from its nuclear path.”
On Tuesday, Iran said that it was converting some of its stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium into reactor fuel. Diplomats in Vienna said that once that is done, it is difficult to re-convert it for weapons. Some analysts argue that, by slowing the growth of its stockpile, Tehran could be delaying the moment when it reaches a size large enough to prompt military action by Israel, which has signaled readiness to attack Iran’s nuclear sites pre-emptively. Iran denies that it is seeking the wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon.
On a separate negotiating track later this month, Iranian negotiators are to meet in Kazakhstan with representatives of six powers — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — for a further round in a series of long-running and inconclusive talks about curbing Tehran’s uranium enrichment program.
Iranian officials were scheduled to meet in Tehran on Wednesday with Herman Nackaerts, the deputy director of the U.N. atomic agency, who has been pressing for months to gain access to a restricted military area at Parchin, 20 miles south of Tehran. International inspectors suspect that the site may have been used for testing bomb triggers.
Faced with economic sanctions, suspected cyber attacks and threats of military action against its nuclear facilities, Iran came under fresh pressure from President Obama in his State of the Union address to settle its differences with the West.
“Differences remain, but we will work hard to try to resolve these differences,” Mr. Nackaerts told reporters in Vienna before departing for Tehran, according to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency. He last met with the Iranian side, which is led by Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, the country’s representative to the U.N. agency, on Jan 16.
"The leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said.
IRNA quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that dialogue was “the only solution” to the nuclear issue, and that Iran was already a nuclear country and “it is impossible to retreat from its nuclear path.”On a separate negotiating track, Iranian negotiators are scheduled to meet in Kazakhstan later this month with representatives of six powers — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — for the next round in a long-running series of talks about curbing Iran’s uranium enrichment program. So far those talks have been inconclusive.
Western countries suspect that the Iranian government is seeking to acquire the technology to make nuclear weapons despite its assertion that the program is for peaceful purposes like the creation of reactor fuel for civilian use.
Faced with economic sanctions, suspected cyberattacks and threats of military action against its nuclear facilities, Iran came under fresh pressure from President Obama in his State of the Union address to settle its differences with the West.
At a news conference on Tuesday in Tehran, Ramin Mehmanparast, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, was asked to comment on a news report that Iranian scientists had converted some uranium enriched to 20 percent purity into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran. The spokesman said that the “work is being done” and that details had been sent to the I.A.E.A., which is based in Vienna.
"The leaders of Iran must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said.
Iran’s nuclear program came under added scrutiny on Tuesday after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test, since many intelligence officials believe that the two countries share nuclear knowledge, though so far there is no hard evidence to substantiate that belief.
Iran’s nuclear program came under added scrutiny on Tuesday after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test, since many intelligence officials believe that the two countries share nuclear knowledge, though so far no hard evidence has surfaced to substantiate that belief.
Reuters quoted Mr. Mehmanparast as saying, “We think we need to come to a point where no country will have any nuclear weapons.” While all countries should be allowed to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, he said, “all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed.”
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is believed by Western negotiators and international inspectors to be of far lower purity than is required to make nuclear weapons. Diplomats in Vienna said on Tuesday that enriched uranium converted into reactor fuel is hard to convert into fuel for weapons.
Some analysts argue that, by slowing the growth of its stockpile, Tehran could delay the moment when it acquires enough 20 percent enriched uranium to set off a response by Israel, which has signaled readiness to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
The likely outcomes of the forthcoming sets of negotiations remain unclear.
Mr. Mehmanparast, the Iranian spokesman, said the talks with the I.A.E.A. team in Tehran on Wednesday had “bright” prospects if the I.A.E.A. negotiators recognized Iran’s rights, IRNA said.
But Yukiya Amano, the director general of the I.A.E.A., said Monday that “the outlook is not bright” for obtaining permission to visit the Parchin site. Mr. Amano’s remarks contrasted with a more optimistic tone from the agency less than a month ago, when his deputy, Mr. Nackaerts, expressed hope that the negotiations would lead to an agreement on an inspection plan.
