Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Iranian P-2 centrifuge research claims

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Experts fear Iran’s N-programme more advanced than thought

WASHINGTON: A one-sentence assertion made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked such surprise and concern among international nuclear inspectors that they are planning to confront Tehran about it this week, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper said that the assertion involves Iran’s claim that even while it begins to enrich small amounts of uranium, it is pursuing a far more sophisticated way of making atomic fuel.

Western analysts long suspected that Iran had a second, secret programme - based on the P-2 centrifuge provided by Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan – separate from the activity at its main nuclear facility at Natanz, the report said. But they had no proof.

Then on Thursday, the Iranian president said that Tehran was “presently conducting research” on the P-2 centrifuge, boasting that it would quadruple Iran’s enrichment powers.

European diplomats said that a delegation of Iranian officials was due to arrive on Tuesday in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency will press them to address the new enrichment claim, as well as other questions about Iran’s programme, including a crude bomb design found in the country, The Times said.

“This is a much better machine,” the paper quotes an unnamed European diplomat as saying of the advanced centrifuge, which was a centrepiece of Pakistan’s efforts to build its nuclear weapons and was found in 2004 in Libya, when that country dismantled its nuclear programme.

The diplomat added that the Iranians would now have to explain whether Ahmadinejad was right, and if so, whether they recently restarted the abandoned programme or have been pursuing it in secret for years, the paper said.

If Iran moved beyond research and actually began running the machines, it could force American intelligence agencies to revise their estimates of how long it would take for Iran to build an atom bomb - an event they now put somewhere between 2010 and 2015, according to the report.

Robert Joseph, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said in an interview on Saturday that President Ahmadinejad’s claim constituted “the first time I’ve ever heard the Iranians admit” to having made a significant effort on the advanced technology, The Times pointed out. AFP


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\18\story_18-4-2006_pg7_9