IAEA Head To Probe Iran’s Nukes Claims
Hopes Country Will Suspend Nuclear Activities Until ‘Issues Are Clarified’
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Play CBS Video Video War Of Words On Iran Nukes The dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions continues to heat up, with the Iranian president and U.S. officials at the U.N. and the White House ratcheting up the rhetoric. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Video Rice Reacts To Iran's Claims CBS News RAW: A day after the Iranian government announced that it had the ability to process uranium into nuclear power, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded.
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Video Is Iran's Claim Credible? Only On The Web: Bill Plante reports that Iran's president says his country has enriched uranium for fuel. The United States says Iran wants to build weapons, but can't confirm its claims.
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Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks in Mashhad, Iran's holiest city Tuesday, April 11, 2006. Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, Ahmadinejad said. (AP)
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Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran, Iran Wednesday, April 12, 2006 to begin talks about Iran's nuclear enrichment program. (AP)
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“The time is right for a political solution and the way is negotiations,'' the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told journalists at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran just after midnight Wednesday local time.
ElBaradei's visit began not long after Tehran's announcement Tuesday that the country had successfully enriched uranium, a key step to producing peaceful nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.
“I would like to see Iran come to terms with the requests of the international community,'' he said, explaining the purpose of his trip as being “to clarify remaining outstanding issues on the nature of the Iranian program.''
Earlier Wednesday, the country's deputy nuclear chief said Iran intends to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges, signaling its resolve to expand a program the international community has insisted it halt.
That will be hundreds of times more than what the country has now, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. If true, Axelrod adds, that would be enough to produce hundreds of nuclear warheads.
Iran's president had announced Tuesday that the country had succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time, using 164 centrifuges. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all enrichment activity because of suspicions the program's aim is to make nuclear weapons.
"We will expand uranium enrichment to industrial scale at Natanz," Deputy Nuclear Chief Mohammad Saeedi told state-run television Wednesday.
He said Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by late 2006, then expand to 54,000 centrifuges, though he did not say when.
He said using 54,000 centrifuges will be able to produce enough enriched uranium to provide fuel for a 1,000-megawat nuclear power plant like the one Russia is currently putting the finishing touches on in southern Iran.
Iran's claims brought it fresh international condemnation as allies Russia and China joined several European countries and the United States in expressing their disapproval over the nuclear activities.
Already the U.N. Security Council had given it until April 28 to clear up suspicions that it wants to become a nuclear power. It has asked Tehran to suspend enrichment and allow unannounced IAEA inspections.
The White House is pressing for U.N. sanctions against Iran.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
