Iran Defiant Ahead Of U.N. Deadline

Iran's hardline president declared Saturday that his nation's controversial nuclear program poses no threat to any other country, even Israel "which is a definite enemy."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke after inaugurating a heavy-water production plant, which went into operation despite U.N. demands that Iran roll back its nuclear program. Tehran says is for peaceful purposes, but Western countries fear it could eventually be used to develop a nuclear bomb.

During a speech, Ahmadinejad declared that Iran would never abandon its nuclear program and repeated that nuclear weapons is not the goal.

"Basically, there is no talk of nuclear weapons. There is no discussion of nuclear weapons," he said. "We are not a threat to anybody even the Zionist regime, which is a definite enemy for the people of the region."

Iran is under a Thursday deadline established by the U.N. Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment or face political and economic sanctions. Tehran has called the Security Council's resolution that set the deadline "illegal" and has insisted it won't give up its nuclear program.

"Iran's defiance of U.N. demands that it halt its nuclear program is particularly worrisome because of its involvement in the Middle East conflict," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "and divisions among the world powers about next steps makes the Security Council less able to send a united message to Tehran."

Iran also responded on Tuesday to an incentives package presented by the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany. Tehran said it would be open to negotiations but did not agree to the West's key demand for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment as a precondition to talks.

On Saturday, Ahmadinejad affirmed Iran's right to develop nuclear technology even if sanctions are imposed.

"They may impose some restrictions on us under pressure. But will they be able to prevent the thoughts of a nation? Will they be able to prevent the progress and technology to a nation? They have to accept the reality of a powerful, peace-loving and developed Iran. This is in the interest of all governments and all nations whether they like it or not," he said.

According to a Los Angeles Times report Saturday, Bush administration officials have indicated they are prepared to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and cut off trade to the Islamic nation if the U.N. Security Council declines to enact sanctions.

John Bolton, the U.S.'s ambassador to the United Nations, told the newspaper that Washington was focusing on banks in Europe and Japan to restrict business with Iran, because most of Tehran's transactions are done in U.S. dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen. "There aren't a lot of opportunities to sell in other currencies," Bolton said.

Though the West's main worry has been uranium enrichment, it also has called on Iran to stop the construction of a heavy-water reactor near the plant that Ahmadinejad inaugurated.

Iran has been a building the reactor for two years but is not scheduled to complete it until 2009.

Nuclear weapons can be produced using either plutonium or highly enriched uranium as the explosive core. Either substance can be produced in the process of running a reactor.

Reactors fueled by enriched uranium use regular — or "light" — water as a "moderator" in the chain reaction that produces energy. Reactors using "heavy water" contains a heavier hydrogen particle, which allow the reactor to run on natural uranium mined by Iran, forgoing the enrichment progress.

But the spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in a bomb.

Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the heavy-water plant's production is 16 tons of heavy water with a purity of 15 percent per year and 80 tons of heavy water with a purity of nearly 100 percent annually. He said the heavy-water facility will be used to treat AIDS and cancer and for other medicine and agricultural purposes.

Mohammed Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's atomic organization, called the plant "one of the biggest nuclear projects" in the country, state-run television reported.

The Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency will report on the state of Iran's program by mid-September. If IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's report finds that enrichment is continuing, the council is then likely to move toward sanctions.