Iran to continue expanding nuke power industry

Iran intends to continue expanding its civilian nuclear energy programme despite U.S. allegations that it is a cover for a secret nuclear weapons programme, a senior Iranian official said Wednesday.

Javad Zarif, Iran's UN ambassador to the United Nations, said his government has no intention of developing nuclear weapons but that it would seek to aggressively develop its nuclear power industry because of fears the United States may persuade foreign suppliers, including Russia, China and Ukraine, to stop shipments of nuclear components to Iran.

"You don't expect Iran to sit still,'' he said in an interview at the Iranian mission to the United Nations. "We don't have any confidence that two years down the road, three years down the road, the pressure by the United States may or may not work on our suppliers. We have to create a source of self-sufficiency, which will include a fuel cycle programme.''

The U.S. administration has said it suspects Iran is engaging in a crash programme to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons at a facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. The existence of the nuclear facility was made public last August by an Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. U.S. officials assert that when the project is completed in 2005 it will be capable of producing several nuclear bombs a year.

Zarif denied the charge. He said Tehran did not initially disclose its efforts to develop the Natanz nuclear "fuel cycle'' plant because of concerns the United States would pressure foreign suppliers to withdraw from the project.

But he insisted that Iran's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency informed the nuclear watchdog of Iran's nuclear activities in June, more than a month before the facility's existence became public. A spokesman for the Vienna-based IAEA, reached by telephone Wednesday night, said he was unable to immediately confirm the Iranian envoy's claim.

"We have nothing to hide; we played a very straightforward, transparent game with the IAEA,'' Zarif said. "If the United States did not follow this policy of simply trying to deny Iran access to nuclear technology for any purpose I don't think you would have had all these scenarios that we are confronting. Unless the United States changes its behaviour we will see more of the same.''

© Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news Service