Tehran: Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level on Tuesday over the vociferous objections of the US and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons.
Even before the announcement US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he believed the UN should slap new sanctions on Iran in "weeks, not months," according to his spokesman on Tuesday.
France and the US said Monday Iran's action left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of UN Security Council sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear defiance. Russia, which has close ties to Iran and has opposed new sanctions, appeared to edge closer to Washington's position, saying the new enrichment plans show the suspicions about Iran's intentions are well-founded.
Iranian state television said that the process began in the presence of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog agency. Uranium has to be enriched to fuel nuclear power plants and Iran needs the 20 per cent enriched fuel for a research reactor producing medical isotopes.
Enriching uranium to 90 per cent, however, creates the material for nuclear weapons, which many countries are afraid Iran is seeking. Iran denies the charge.
In effort to defuse the crisis, the International Atomic Energy Agency brokered a deal last year in which Iran would ship out its low enriched uranium to be processed abroad and returned a year later.
Iran initially rejected the deal, then later said that if an acceptable alternative could be reached, it would not continue the high level enriching process.
Ali Akbar Salehi, a vice-president as well as the head of the country's nuclear programme, said the further enrichment would be unnecessary if the West found a way to provide Iran with the needed fuel.
"Whenever they provide the fuel, we will halt production of 20 per cent," he told state TV late Monday.
Iran has so far enriched uranium to a level of 3.5 per cent, which is suitable for use in fuelling nuclear power plants.
On Tuesday, the spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast said any plan by the West to impose new Security Council resolutions would not be helpful.
"If they attempt another resolution, they are making a mistake. It is not helpful in resolving the nuclear dispute between Iran and the West," he said. "They are completely wrong if they think our people will back down even a single step."
Salehi said Iran has been trying to buy the higher enriched fuel for its research reactor for the past several months, but the West made providing the fuel conditional on Iran's acceptance of the UN-drafted agreement to ship its uranium stockpile abroad first.
That plan would come with some safeguards, because the enriched fuel provided to Iran would be in a form that would be difficult to further process to make weapons.
According to the report on state TV, the higher level enrichment began after Iranian scientists injected 25 kilograms of 3.5 per cent enriched UF6, or Uranium hexafluoride, gas into a cascade of 164 centrifuge machines at a laboratory in central town of Natanz, some 150 miles south of Tehran.
The machines are expected to produce some 2.5 kilograms of 20 per cent enriched uranium out of 25 kilograms of gas every month, according to the report.
It said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency were present during the injection.
When asked about the enrichment process, Gill Tudor of the IAEA only said that the agency had inspectors in the country already.
"The agency continues to have inspectors in Iran conducting normal safeguard operations," Tudor said.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates believes a new UN resolution would lay the legal groundwork countries need to impose sanctions independently and pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Germany is "very concerned about the developments in Iran," and that "if Iran insists on refusing to join negotiations, talks at the United Nations will be unavoidable and we will then have to talk about new measures."
"There is also the possibility of widening the sanctions," he told reporters in Berlin.
No new UN Security Council sanctions can be passed, however, without unanimous agreement from all members, including China, which has been reluctant to impose new punitive measures on Iran.
China called for more talks on Tuesday, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, saying "I hope the relevant parties will step up efforts and push for progress in the dialogue and negotiations."
Russia, another Security Council member, has also been reluctant to back new sanctions.
The nation's security chief said on Tuesday, however, that Iran's decision to enrich uranium to higher levels has added to doubts about its nuclear programme.
"Iran says it doesn't want to have nuclear weapons. But its actions, including its decision to enrich uranium to 20 per cent, have raised doubts among other nations, and these doubts are quite well-founded," Nikolai Patrushev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Iran says it needs the 20 per cent enriched fuel for a research reactor producing radio isotopes to treat cancer and manufacture radiography materials. Iran says more than 850,000 people need the products for their illnesses.
Timeline: Iran Nuclear Programme
1985- Iran joins Libya and Syria in agreeing to build nuclear weapons to counter the threat posed by Israeli weapons.
1991-China provides uranium hexafluoride to Iran. It reports its first shipment to the IAEA, but does not report a second, larger shipment, which includes other materials.
1995-Iran signs an agreement with Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy to resume work on a reactor at Bushehr.
1998-US Congress passes the Iran Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act of 1998.
2002-Russian workers begin construction at Bushehr.
2003- Iran's programme for enriching uranium and its facilities at Natanz are revealed to the public. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami invites IAEA inspectors to visit the Natanz facility.
October 2003- Iran begins negotiations with Britain, France and Germany. The EU countries are determined to prevent the emergence of an Iranian nuclear weapons programme.
November 2004- Iran agrees to suspend almost all of its nuclear enrichment under the Iran-EU agreement.
August 2005-Iran decides to resume nuclear enrichment at the uranium conversion facility in Esfahan.
January 2006- Iran resumes nuclear research, triggering Western condemnation. Britain, France and Germany call the resumption of enrichment a "clear rejection" of the preceding diplomatic negotiations.
February - Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki announces the end of Iran's voluntary cooperation with the IAEA.
March: Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns says Tehran has "crossed the international red line" with its activities to enrich uranium, adding that unless Iran suspends all nuclear activities, the Security Council must get involved.
UN Security Council unanimously adopts statement calling on Tehran to halt its nuclear work.
The five permanent UN Security Council members warn Iran that it must heed the UN statement insisting that it stop its nuclear work or face isolation.
April 11 - Iranian President Ahmadinejad claims that Iran has successfully enriched uranium at its Natanz facilitiy.
April 28 - The IAEA sends its report to the UN Security Council faulting Iran for failing to meet demands to suspend uranium enrichment and improve cooperation with nuclear inspectors.
August 4 - US slaps sanctions on seven international arms dealers, including two major Russian companies, for allegedly providing banned technology to Iran.
August 27 - Ahmadinejad launches a new phase in Iran's nuclear development with the formal opening of a heavy-water-production plant at Arak.
September 26 - Russia and Iran agree to bring the Bushehr nuclear plant on line in September, 2007.
December 26 - The 15-member UN Security Council unanimously adopts a binding resolution that calls on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and to comply with its IAEA obligations. Resolution 1737 directs all states to prevent the supply or sale to Iran of any materials that could assist its nuclear or ballistic missile programmes.
December 27 - Iran's parliament passes a bill that obliges the government to "revise its cooperation level" with the UN's nuclear watchdog and, at the same time, continue to pursue the country's civilian nuclear programme.
February 22, 2007 - The IAEA issues a report confirming that Iran has failed to halt uranium-enrichment activities, as demanded by the UN Security Council. The report also notes that Iran has expanded the programme, installing two cascades with many dozens of centrifuges at Natanz and nearing completion on two more cascades.
February 25 - Ahmadinejad says Iran's nuclear programme is unstoppable and, in a show of its growing technical prowess the same day, Iran reportedly fires a rocket into space for the first time.
March 8 - The IAEA, votes unanimously to cut almost half its aid programmes to Iran as part of the UN sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear programme.
April 9 - Iran says the country's uranium enrichment programme is ready to operate on an "industrial level."
April 18 – The IAEA says Iran has started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines in an accelerating campaign to lay a basis for "industrial scale" enrichment in the Natanz complex.
November 2 - Six powers - Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China - agree to push ahead with more sanctions.
January 11-12 – The IAEA head Mohammad Al Baradei makes a rare visit to Tehran to push for swifter cooperation in wrapping up the IAEA inquiry.
March 3 - UN Security Council adopts a third sanctions resolution targeted at Iran's nuclear programme.
August 2 - An informal deadline lapses for Iran to respond to an offer from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia for talks on its disputed nuclear programme.
August 5 - Iran delivers a letter to world powers but gives no concrete reply to a demand to freeze its nuclear activity, a defiant step the US says amounts to obfuscation. The next day the US and Britain say major powers agreed to consider more UN sanctions.
September 15 - The IAEA says Iran has blocked a UN inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb as Britain said it would push hard for tougher sanctions.
November 26 -Iran says it is now running 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges, signalling an expansion of work the West fears is aimed at making nuclear weapons.
February 19 - A new IAEA report shows a significant increase in Iran's reported stockpile of low-enriched uranium since November to 1,010 kg, enough, some physicists say, for possible conversion into high-enriched uranium for one bomb.
February 25 - Iran denies it has slowed down its nuclear activities and says it plans to install 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium over the next five years.
March 20 - US President Barack Obama calls for "engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect". Iran cautiously welcomes the overture, saying it wanted to see "practical steps".
April 8 - US takes another tentative step toward better ties with Iran to become a full participant in nuclear talks with Tehran, but it shows no sign of a detente.
April 9 – Ahmadinejad inaugurates the country's first nuclear fuel production complex.
September 12 - Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Iran will not back down in its nuclear dispute with the West, a day after the United States said it would accept Tehran's offer of wide-ranging talks with six world powers
September 25 - Iran reveals the existence of another nuclear enrichment facility near the city of Qom.
October 1 - Iran meets six world powers in Geneva. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili meets US Undersecretary of State William Burns. Iran accepts a plan at the talks to send 75 per cent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France. There it would be made into special fuel for a Tehran reactor making medical materials, which will run out next year. Iran has not confirmed it is prepared to go through with the deal.
October 21 - The IAEA presents Iran with a draft for a deal to send uranium to Russia and France for enrichment. Iran is initially receptive, but responds later that it will not send uranium abroad. Iran insists that it will still consider exchanging uranium for enrich uranium within its borders.
November 27 - The IAEA votes overwhelmingly to censure Iran for its secret development of the Fordo plant, and to demand that it freezes the project.
November 30 - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki lashed out at the UN atomic watchdog, saying it was implementing a "law of the jungle"
December 04-A nuclear official said Iran will not answer to the UN nuclear watchdog about its plans to build ten new uranium enrichment sites beyond the barest minimum required under the international nonproliferation treaty
December 16 - Iran test-fired faster version of its Sejil medium-range missile with a range that would allow it to reach targets inside Israel, drawing sharp international censure
January 02, 2010-Iran gave the West a one-month "ultimatum" to accept a uranium swap, warning that if there is no deal it will produce its own nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor
January 12-Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi killed in a bomb attack in Tehran, Iran blames on the US and Israel
January 22-Russia cautioned world powers against rushing towards sanctions to punish Iran for spurning a UN-brokered proposal to send its uranium abroad for processing
- Compiled by Gulf News Archives
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