Tehran: Sanctions against Iran could have some effect in slowing down its nuclear progress, a senior official said yesterday, the first time Iran has acknowledged the measures might have some bite.
"We cannot say the sanctions have no effect," the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, was quoted as saying by Isna news agency. "Maybe they will slow down the work but they will not stop it, that's certain."
Iran faces a new wave of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the US and the European Union.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has consistently said sanctions would have no impact on Iran's economy or its nuclear programme.
"In the case of enrichment and for some equipment like equipment for measuring, we might have some problems," Salehi said.
But he added that Iran would be able to produce that equipment itself if necessary.
Earlier, Salehi said first nuclear power plant is set to be launched by late September now that an important final test has been carried out at the reactor.
Salehi's statement suggested that a row that erupted between Moscow and Tehran in May over new UN sanctions against Iran had caused no further delays to the project.
"We reached the point of no return and the ground is paved for the reactor to go on stream," the official Irna news agency quoted Salehi as saying, adding the start-up would take place during the Iranian month which begins on August 23.
He said warm-water tests had been conducted on the facility, adding they were "the last and some of the most important tests before going on stream." The report did not say when they were carried out nor by whom.
Russia agreed to build the 1,000-megawatt reactor 15 years ago but delays have haunted the $1 billion project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relations with Tehran.
The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko, said this year the Bushehr reactor was scheduled to begin operating in August.
