Posted on 04/23/2003 2:31:02 PM PDT by knighthawk
MOSCOW, April 22 (AFP) - Russia is concerned that Iran may be enriching uranium with a view to developing nuclear weapons, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said on Tuesday, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Rumyantsev referred to US press reports that Tehran had equipped a nuclear complex with the capacity to enrich its recently-disclosed uranium deposits, sparking fears that the country may be stepping up a covert weapons program.
"Such centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium to a high enough concentration for developing weapons," he said. "If the media reports are accurate, the situation is alarming."
"Iran must acknowledge these activities and allow an inspection" by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," he said.
Iran in February revealed that it was building an array of facilities to exploit uranium deposits which would make it self-sufficient in nuclear fuel.
IAEA inspectors were later shown a network of centrifuges designed to enrich uranium at a facility near the northwestern Iranian city of Natanz.
The US news magazine Time shortly afterwards quoted diplomatic sources as saying work on the Natanz plant was "extremely advanced" and involved "hundreds" of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and "the parts for a thousand others ready for assembly".
Washington has branded Iran a "rogue state," charging that it had "a far more robust nuclear weapons development programme" than previously believed.
Russia has come under fire from the United States for helping construct the Bushehr nuclear reactor in southern Iran and promising to provide fuel for it.
Both Moscow and Tehran have denied that oil-rich Iran is engaged in a covert nuclear weapons programme, and have said Bushehr will provide nuclear energy for peaceful means.
Moscow last month turned the tables on Washington by charging that some of the United States' "closest allies" were supplying Iran with nuclear equipment.
"According to these press reports, this has been achieved thanks to technology from a US company," Rumyantsev reiterated.
"On the one hand the United States criticises Iran and Russia for cooperating in building a nuclear reactor, while on the other a US company is planning to build a powerful uranium enrichment factory," he charged.
Rumyantsev has claimed that centrifuge machines discovered in Iran were made by the Anglo-Dutch consortium Urenco, which provides uranium-enrichment services for nuclear power plants.
Urenco, which is due to take part in a US consortium building an enrichment plant in the United States, denied the claim.
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Russia is concerned that Iran may be enriching uranium with a view to developing nuclear weapons, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said on Tuesday, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.Then Russia should join us in a massive preemptive strike.
Don't you mean a mullah-homing missle. The last thing in the world we want is a mullah-guided missle!
Russia is concerned that Iran may become Uranium independent and stop buying Russian Uranium. They want the U.S. to do something about it.
"Fisk Alert", "Whiner Aler"....alert alert alert....
But we don't have a "No Sh!t, Sherlock Alert".
We really screwed up by siding with France. Please don't hurt us. We'd like to make amends by helping you defang the Iranians !
W rules!
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