U.N. agency: Iran still enriching uranium in defiance

VIENNA, Austria – Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program instead of complying with a U.N. Security Council ultimatum to freeze it, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday in a finding that clears the way for harsher sanctions against Tehran.\n“Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report.\nAlthough its information was based on material available to it as of Feb. 17, a senior U.N. official familiar with Iran’s nuclear file, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue, suggested the IAEA’s conclusion remained valid as of Thursday.\nThe IAEA detailed recent activities showing Tehran expanding its enrichment efforts – setting up hundreds of uranium-spinning centrifuges in an underground hall and bringing nearly 9 tons of the gaseous feedstock into the facility in preparation for enrichment. It added that Iranian officials had informed the agency that they would expand their centrifuge installations to have thousands of them ready by May.\nThe conclusion – while widely expected – was important because it could serve as the trigger for the council to start deliberating on new sanctions meant to punish Tehran for its intransigence over its nuclear program.\nIn the report, written by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency also said the Islamic republic continues building both a reactor that will use heavy water and a heavy water production plant – also in defiance of the Security Council.\nBoth enriched uranium and plutonium produced by heavy water reactors can produce the fissile material used in nuclear warheads. Iran denies such intentions, saying it needs the heavy water reactor to produce radioactive isotopes for medical and other peaceful purposes and enrichment to generate energy.\nThe report also said agency experts remain “unable ... to make further progress in its efforts to verify fully the past development of Iran’s nuclear program” due to lack of Iranian cooperation.\nThat, too, put it in violation of the Security Council, which on Dec. 23 told Tehran to “provide such access and cooperation as the agency requests to be able to verify ... all outstanding issues” within 60 days.\nThe report – sent both to the Security Council and the agency’s 35 board member nations – set the stage for a fresh showdown between Iran and Western powers.\nIn Tehran, the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammed Saeedi, said: “Iran considers the (IAEA demand for) suspension as against its rights, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and international regulations.”\n“That’s why Tehran could not have answered positively to the request by resolution 1737 of the U.N. Security Council for a suspension of enrichment activity,” Saeedi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.\nState Department spokesman Tom Casey said that Iran’s refusal to curtail its nuclear program is a “missed opportunity” for its government and people. \nAssociated Press writers Anne Gearan in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations in New York contributed to this report.