Iran Vows to Pursue Nuclear Program as Nations Eye New Sanctions
November 10, 2011, 1:50 AM ESTBy Vivian Salama and Jonathan Tirone
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran won’t withdraw “an iota” from its atomic program and dismissed a United Nations report showing the country continued working on nuclear weapons capability until at least last year.
“The nation of Iran won’t pull back an iota from its path and will continue,” Ahmadinejad said today in a speech broadcast on state television.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and European countries set the stage for further tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program, saying they will pursue additional economic sanctions.
If Iran fails to answer IAEA questions about its suspect nuclear activities, “we are ready to adopt, with the support of the international community, sanctions of an unprecedented scale,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.
Britain will press China and Russia to increase pressure on Iran, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers in the House of Commons in London today.
Those two countries have been obstacles to further sanctions through the UN Security Council. Russia will not support any new sanctions, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed Russian official.
Iran is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, after Saudi Arabia. Daniel Yergin, chairman and founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said Iran is a threat to Mideast stability. He spoke on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness with Margaret Brennan.”
Documents Sought
Iran needs the opportunity to examine the documents that UN nuclear inspectors deemed “credible” evidence that it has been working toward a nuclear weapon, Tehran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltanieh, said today in a telephone call from Vienna.
Iran had worked to create a miniaturized nuclear weapon design based on Pakistani blueprints, by using a web of front companies and overseas experts, according to the report and an official familiar with the IAEA’s probe. The IAEA said such evidence points to the “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear program.
The report does not say that Iran has the capability and materials to produce a nuclear bomb or give any assessment of how quickly it might do so. IAEA data shows that Iran has produced enough low-enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons, if it is able to overcome the technical hurdles to high enrichment, design and weapons fabrication, according to the Institute for Science and International Security, a nuclear research group in Washington.
‘No Conclusive Evidence’
Iran has repeatedly asserted that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian goals, such as power generation. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said today there is “no conclusive evidence” that Iran wants to build a bomb, adding that the west has no “legal proof” of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Iran’s Press TV reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today the IAEA report “corroborates the position of the international community, and of Israel, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.”
“The international community must bring about the cessation of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East,” he said in a statement issued by his office.
Newspapers in Israel have reported Netanyahu has raised the prospect of Israeli military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons that would threaten Israel. Military experts say that Israel would need U.S. participation to be effective.
Israeli Response
“The Israeli Air Force is capable of launching an attack on Iran and causing damage,” said Yiftah Shapir, director of the Military Balance Project at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It is far from capable of disabling the Iran nuclear program. That would take at least a month of sustained bombing. That’s not something Israel can carry out alone.”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said “we are opposed to any discussion of military options” and that the next steps are additional economic sanctions.
“If Iran continues to reject serious negotiations on its nuclear program, tougher new sanctions will be inevitable,” he said in a statement.
The U.S. continues to consult with partners and allies within the IAEA on a range of possible reactions, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said today.
‘Squeezing’ Iran’s Economy
While current UN-imposed sanctions are “squeezing” Iran’s economy, “we’re going to consult and certainly look at ways to impose additional pressure on Iran,” Toner said.
Since June 2006, the five nuclear-armed, permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China -- along with Germany have pursued negotiations with Iran. At the same time, they have imposed sanctions on weapons, banking, shipping and nuclear-related material in an effort to restrain individuals and firms associated with suspected Iranian weapons activity.
Iran is under four rounds of Security Council sanctions imposed between 2006 and 2010, as well as numerous restrictions by the U.S., the EU, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Australia and South Korea banning certain trade, financial services, energy investment and technology sales.
The IAEA report probably won’t result in a fifth round of Security Council sanctions against Iran, officials in Washington and at the UN said, because of Russian opposition.
--With assistance from Thomas Penny in London, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Nicole Gaouette and Viola Gienger in Washington, Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem and Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv. Editors: Terry Atlas, Steven Komarow
To contact the reporters on this story: Vivian Salama in Abu Dhabi at vsalama@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
