Iran installs advanced enrichment centrifuges

             
Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant, a UN nuclear report said on Thursday, a defiant step likely to anger world powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week. In a confidential report, the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) said 180 so-called ir-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been hooked up at the plant near the central town of Natanz.        

If operated successfully, such machines could enable Iran to significantly speed up its accumulation of material that the west fears could be used to devise a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes.

This after Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee deplored the increasing Western pressure over his country’s nuclear program on Wednesday, saying that “it could end hopes for a negotiated settlement,” AFP reported.      

Key negotiations are expected to take place in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, however Khazaee said that his country although desires talks, disfavors Western “tactics of sanctions”. 
           
Khazaee, Iran's senior diplomat in the United States in the absence of formal ties between the arch-rivals, warned that more sanctions could completely bring talks over Iran's nuclear drive to a stop.             

"More pressure can only beget more distrust, leading Iran, in turn, to lose hope in a negotiated settlement," the envoy said at the Asia Society in New York.                

Khazaee said President Barack Obama's administration declared "economic war" against Iran.            

He also stressed that Iranian leaders had welcomed recent U.S. calls for diplomatic talks.

Reactions

The White House warned Iran on Thursday that it would face further pressure and isolation if it fails to address international concerns about its nuclear program in talks with world powers next week.   

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the window for diplomacy with Iran remains open "but that window will not remain open indefinitely" and put the onus on Tehran to come to the Feb. 26 talks in Kazakhstan prepared for "substantive" discussions.   

Carney was responding to questions from reporters on a U.N. nuclear report that said Iran had begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant.


REUTERS/LBCI