TEHRAN (AFP) -
A defiant
Iran vowed that nothing could halt its controversial nuclear program, in a direct challenge to the UN Security Council that could risk international sanctions.
With the country basking in national pride after regime scientists successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel -- a milestone in its atomic drive -- officials pledged to move rapidly to industrial-scale work.
"When a people master nuclear technology and nuclear fuel, nothing can be done against them," boasted armed forces joint chief of staff, General Hassan Firouzabadi.
Iran says its nuclear drive is purely peaceful, but uranium enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a bomb. The Security Council had set April 28 as a deadline for Tehran to halt the ultra-sensitive work.
"The West can do nothing and is obliged to extend to us the hand of friendship," the ISNA news agency quoted Firouzabadi as saying.
US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice called for the 15-member Security Council to take "strong steps" and the White House said sanctions were now an option.
"The enrichment activities by the regime fly in the face of the
United Nations Security Council and the IAEA (
International Atomic Energy Agency) board," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
"There are a number of options that are available to us through the diplomatic process," he said, adding that officials were nonetheless still "pursuing a diplomatic solution".
Iran's announcement is also a blow to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is due to arrive in Tehran overnight in a fresh bid to resolve tensions. He is expected to give his response in Tehran on Thursday.
ElBaradei has said "the jury is still out" over the true nature of Iran's program and is also trying to press Iran to agree to a fuel cycle moratoruim while his frustrated investigation continues.
Officials from permanent Security Council members Britain, France and Russia, and Germany, all said Iran had taken a "step in the wrong direction."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was however quoted as strongly opposing the use of force after US reports over the weekend suggested Washington was considering military action -- even a possible nuclear strike.
"I am convinced that there can be no resolution of the problem through use of force... practically all European countries are in solidarity with Russia."
The Israeli military's chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, described a nuclear Iran as "a threat to the whole world and not only Israel."
The Jewish state -- believed to be the only nuclear armed state in the region -- views the regime in Tehran as its number one enemy, alarmed in particular by a call last year from Ahmadinejad for
Israel to be "wiped off the map" as well as his dismissal of the Holocaust as a "myth."
But Ahmadinejad repeated his call on foreign governments to "recognize and respect Iran's rights" -- presenting a fait accompli to Western powers which have been battling to prevent Iran from acquiring sensitive nuclear know-how.
The firebrand president has also called for a no-holds-barred acceleration of enrichment work.
Iran's nuclear milestone was achieved on Monday -- at a pilot plant of 164 centrifuges in Natanz -- with uranium enriched to 3.5 percent, or the purity required for civilian reactor fuel.
This, said Iranian vice president and atomic energy chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, "paves the way for enrichment on an industrial scale" using an enormous 110 tonnes of UF6 feedstock gas already produced.
He also said Iran was "determined" to complete work within three years on a heavy water reactor in Arak -- which critics say which could also produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon.
Mohammad Saidi, the deputy chief of Iran's atomic program, told state television 3,000 centrifuges would be installed at Natanz within the next year.
"The nuclear fuel cycle is complete, the beginnings of a powerful Iran," the conservative Iranian daily Resalat trumpeted, calling for a week of "national celebration" and a new annual public holiday to mark the event.
State television was broadcasting non-stop images of nuclear sites accompanied by rousing patriotic music.
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] about Iran and Iraq, what that dirty idealogies have done to the world... right from hitler to today's bush. 
Originally Posted by akroracle
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