Envoys Say Iran Has Begun Nuclear Work

Iran began enriching uranium on a small scale at its Natanz plant Monday, according to Western diplomats, defying pleas by the international community that it not carry out such activities.

The uranium could be used either to generate fuel for civilian power plants or, if more highly enriched, to make a nuclear weapon.

Iran announced Monday that it was delaying any further negotiations with Russia, which had offered a joint venture to enrich uranium on Russian soil for use at Iranian power plants.

The moves, another step in the escalating dispute, capped a weekend of conflicting signals from Tehran over whether it would moderate its stance or continue to pursue a strategy of brinkmanship.

On Monday, a government spokesman reiterated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s warning that Iran might withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even though a Foreign Ministry spokesman had pledged Sunday that the Iranians were “still committed” to the treaty.

Western diplomats in Vienna confirmed Monday that the Iranians had fed uranium gas into the centrifuges at Natanz, a step toward creating enriched fuel, and they expressed disappointment over the move.

“The last IAEA board resolution clearly called on Iran to reestablish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities, including research and development,” a diplomat said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring arm. “Unfortunately, Iran’s leaders seem to be disregarding this call by the international community.”

The diplomat and others requested anonymity because Iran is now considered so sensitive an issue that all statements are supposed to come from home offices.

Iranian presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham did not confirm that his government had begun enrichment tests at the Natanz plant but said it would resume such activities there by March 6. On that date, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is scheduled to submit his report on Iran’s nuclear program to the agency’s board of governors, which in turn must forward it to the U.N. Security Council.

“Iran is determined to go ahead with its peaceful atomic work.... We will not wait until then,” Elham said.

However, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday after meeting with President Bush at the White House that he hoped Iran would reach out to the European Union and Russia, with whom it had been negotiating until last fall.

“I hope between now and the time the atomic agency issues its next report, there will be indications and steps from the Iranians’ side to indicate that negotiations are not dead, and that both sides can come back to the table and find a way out of this crisis,” Annan said.

The IAEA has inspectors arriving in Iran today and could not discuss whether uranium gas had been fed into centrifuges at the plant. Although the agency has cameras that record activity at enrichment sites, they do not provide real-time information in Iran.

The only assembled centrifuges that Iran is known to have are the 165 machines at the pilot plant in Natanz. The gas is fed from one centrifuge to another, in an effort to separate the isotope necessary for fuel or a weapon. However, with the current equipment it would take as long as 10 years to make the 55 pounds of enriched uranium needed for a bomb, experts said.

The Iranians have the parts to make several thousand more centrifuges. Once those were assembled and working, it would take far less time to produce uranium enriched to the level needed for a weapon, diplomats said.

Under the nonproliferation treaty, it is legal for the Iranians to enrich uranium to a low level for civilian use, as long as they do so under IAEA rules. But because Iran hid its nuclear program for 18 years, the international community has asked it to meet a higher standard, which includes a moratorium on all enrichment activities and full compliance with U.N. inspectors.

Iran grudgingly complied for close to two years, but on Jan. 10 it broke seals placed by the IAEA on the enrichment plant and announced that it planned to restart research and development there.

Although many analysts believe that Iran is still several years away from manufacturing a bomb, they say the government could follow the model set by North Korea in 2003: Master the ability to enrich uranium to a low level, gradually increase the level of enrichment, then withdraw from the nuclear treaty when prepared to manufacture a weapon.

Times staff writers David Holley in Moscow, Paul Richter in Washington and Maggie Farley at the United Nations contributed to this report.