Resumes Nuclear Effort

Reuters reports that backtracking from a pledge to Britain, France and Germany, has resumed building nuclear centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium for use in bombs:

"We have started building centrifuges," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a news conference.

However he insisted had not resumed enriching uranium, the key part of the process which can either produce fuel for power stations or bomb material.

had previously said it would restart making centrifuges to retaliate against a resolution from the U.N. nuclear watchdog last month deploring Tehran's failure to co-operate fully with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Diplomats say has also restarted work at a uranium conversion facility near the central city of Isfahan. The plant turns processed ore, or yellowcake, into uranium hexafluoride gas which is pumped into centrifuges to form enriched uranium.

[. . .]

"We just want to produce fuel for our plants and we are not after nuclear weapons," he said.

Washington says 's nuclear program is a cover for seeking atomic weapons.

Last October committed itself to full cooperation with the IAEA and to an exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy. The statement published after the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and Germany met with officials in Tehran on October 21, 2003 included this language:

While has a right within the nuclear non-proliferation regime to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, it has decided voluntarily to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities as defined by the IAEA.

agreed to suspend enrichment to restore international confidence following revelations that it had kept secret sensitive nuclear research for nearly two decades.

By building centrifuges, once again demonstrates that it is part of the axis of evil.