- TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Tuesday to attack Israel in response
to any "evil" act by the United States and said it had enriched
uranium to a level close to the maximum compatible with civilian use in
power stations.
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- The defiant statements were issued shortly
before world powers meet in Paris to discuss the next steps after Tehran
rejected a U.N. call to halt uranium enrichment.
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- Senior officials from the U.N. Security
Council's permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United
States -- plus Germany were to discuss how to curb an Iranian program that
Western nations say conceals a drive for atomic warheads.
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- Iran denies the charge and refuses to
back down from what it calls its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
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- Driving home that message, the head of
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said his country
had now succeeded in purifying uranium to 4.8 percent, at the top end of
the 3 to 5 percent range for fuel used in nuclear power plants.
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- "Enrichment above 5 percent is not
on Iran's agenda," Aghazadeh told the students' ISNA news agency.
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- Iran has previously said it had enriched
to more than 4 percent, far below the 80 percent level needed for bomb-making.
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- It has used a test cascade of 164 centrifuges
to enrich uranium so far and is building two similar cascades. It says
it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year -- enough to
yield material for one bomb within a year.
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- The United States and Israel have vowed
to deny Iran nuclear weapons. Washington has not excluded war if diplomacy
fails, while Tehran has sworn to retaliate if attacked.
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- TARGETING ISRAEL
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- "We have announced that wherever
America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel,"
ISNA quoted a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim
Dehqani, as saying on Tuesday.
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- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."
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- Iran's deputy oil minister said there
was "some possibility" of a U.S. attack on his country over its
nuclear program.
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- "I am worried. Everybody is worried,"
Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said in New Delhi after talks on a proposed
$7-billion pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.
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- Concerns that Iran's dispute with the
West could lead to disruption of its oil output pushed oil prices above
$74 a barrel, close to the record of $75.35 touched last month.
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- The United States, Britain and France
are expected to introduce a resolution to the Security Council this week
that would legally oblige Iran to comply with U.N. demands. The three countries
favor limited sanctions if Tehran remains defiant.
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- Iran said Russia and China, also veto-wielding
permanent council members, would not back any punitive measures.
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- "The thing these two countries have
officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition
to sanctions and military attacks," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
told Iran's Kayhan newspaper.
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- China and Russia both have big energy
interests in Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil exporter. Russia is also
helping Iran build its first atomic power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr.
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- Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under-secretary
of state for political affairs, said in Paris that Tuesday's meeting would
seek to keep the Security Council members and Germany united before a meeting
of foreign ministers in New York on May 9.
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- Asked about Mottaki's comments, he said:
"All I know is that China and Russia say that they don't want a nuclear-armed
Iran. And China and Russia have voted with us against the government of
Iran. So we intend to preserve this unity."
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- Burns said he expected a consensus to
emerge over the next 30-40 days on the need to send a "stiff message"
to Iran, adding that a range of sanctions had been discussed privately.
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- These included restricting exports to
Iran of dual-use technology that could support its research and development
or help it fabricate fissile material or a nuclear device.
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- Other options were travel curbs on Iranian
officials and a ban on arms sales to Iran, such as a planned Russian missile
deal. Oil and gas sanctions were not being discussed now.
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- "We hope that the U.N. Security
Council, through a resolution, will send a firm and united message to Iran,"
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said in Paris.
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- The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says it cannot confirm that Iran's goals are
peaceful, but has found no proof of a military program.
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- A U.N. resolution would be adopted under
Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, making it binding in international law.
A separate resolution would be required for sanctions or military action.
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- (Additional reporting by Alireza Ronaghi
and Parinoosh Arami in Tehran, Mark Heinrich in Vienna, Jon Boyle in Paris
and Himanghsu Watts in New Delhi)
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- Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.
All rights reserved.
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