Ahmadinejad: We're approaching nuclear peak

Ahmadinejad: Iran doesn't need help from the West; Teheran announces Iranian-built light water plant.

By AP, JPOST.COM STAFF
ahmadinejad karnayim 224 (photo credit: AP)
ahmadinejad karnayim 224
(photo credit: AP)
Iran is approaching a new "nuclear peak," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday but did not specify what kind of peek he might be referring to. He also urged Western powers to help build nuclear power plants in his country, saying it would be "too late" if they did not decide to do so immediately, Iranian state television reported. Speaking to a crowd on a visit to the southern port of Bushehr, where Iran's first light-water nuclear power plant is being built by Russia, Ahmadinejad urged other countries to participate as well. "If you will not come, this nation will build nuclear plants based on its own resources and when you come some four years later it will reject your request and then not give you any opportunity," he said in a live television speech. "I am addressing leaders of two or three powers; do you remember I sent you a message and told you to stop being stubborn? If you think that you can block the progress of the Iranian nation, you are wrong." Also on Wednesday, Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization told reporters that "the first Iranian-made light-water 360 megawatt nuclear power plant would be operational in 2016 in the southwestern Iranian town of Darkhovin. The official also said that the Bushehr plant would go on test operation in October, though its precision instruments have yet to be delivered. The UN Security Council has been trying to pressure Iran to freeze uranium enrichment, but it has repeatedly refused, and officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency have privately said Teheran is expanding the program. The Security Council is considering a new draft resolution that calls for additional sanctions against Iran, including bans on travel. Two sets of sanctions have already been imposed on Iran for refusing to halt enrichment. The five veto-wielding members of the council - the US, Britain, France, China and Russia - along with Germany, agreed last week on the basic terms of the new resolution. Diplomats have said the full, 15-nation Security Council will likely approve it next month. Iran insists its enrichment activities are intended only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity, and Iranian officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades.