Iran Moves to Expand Uranium Enrichment Program Against Western Pleading

After 7 nuclear talks, the UN, EU and US have failed to sway Iran in their pursuit of an enhanced uranium enrichment program.

After a brief period of silence, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that the country has dramatically expanded its production of enriched uranium, acting against international pleading, by increasing the number of machines it has producing the compound. Iran had been asked by Western organizations to halt its uranium enrichment program at its current operation level.

Despite the announcement, Ahmadinejad seemed to imply that Iran may be willing to discontinue upcoming additions centrifuges to the uranium production program. According to reports, Ahmadinejad told scholars in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad that Iran possessed more than 5,000 centrifuges, which can produce nuclear material suitable for a power plant or, if highly enriched, an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad insists the Iranian nuclear program is meant only to provide electricity, though the majority of Western arms control experts suspect Iran is trying to at least attain the capability to begin producing bombs quickly if it so decides.