Iran says it has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Apr. 11 – Iran has recently managed to enrich uranium to the level required to make nuclear fuel, the Islamic Republic’s nuclear chief announced on state television on Tuesday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 11 – Iran has recently managed to enrich uranium to the level required to make nuclear fuel, the Islamic Republic’s nuclear chief announced on state television on Tuesday.

“We successfully enriched uranium to 3.5 percent on April 9”, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who heads Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said.

Earlier in the day, former Iranian President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani announced that Iran had began uranium enrichment, despite a call by the United Nations Security Council for it to cease all uranium enrichment activities.

“We operated the first unit which comprises of 164 centrifuges, gas was injected, and we got the industrial output”, Rafsanjani, who currently chairs the State Expediency Council (SEC), told the Kuwaiti news agency in Tehran.

Also on Tuesday, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran will soon join the so-called international Nuclear Club.

“Iran will soon join the international club of states that have nuclear technology”, Ahmadinejad told a rally in the eastern town of Chenaran. “The equation will change in favour of the Iranian nation”.

“The enemies cannot force Iran to abandon its path of advancement and development which it has chosen”, he said.

The UN Security Council adopted a “Presidential Statement” unanimously on March 29 giving Iran 30 days to suspend all of its uranium enrichment activities and resume its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.