Iran Vows to Continue Nuclear Program

Iran moved closer to a stand off with the international community when President Mohammad Khatami vowed on Tuesday to continue a nuclear program some suspect is aimed at developing weapons, even if it means ending cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We've made our choice: yes to peaceful nuclear technology, no to atomic weapons," Khatami said at a military parade in Tehran. "We will continue along our path even if it leads to an end to international supervision of our nuclear activities," the Iranian president said.

Khatami's resolute statement echoes those made earlier in the day by a close advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and close aide to the Ayatollah, called for Tehran to stand firm in its drive for sensitive nuclear technology and to be ready to pay the diplomatic price, according to state news agency IRNA.

Iran will accept costs, says Ayatollah's aide

"Whenever we stand firm and defend our righteous stands resolutely, they are forced to retreat and have no alternatives," Velayati said. "If a nation aims at reaching scientific and technological perfection and embracing high standards in national achievement, there will be costs it has to accept," Velayati, who has also been tipped as a possible future president of the country, added.

The statements come as Iran announced that it had begun converting a large amount of uranium ore into the gas feedstock needed to enrich uranium. The move, a key stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, is one which US officials have charged could produce enough material to make several atomic bombs.

Enrichment tests a success

Iranian atomic energy chief Reza Aghazadeh told reporters in Vienna that some of the 37 tons of uranium yellowcake, or ore, which Iran had previously said it would be converting had now been used. "Tests have been successful," he added. Yellowcake is converted into uranium gas which is then fed into centrifuges to make enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be fuel for civilian reactors, but also the explosive core for atomic bombs.

The United States, which charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, said that industrial-scale uranium conversion, even if Tehran only designated this as "tests", would be an alarming sign that Iran is continuing its alleged quest of the bomb.

Aghazadeh said that Iran has the centrifuge technology in place in order to convert the gas feedstock into enriched uranium if it so decided. His announcement at a general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was the first confirmation that Iran had actually begun the large-scale conversion. It was not clear, however, exactly when this took place.

November deadline set by IAEA

The IAEA adopted a resolution on Saturday that demands Iran halt its controversial uranium enrichment-related activities, a part of the nuclear fuel cycle that can be directed to both energy and weapons purposes. In a compromise text hammered out by the three main European powers -- Britain, France and Germany -- and the United States, the UN watchdog also gave Iran until November 25 to clear up suspicions it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it is only trying to generate nuclear power, and contends that fuel cycle work for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, is permitted under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Refusal to abide by the resolution could mean the country is referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, something the United States has been lobbying for.

Resolution dismissed as US pandering

Velayati said Washington was merely trying to "paralyze all our activities and will not cease until they have erased us from the scene." He also denounced the Europeans, who have been spearheading diplomatic efforts to ensure Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, as "expansionist" and "trying to please Washington."

"Those who are familiar with these countries and the history of international diplomacy never count on the promises of such countries," he said in regards to Iran's talks with the EU's "big three."