Iran will launch the production of flat uranium fuel in the next few months, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Director Ali Akbar Salehi said in response to the French Foreign Ministry's statement on Iran's failure to enrich uranium to 20 percent, Fars reported.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called "blackmail" Tehran's statement that Iranian experts will launch uranium enrichment at the Natanz Plant to provide the Tehran research reactor with fuel. He said Iran does not have the capacity to enrich uranium to 20 percent.
The Iranians "do not know how to produce fuel for a research reactor," he added.
"Once Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Algeria had been a step ahead of Iran in nuclear energy production, but now Iran cannot be compared with these countries in terms of development," Salehi said.
