Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 12 / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements do not reflect the real capabilities of Iran at present, U.S. expert on Iran Mark N. Katz reported.
"I think that Ahmadinejad's claim that Iran will enrich its own medical grade uranium was made to elicit concessions from the P5+1, and does not reflect Iran's actual capacity at present," Politics Professor at the Public and International Affairs Department at George Mason University Mark Katz wrote Trend in an e-mail.
Iran has already enriched the first batch of uranium up to 20-percent, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the rally in Tehran to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Feb.11, IRINN television channel reported.
On Sunday Ahmadinejad gave instructions to begin producing nuclear fuel, capable of feeding the research nuclear reactor, RIA Novosti reported with reference to the Reuters news agency. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Ali Akbar Salehi sated that the Iran will launch the process of enriching uranium to 20-percent Feb.9.
He said , the Washington Post published an article about how Iran is experiencing great difficulty in enriching uranium even to the low (3.5 percent) commercial grade, and casting doubt on its ability to enrich to medical (20 percent) grade, much less high (90 percent) weapons grade.
Even though the western governments do not believe in this, they are likely to seize on Ahmadinejad's statement to try to increase sanctions on Iran, he believes.
"Russia and China, though, are unlikely to go along with this, especially after the new report about how Iran is having trouble enriching uranium," the expert said.
The U.S. and other Western countries accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons for military purposes under the guise of peaceful nuclear energy program. Tehran denies the charges, saying that its nuclear program is aimed solely at meeting the country's electricity needs. The U.N. Security Council adopted five resolutions in connection with the suspension of Iran's nuclear program. Three involve the use of economic sanctions on Iran.
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