Iran vowed today to expand its atomic fuel work and warned that any UN sanctions aimed at halting its uranium enrichment would incur a painful riposte, possibly including a cut in oil exports.
Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Iran would expand the number of atomic centrifuges it was running. Centrifuges enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speeds.
"We will expand nuclear technology at whatever stage it may be necessary and all of Iran's nuclear technology including the (centrifuge) cascades will be expanded," he told a news conference. Such remarks flatly reject a UN Security Council resolution demanding Tehran halt its nuclear work by August 31st or face the threat of sanctions.
The West fears Iran will use enriched uranium to make atomic bombs. Iranian officials, who argue they need enriched uranium only to run power stations, say the resolution was illegal and that Tehran has every right to produce fuel from the uranium ore that it mines in its central deserts.
Iran said in April it had produced enriched uranium from a cascade of 164 centrifuges. It has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year, enough to produce material for a nuclear warhead in one year.