Iran today started to enrich its existing nuclear fuel stockpile towards weapons grade strength.
The move caused international alarm and gave new impetus to Western calls for new sanctions on Tehran despite opposition from China, which insists that negotiations could still succeed.
"Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told Iran's Arabic-language state television, al Alam.
A spokesman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Shirzadian, confirmed that "preparatory work" had started at 9.30am (0600 GMT) and that production would formally get under way at about 1pm local time.
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Iran’s announcement is the latest twist of the UN-backed uranium swap deal.
Iran was required to ship out three quarters of its low-enriched uranium stocks — at a purity of 3.5 per cent — in return for an equivalent amount of 20 per cent enriched uranium in the form of French-made fuel rods to be used in a research reactor to produce medical isotopes.
Iran in effect pronounced the deal dead yesterday, warning the IAEA that it intended to begin the high-enrichment itself, taking it closer to the 90 per cent weapons-grade uranium required for a nuclear bomb. This morning it put that that threat into action.
Because it lacks the technology to make the fuel rods Iran could not use the enriched material for medical purposes, raising suspicions that it is seeking to produce weapons-grade fuel.
France and Argentina are the only countries capable of making the rods and Argentina has refused to help.
Although weapons-grade uranium is 90 per cent enriched, the first stages of the process are by far the hardest. The leap from 20 to 90 per cent is bridged easily.
The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, yesterday denounced Iran’s warning as blackmail to force a deal on Tehran’s terms. In the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office called the Iranian decision worrying.
President Ahmadinejad announced last week that Iran was ready to sign the deal. The announcement was met with scepticism and ultimately failed over the refusal by Iran to adhere to the conditions put forward by the IAEA.
The battle now moves to the UN Security Council, where Western powers hope to lure Russia and China on board for sanctions on the Iranian Central Bank and other financial institutions, as well as companies controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard.
