TEHRAN, Iran
Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday. He insisted, however, that his country does not aim to develop nuclear weapons. In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. "At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory- scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Ahmadinejad said. "I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all uranium enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected the demand, saying it has a right to develop the process. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due in Iran this week for talks to try to resolve the standoff. The White House denounced the latest comments from Iranian officials, with spokesman Scott McClellan saying they "continue to show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction." Ahmadinejad said Iran "relies on the sublime beliefs that lie within the Iranian and Islamic culture. Our nation does not get its strength from nuclear arsenals." He said Iran wanted to operate its nuclear program under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency and within its rights and regulations under the regulations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment.
"At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory- scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Ahmadinejad said.
"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.
The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all uranium enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected the demand, saying it has a right to develop the process. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due in Iran this week for talks to try to resolve the standoff.
The White House denounced the latest comments from Iranian officials, with spokesman Scott McClellan saying they "continue to show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction."
Ahmadinejad said Iran "relies on the sublime beliefs that lie within the Iranian and Islamic culture. Our nation does not get its strength from nuclear arsenals."
He said Iran wanted to operate its nuclear program under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency and within its rights and regulations under the regulations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had joined the nations with "nuclear technology" but again insisted it did not want nuclear weapons.
Tehran resumed enrichment research in February. Last month the UN gave Iran 30 days to halt work or face action.
Iran's announcement comes on the eve of a visit by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei.
Western powers fear Iran is developing a nuclear bomb. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian use.
The US responded to the latest news by saying that Iran was "moving in the wrong direction".
'Pathway of defiance'
In a televised speech in the north-western holy city of Mashhad, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology."
His audience broke into cheers and chants of "Allahu akbar" (God is great).
Mr Ahmadinejad called on the nation's scientists to press ahead with "industrial-scale enrichment" and urged the West to respect what he called Iran's right to peaceful atomic technology.
He said the "nuclear fuel cycle had been completed" with the enrichment on Sunday at the Natanz plant.
Vice-president and atomic energy chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh confirmed Iran had also produced 110 tons of uranium gas needed to feed the enrichment process - twice the amount it said last year that it had produced.
The US condemned Iran's announcements.
State department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We would have hoped that the Iranian regime would have taken this opportunity to choose a pathway of diplomacy as opposed to the pathway of defiance."
Mr ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to arrive in Iran on Wednesday to discuss its nuclear programme.
He has to report back to the Security Council at the end of this month.
Should Iran have failed to halt its enrichment by then, the council will have to consider its next move, with the US among those likely to call for sanctions.
But those calls may face opposition from Russia and China.
Centrifuges
Earlier on Tuesday, ex-Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had told Kuwait's Kuna news agency Tehran had operated 164 centrifuges for the first time, achieving "industrial output".
The 164 centrifuges are needed to provide the cascade that creates enriched uranium.
But the process would only create the low-level enrichment needed for nuclear fuel.
Iran would need thousands of centrifuges to create the highly enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons.
Experts say Iran is years away from having a nuclear bomb.
BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says Iran's announcement is significant for two reasons.
Firstly it indicates Iran has taken a major step forward technically, and secondly it is in direct defiance of the UN Security Council's call and is likely therefore to lead to even greater confrontation with the West.