Latest Enriched uranium Stories

By Mark Heinrich and Francois Murphy VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is forging ahead with a nuclear fuel enrichment program in defiance of world pressure and is stonewalling U.N. probes spurred by fears it secretly wants atomic weapons, a U.N. watchdog report said on Monday. The report by International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei was circulated to IAEA board members before they meet on March 6 to discuss it. The report will be forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, strengthening relations with Iran through trade and energy deals, said there was still room to defuse the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions through negotiation. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing appealed to the international community to be calm, restrained and patient and to show flexibility for a resumption of negotiations between Europe and Iran, Xinhua news agency said in an overnight report. "The days before the March 6 meeting...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Iran should suspend all uranium enrichment, China said on Tuesday, as Russian and Iranian nuclear negotiators were to hold a second day of talks to try to strike a deal to ease international concerns that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb. "We support Iran and Russia holding nuclear negotiations and we hope the negotiations can achieve positive results," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference. "Given current developments, China...

PARIS (Reuters) - Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing U.N. inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's embassy in Paris said on Friday. The Iranian statement, which came the day after France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, sketched out a three-stage process to end a standoff with the international community over Iran's nuclear program. Ratification of the Additional Protocol of the...

By Parinoosh Arami TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it had not yet begun any uranium enrichment and was still ready to negotiate on a Russian proposal for resolving a dispute with the West over its nuclear program. The Islamic Republic said the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), could monitor its nuclear program despite Tehran's decision to remove some surveillance cameras. The only solution to the impasse, it said, was for the West to stop...

PARIS -- French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Thursday Iran was pursuing a clandestine military nuclear program."No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. So it is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear program," Douste-Blazy told France 2 television."The international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the Iranians: 'Come back to reason. Suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of...

By Mark Heinrich VIENNA (Reuters) - Threatening to apply new U.S. sanctions, Washington accused Iran on Wednesday of defying the world by resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel. Russia urged Tehran to change course to allow a compromise. Iran resumed small-scale feeding of uranium gas into centrifuge enrichment machines on Tuesday, officials close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. European powers persuaded Tehran to suspend enrichment in November 2003 over...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel, Iran is in "open defiance" of the international community, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. Rice told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration has been examining the "full range of sanctions on Iran" and is also considering additional sanctions the United States could impose on its own, although international action would be more effective. "They have now...

By Mark HeinrichVIENNA -- EU president Austria said on Wednesday Iran's resumption of work to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel had needlessly raised tensions with the West, which fears Tehran is covertly striving to build atomic bombs.U.N. inspectors saw Iranian scientists feeding uranium gas into a few centrifuge machines in a test run on Tuesday, officials associated with the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The action defied Western efforts to have Iran give up enrichment work in...

By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Tuesday resumed feeding uranium gas into centrifuges for nuclear-fuel enrichment after a break of 2-1/2 years, stoking a diplomatic showdown with the West which suspects Tehran secretly seeks to build atomic bombs. Iran earlier on Tuesday announced it was deferring until next week talks on a Russian proposal to defuse the standoff, but gave no sign it was ready to stop purifying uranium on its own soil -- the key element in Moscow's plan....