The UN Security Council voted unanimously March 24 to impose new sanctions against the Islamic Republic for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the country resumed in January 2006 for what it claims to be a civilian nuclear power generating program. The program has met fierce opposition in the West, particularly the United States, which suspects Iran is pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program.
But in defiance of the demands put forward by the international community, the Iranian president said April 9 that his country had attained an industrial level of nuclear fuel production.
"After adopting one resolution, they [the West] saw Iran launch a nuclear fuel cycle. The second saw Iran attain nuclear fuel production [on an industrial scale]," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
The president said pressure on the Islamic Republic and anti-Iranian propaganda could not shake the nation's will and that despite the sanctions Iran had become a nuclear power.
"You can adopt new resolutions and the Iranian nation will demonstrate new advances in the nuclear sector," the leader said.
On Sunday, an Iranian nuclear official said Iran will soon announce a tender for the construction of two more nuclear power plants in the south of the country.
Ahmad Fayazbakhsh, the deputy head in charge of power plants at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the power plants will each have a capacity of 1,000 to 1,600 megawatts and will be built at Bushehr where Russia is completing the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant.
The new UN Security Council resolution was passed following Tehran's refusal to comply with the previous resolution adopted December 23, 2006.
The new resolution freezes the foreign accounts of 13 companies and 15 individuals involved in uranium enrichment and missile development projects, imposes visa restrictions and bans arms exports from Iran.
It also threatens additional sanctions if Iran does not comply with the resolution within 60 days, and urges the Islamic Republic to return to negotiations.
