New traces of plutonium and enriched uranium, both possible weapons
materials, have been found in Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) said in a report released yesterday.
Iran has been "requested to provide further clarification" of enriched
uranium as well as plutonium particles and responded to this request on Tuesday,
the report said.
Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that his country's nuclear
program would soon be completed and the world now had no choice but to "live
with a nuclear Iran."
Ahmadinejad announced that the ultimate aim of Iran's atomic drive was to
install some 60,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel.
Tehran insists it seeks enrichment capabilities only to be ableto generate
low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel and not the highly enriched variety used
for weapons.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday that
Ahmadinejad's remarks and the IAEA discoveries "both demonstrate the urgency for
the Security Council to act on Iran."
"Sanctions are obviously the only means to get Iran's attention," Bolton said
in a statement.
