A handout picture released by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's official website shows him (R) listening to an expert during a tour of Tehran's research reactor centre on February 15, 2012. (AFP Photo/PRESIDENT.IR)
Iran has confirmed that its higher-grade enriched uranium is being converted into reactor fuel, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced. He also called for destruction of all nuclear arms following N. Korea's third nuclear test.
"We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons and at the same time all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the state news agency IRNA.
At the same time he said that some countries should have the right "make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes".
Talking of recent media reports that Iran had already converted some of its 20 percent enriched uranium into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, he said that “this work is being done and all its reports have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in a complete manner.”
This comes after AP's Monday report which alleged that Iran had begun to convert some existing nuclear material, which could potentially be used in weapons, into another form. The material is in amounts large enough to feed concerns about its atomic program, according to anonymous sources quoted by the agency.
Shortly after the publication, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed once more that Tehran is drawing close to a “red line,” telling visiting American Jewish leaders that Iran must be stopped. He also urged stronger pressure and further sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Last September, Netanyahu called on the UN General Assembly to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
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