3 countries criticize Iranian enrichment

VIENNA - Russia, the United States and France have urged Iran to stop enriching uranium to higher levels and suggested the project reinforces suspicions that Tehran is seeking to make nuclear weapons. The joint statement, made public yesterday, reflects unified Russian and Western opposition to Iran's increased enrichment.

Shrugging off international concerns, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the country was moving ahead to expand its enrichment capacities by installing more advanced machinery at its main enrichment facility.

Ahmadinejad told reporters in Tehran the new centrifuges are not yet operational but are five times more efficient than the model in use at its underground Natanz enrichment plant.

Officials at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said they had no comment. The latest IAEA report on Iran said that as of early October no advanced centrifuges had been installed at the plant, although some were being tested in a separate area of the facility.

Because enrichment can produce both nuclear weapons as well as reactor fuel, Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop its program. Its determination to expand such activities had been criticized worldwide even before an announcement earlier this month that Tehran would enrich to a higher level.

The confidential letter critical of the higher-enrichment plan was shared yesterday with The Associated Press. Dated Feb. 12, it was addressed to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano and signed by senior U.S., Russian and French envoys.

Ahmadinejad shrugged off the possibility of new UN sanctions. "They know that resolutions are not worth a penny and have no effect," he said.

In Washington, meanwhile, the top American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that the United States has "direct intelligence" that two senior Iraqi officials in charge of keeping Saddam Hussein loyalists out of the Baghdad government have ties to Iran. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Ali al-Lami and Ahmed Chalabi "are clearly influenced by Iran" and have attended senior-level meetings with members of the hardline Shia regime there.