Rice: ‘Strong steps’ may be needed to stop Iran

Rice did not call for an emergency meeting of the Council, saying it should consider action after receiving an IAEA report by April 28. She did not elaborate on what measures the United States would support, but economic and political sanctions are under consideration.

Three European states behind a deal to suspend enrichment which broke down last year weighed in with criticism of Iran. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said the announcement was “deeply unhelpful” and undermined confidence.

His German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Iran was “going in precisely the wrong direction” for a return to negotiations.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said it was a worrying step and Iran should stop its “dangerous activities.”

The European Union voiced dismay.

“This is regrettable,” said Emma Udwin, a spokeswoman for Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU commissioner for external relations.

Calls for Israel’s destruction
The Iranian president further stoked international anxieties about Iran’s nuclear program last year when he called for Israel’s destruction.

But Israelis responded cautiously to Iran’s latest announcement, saying diplomacy was the best route.

“The United States has placed this issue at the top of its agenda. I do not recommend that we should be involved,” Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres told Israel Radio.

The United States has pledged to defend Israel, which bombed an Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981.

Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, cautioned that it will take some time before Iran achieves nuclear capability. “I think things will change in this process and we shouldn’t see this as a foregone conclusion,” he told Army Radio.

The chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon “within three years, by the end of the decade."

No U.S. confirmation of nukes
The U.S. State Department said it was unable to confirm that Iran had enriched uranium and some experts said even if Tehran’s assertions were accurate, it would still be years before the Islamic Republic was able to produce a nuclear weapon.

In his televised address, Ahmadinejad said, “I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology.”

He also said Iran’s goal was industrial-scale enrichment.

The level of enrichment needed for nuclear bombs is far higher than the 3.5 percent Iran says it has reached. It would take Iran about two decades to yield enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb with its current cascade of 164 centrifuges.

But Tehran says it wants to install 3,000 centrifuges, enough to produce material for a warhead in a year.

Exiled Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said in Strasbourg that the West had been too soft on Iran and had allowed the country “to get so close to a nuclear weapon.”

Information provided in 2002 by Rajavi’s National Council of Resistance of Iran, which wants to oust Iran’s clerical rulers, forced Tehran to lift the veil on its nuclear program.

The council’s armed wing, the People’s Mujahedeen, is listed as a terrorist group by the United States.

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