Iran rejects curbs on nuke plans

Defiance plays well in Iran. That's one reason why the Islamic republic is now resuming steps toward uranium enrichment - directly flouting a UN agency's demand to stop the development of technology that could be used in a nuclear bomb.

Iran's calculation also shows that Tehran has learned lessons from US policy toward other fledgling nuclear states such as North Korea to Pakistan. In short: The West is more respectful and generous with nuclear-equipped states, rogue or not, experts say.

Iran declared Tuesday that it has "successfully" begun large- scale tests to convert some 40 tons of uranium into hexafluoride gas needed for enrichment, a key step to making nuclear fuel for power plants - or for atomic weapons.

The decision follows Tehran's anger over the tough resolution passed by the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Saturday, prodded by a hardline US stance and increasingly frustrated European nations, which requires Iran to halt all enrichment-related activities, to show good faith that its program is only for peaceful purposes.

Iranian leaders condemn as "illegal" the IAEA demands, which go beyond Iran's obligations under the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT permits nations to openly enrich uranium and control the nuclear fuel cycle.

"We clearly demand that our right to enrichment be recognized [as] our legal right," President Mohamad Khatami, a relative moderate in Iran's divisive political scene, said Wednesday. Doing so "will open the way for greater cooperation."

Speaking at a military parade Wednesday - during which he repeated Iran's rejection of nuclear weapons - Mr. Khatami warned that Iran would pursue enrichment "even if it leads to an end to international supervision."

"Tougher pressure [on Iran] from the outside sets in motion an internal dynamic that makes it very difficult for anybody to back off," says Hadi Semati, a political scientist from the University of Tehran, currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"The hardening of positions by the US and Europe, and the threat that Iran will be referred to the UN Security Council, has unified everybody [in Iran]," says Mr. Semati. "This has become a showdown of might and steadfastness on both sides."

The IAEA resolution comes as talk grows of a possible military option carried out by the US or Israel. Security officials quoted this week in the Israeli press say a new purchase of 500 "bunker buster" bombs from the US could be used to penetrate underground Iranian facilities.

"Constant talk in Washington of a preemptive strike by America or Israel - that perception of a threat - would have helped convince [Iranian leaders] that it is not a good time to back off," says Semati. "In their mind is the strategic map: If Iran gives up, the Americans won't change [their demands], and if Bush is reelected, things could get tougher."

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