11 April 2006
Iran "Moving in the Wrong Direction," White House Says
Claims of successful uranium enrichment underscores international concerns
Washington -- The Iranian regime is “moving in the wrong direction,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said after Iranian leaders claimed to have enriched uranium successfully for the first time.
Speaking April 11 to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Columbia, Missouri, McClellan said the announcement “only further underscores why the international community has serious concerns about the regime's nuclear ambitions.” Iran needs to build confidence with the international community instead of defying it, he added.
“This is a regime that has a long history of hiding its nuclear activities from the international community, and refusing to comply with its international obligations. Defiant statements and actions only further isolate the regime from the rest of the world, and further isolate the Iranian people,” McClellan said.
The press secretary said the United States and other members of the international community remain concerned that Iran is “developing nuclear weapons or a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of a civilian program.” The U.N. Security Council, McClellan said, has called on Iran to “suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities and comply with its obligations.”
McClellan said President Bush has called for exhausting “all diplomatic means” to solve the conflict “before using force,” and said the United States will be discussing the matter with other members of the Security Council about next steps “if the regime refuses to change its behavior.”
Iran’s actions come days before International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamad ElBaradei is to visit the country. On April 28, the IAEA is expected to report to Security Council on whether Iran has met demands for a complete suspension of its uranium enrichment activities. If it has not, the country could face economic sanctions.
“Right now the regime has been given an opportunity to commit to complying with its obligations,” the press secretary said.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said Iran’s uranium enrichment claims give “more weight to the international community to act in a concerted fashion.
“Once again they have chosen the pathway of defiance as opposed to the pathway of cooperation,” he said.
The spokesman said that although he could not confirm the technical details of Iran’s claims, its “stated enrichment activity is not something that is highly enriched uranium,” which is critical to the development of nuclear weapons.
“They made an announcement that they have enriched uranium to the level of 3.5 percent. … And certainly the level of 3.5 percent is not sufficient to make a nuclear weapon,” he said.
However, the United States maintains that Iran should not be allowed to have reprocessing or enrichment capabilities on its own soil, including activities described as “research and development.”
“[I]t's not a matter of whether or not they should be able to have peaceful nuclear energy,” he said, but rather whether the country should be entrusted with the technology given its two-decades record of concealing their activities from the IAEA and the international community.
“They have sought to evade telling the truth to the IAEA as well as its former negotiating partners in the EU-3. A qualitative change in behavior would be walking back its nuclear program, coming into compliance with its international obligations and returning to the negotiating table,” McCormack said.
The spokesman said “consistent, concerted, united international pressure” could cause the regime “to change its behavior and its desire to pursue nuclear weapons,” which the international community sees as being “destabilizing for the region as well as the world.”
“[I]f Iran continues down this pathway of defiance, … you will see a parallel increase in the pressure on Iran from the international community,” McCormack said, including further isolation from the rest of the world.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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