Iran a nuclear power
Iran a nuclear power

The US Defense Secretary says sanctions on Iran are only weeks away, and Russia hints it will join in as well.

In honor of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic takeover in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad continues to provoke the West, saying his country is proceeding quickly towards nuclear power. Only two days after the announcement that Iran had begun stepping up its enrichment program of uranium from 3.5% purity to 20%, Ahmedinajad told a crowd of tens of thousands that the deed is already done. He said that the 20% uranium has already been delivered to the scientists working on producing nuclear power.

Ahmedinejad: We're Not Afraid of You

The dictator said, though, that Iran does not plan to produce nuclear weapons. “If we wanted to make a bomb, we would announce this,” he said. “Our nation has the courage to say what it means, and we’re not afraid of you [the West].”

Uranium enriched to a 90% level of purity is necessary for nuclear weapons. Experts say that if Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, it could theoretically proceed and reach the 90% level.

The Iranian dictator, whose forces fired at anti-government protestors earlier in the day, said his government has the ability to enrich uranium “even to 80%, but we won’t do it, because we don’t need it.”

The West doesn’t entirely believe Ahmedinajad, and international sanctions against Iran appear to be closer than ever. U.S. President Obama said that Iran is headed towards nuclear arms, and that sanctions are apparently the “next step.” He insisted that the door for negotiations is “still open,” however.

Russia, too, has implied that sanctions will have to be imposed on Iran, and said that the Western fears of Iranian nuclear weapons “are justified.” China, however, still objects to sanctions, though less vocally than in the past; its veto on the UN Security Council could thwart the plan to impose them.

Israel Under Threat Again

Meanwhile, Iranian media also reported on Thursday that in a talk with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Ahmedinajad said that should Israel use military force in the region, “it must be destroyed.” 

“If the Zionist regime makes the same mistakes and initiates a military mission,” the Iranian is said to have told the Syrian by phone, “there will be an obligation to fight it with the maximum force in order to put an end to it once and for all.” He said that Iran has “trustworthy information” that Israel is planning such a mission.