Iran has 4,000 working centrifuges: official

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-29 18:58

TEHRAN - Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali-Reza Sheikh Attar said that Iran has almost 4,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz enrichment facilities, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, 217 miles south of Tehran, April 8, 2008. [Agencies]

Attar said that 3,000 more centrifuges are in the stage of installation, after visiting Natanz enrichment facilities on August 19.

"Had westerners become certain that the resolutions would bring us down to our kneels, they would have definitely intensified them (the sanctions)," Attar was quoted as saying, referring to the UN Security Council's anti-Iran resolutions.

The sanctions are futile and ineffective, he added, saying that contrary to the sanctions, Iran's industrial output has increased 10-fold.

"They do know that ultra-resolution actions will cost them more dearly," he said.

Attar also called for revision of Europe's approach towards Iran despite sanctions.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad announced last month that Iran has up to 6,000 centrifuges without specifying the number of working ones.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran is working with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana for further talks on the country's nuclear program.

Till now, Iran has been under three UN sanctions over its disputed nuclear program.