The head of Iran’s nuclear program, Ali Akbar Salehi, has said that his country needed 20 new industrial-scale uranium enrichment facilities. The announcement came only days after the regime in Tehran approved a plan to build ten new enrichment plants. The IRNA news agency quoted Salehi as saying that Iran needed the sites to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power over the next 20 years.
Salehi accused the West of trying to force Iran out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "They have noticed that we are so insistent on adherence to the NPT, and this is not to the liking of the West," said Salehi. "We have no plans to pull out of the NPT."
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at the United States and Britain, labeling them Tehran's main "enemies". He warned they would fail to isolate Iran over the nuclear issue.
France’s Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche told a Jewish radio station in Paris that "the time has come to seek firmer sanctions against Iran.”
Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has recalled its envoy to the United Nations in Vienna for "consultations" after he had voted against a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rebuking Iran. "The voting was not in accordance with the procedures of the government and therefore the minister of foreign affairs has instructed the permanent representative of Malaysia to the United Nations in Vienna to return to Malaysia for consultations," the Foreign Ministry in Kuala Lumpur declared.
Mohammed Arshad Manzoor Hussain currently holds the rotating chair of the 35-member IAEA's Board of Governors. Malaysia was one of three countries with Cuba and Venezuela that voted against the resolution to censure Iran for secretly building a second enrichment plant. The measure passed by 25 votes to three. Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey abstained.
