TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday boasted that his country was nearing the “peak” of its efforts to unlock the secrets of the atom and again ruled out suspending the nuclear program.
But another Iranian official revealed that Russia continues to withhold key equipment to get an almost-complete nuclear power plant near Bushehr up and running, evidence that Moscow retains important leverage over Tehran.
In defiance of the United Nations Security Council, Iran continues to refine efforts to enrich uranium gas, a process that could be used to make fuel for a nuclear power plant or, if highly enriched, to make fissile material for an atomic weapon.
Ahmadinejad’s speech in Bushehr broke no new ground. It came on a campaignlike two-day visit to the port city six weeks before Iranian elections in which his parliamentary allies face emboldened challenges from the left and right wings of the political establishment.
Iran watchers say the president reaps political benefits from being scorned by the West for his defiant remarks.
Ahmadinejad told a crowd, “The Iranian nation will . . . not withdraw one iota from its rights.”
The United States, Britain, Russia, China and France are the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council. They, along with Germany, have prepared a third set of sanctions if Iran refuses to halt its enrichment program, which many suspect masks a drive to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.
