Tehran
Iran announced this week that it has begun work on a plant to produce enriched uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear bomb. President Mohammad Khatami said the uranium would be used only for civilian purposes, to fuel a power plant the Russians are helping Iran build. But the U.S., which has long opposed the Russian project, said Russia had promised to provide the fuel for the reactor and reclaim the waste. “Iran’s ambitious and costly pursuit of a complete nuclear fuel cycle only makes sense,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, “if it is in support of a nuclear weapons program.”
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