WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials reacted cautiously Tuesday to indications that Iran has improved its ability to enrich uranium as fuel for nuclear reactors, a crucial step toward nuclear weapons.
White House and State Department officials say they still believe diplomacy can persuade Iran to freeze its program before it has mastered the complex technology involved.
The International Atomic Energy Agency will report to the United Nations Security Council next week on Iran's apparent progress. The Tehran regime has defied U.N. resolutions demanding an immediate suspension of its nuclear enrichment program, and another negative report by the nuclear watchdog agency is almost certain to spur a new round of U.N. sanctions.
Top IAEA officials suggested that Iran's engineers had achieved significant progress since early this year. The officials indicated that Tehran had overcome several technical challenges that hampered operation of centrifuges in the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz, Iran's main nuclear facility.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA, said that the goal of a suspension -- preventing Tehran from gaining knowledge about enrichment -- had been overtaken by events.
"We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich," ElBaradei told the New York Times on Tuesday. "From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that's a fact."
Another IAEA official said Tuesday that ElBaradei was trying to signal that the standoff between Iran and the Security Council "is letting time slip away and that Iran will achieve industrial capabilities in a matter of months" unless a deal is struck.
"He's saying you've got to find a way to get both sides to the bargaining table."
IAEA inspectors who visited Natanz last weekend found about 1,300 centrifuges in operation, although not all were loaded with the uranium gas necessary for enrichment. Iran insists its nuclear effort is designed to generate electricity, and the IAEA now keeps inspectors in Iran full time to monitor the program.
Experts have said Iran will need about 3,000 centrifuges operating for at least a year to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. U.S. intelligence analysts fear that if unchecked, Iran conceivably could reach that point by 2009.
