Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    by Xu Yanyan

    TEHRAN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The controversial and highly sensitive Iranian nuclear issue, coming in the spotlight for more than three years, was stuck at a standstill by the end of 2006 due to the hardline stance pursued by both Tehran and the Western countries.

    The sticking point between the two sides was uranium enrichment activities, which Iran claimed for generating electricity while the West feared might be used to make nuclear weapons. Despite great efforts that the international community had paid to defusethe crisis, the whole situation was still inevitably fell into a deadlock.

    IRAN'S URANIUM ENRICHMENT AND ITS NUCLEAR STANCE

    Shortly after Tehran decided to resume uranium enrichment work, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on April 11 that the country had successfully produced 3.5 percent enriched uranium with its first group of 164 centrifuges.

    Western countries, especially the U.S. feared that Iran's nuclear program was aimed at making nuclear weapons, but according to many experts, including the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), uranium with 3.5 percent purity was at a pretty low level and was actually not enough to make a bomb.

    However, Iran's top officials have made a lot of flinty comments on Western demand to freeze uranium enrichment, saying Iran was already a nuclear country and it was deserved to be respected as a powerful country by the international community.

    Accompanying these remarks, an Iranian heavy water plant dived into circulation on Aug. 26, which was used to feed a neighboring nuclear research reactor under construction. The research reactoris going to be completed in 2009 despite IAEA's opposing attitude,and could produce plutonium for what Iran said of medical use at the appointed time.

    What is more, Tehran confirmed the country's experts had installed the second group of another 164 centrifuges on Oct. 25 and said Iran had gained the product (uranium) several days later.

    More over, President Ahmadinejad also disclosed Iran would install 3,000 centrifuges by the end of this year, and would finally have 60,000 for the whole program.

    INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS, PRESSURE TO DEFUSE CRISIS AND IRAN'S RESISTANCE

    In the face of Iran's uncompromising position, the international community outspread both persuasion and squeeze play, beginning a persistent effort to seek diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue.

    Due to Iran's insistence to enrichment activities, the IAEA board of governors on Feb. 4 adopted a resolution at an emergency meeting to report Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.Iran immediately slashed at that decision and vowed it would not bend to such a "pressure".

    In order to ease the tension between Iran and the international community, chief of UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei paid avisit to Tehran in April, he urged on Iran to abide by UN requestand to suspend its nuclear activities for a specific period of time, but Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told him the UN Security Council statement on March 29 demanding Iran to freeze the enrichment-related activities was "not so important".

    In June, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council(Britain, China, France, Russia, and the U.S.) plus Germany agreed a new package over Iran's disputed nuclear issues. The proposal included both incentives aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and possible sanctions if Iran chooses not to comply.

    Later, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present Iran the new six-nation proposal, and Iranian President Ahmadinejad promised to give a formal response on Aug. 22.

    However, the international community seemed to have no patience to wait for Iran's answer for two months. The UN Security Councilon July 31 adopted a resolution by a vote of 14 to 1, urging Tehran to "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development" by Aug. 31 or face the prospect of sanctions.

    As a response, Iran's top leaders, especially Ahmadinejad have repeatedly said the country would not accept it and "the Iranian people do not give in to language of force".

    On Aug. 22, in its formal response to the package, Iran didn't mention anything about "suspension", a huge slash to the world powers' effort. Soon, the UN deadline of Aug. 31 also passed, the UN Security Council received nothing from the Iranian government but Ahmadinejad's pledge "not to back down an inch from its legal rights in the face of intimidation".

    In order to prevent the situation at that time from moving into further crisis, EU's Solana met with Larijani several times in September to discuss Iran's possibility to halt enrichment.

    But after the month-long contact, the EU was disappointed with Tehran's uncompromising stance. On Oct. 17, the EU foreign ministers issued a statement which virtually admitted the failure of negotiations, saying that if Iran does not comply with UN Security Council's requirements, the EU would "work for the adoption of measures under Article 41 of the UN Charter," which stipulates economic and diplomatic sanctions.

    Iran's top officials subsequently criticized EU's statement,saying it would destroy the opportunity to resolve Iran's nuclear issue peacefully and worsen the crisis in Mideast.