Iran is to insert its first domestically produced high enriched uranium into its Tehran reactor by mid-February, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published by the state IRNA news agency on Thursday. The announced deadline could sharpen international tensions over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme at a time of increased speculation in Israeli and US media of military strikes on Iran’s atomic facilities.
“Within the next two months, the first fuel plate produced with the 20 percent enriched uranium will be placed in Tehran’s research reactor,” Salehi, who previously headed Iran’s nuclear organisation, was quoted as saying. His statement was an excerpt from a longer interview to be released in full on Saturday, IRNA said.
