LEAD: Iran begins enriching uranium

Jan 9, 2012, 19:37 GMT

Vienna/Tehran - Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20 per cent, the UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said production was taking place at Fordo, a nuclear facility 160 kilometres south-west of Tehran.

'All nuclear material in the facility remains under the agency's containment and surveillance,' said IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor.

Tehran first revealed at the weekend that the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo was to become operational soon.

According to local reports, Iran had last summer already started transferring centrifuges from the main enrichment site of Natanz in central Iran to Fordo.

Fordo is to become the second enrichment site after Natanz.

Earlier Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country would not change its policies despite new sanctions planned by world powers due to its uncompromising stance in its disputed nuclear programme.

'The imperialistic block (West) tries to intimidate Iran's government and people with sanctions but the Iranian nation has knowingly chosen its path and will continue it,' the ayatollah said in a speech carried on state television.

The West believes Iran intends to make nuclear weapons while Tehran insists its programme is purely for the production of energy.

The latest Western sanctions aim at Iran's Central Bank and oil exports.

'The whole Islamic establishment will decisively stick to its principles and not be intimidated by any threats,' Khamenei, who according to constitution, has the final say on all state affairs, added in a meeting with senior clerics in Tehran.

Iranian generals have warned of possibly closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international oil route in the Persian Gulf, blocking a considerable share of global oil exports, if oil sanctions were imposed.

The closure of the Strait, if implemented by Iran, could not only lead to a serious energy crisis but also to a possible military confrontation between Iran and the US forces deployed in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's revolutionary guards' commander, Mohammad-Ali Jafari, said on Monday that Iran was ready for any military action by the US.

Iran this month held a navy manoeuvre near the Strait of Hormuz and another wargame in south-eastern Iran near its Afghan border. The guards plan another navy manoeuvre in the Gulf in February.