KUWAIT CITY, Aug 25, (Agencies): Kuwait, just across Gulf waters from Iran, wants more assurances from the Islamic Republic about the safety of its first nuclear power reactor which Tehran has started fuelling up, its foreign minister said.
Tehran began loading fuel on Saturday into the Bushehr plant, a potent symbol of Iran’s growing regional sway and its rejection of international sanctions designed to prevent it building a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies any such intention.
“We received assurances from Iran in addition to Russian assurances that the technology used in that plant is top notch,” Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA quoted Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah as saying late on Tuesday.
“But I remain worried that a nuclear plant is so close to me, whether it is in Iran or any other location. That is why we want to be reassured that the technology used is top of the line.”
Kuwait, an OPEC member, fears any accidents at the reactor could pollute Gulf waters. Analysts have long said Kuwait also worries about the potential environmental effects of any Western or Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A UN nuclear watchdog review published in March gave good marks to Bushehr’s safety regulations but also urged Tehran to join global conventions on nuclear safety, including one dealing with radioactive waste management.
Russia designed and built the Bushehr plant and will supply its fuel. To ease nuclear proliferation concerns, it will take back spent fuel rods to prevent any chance of them being reprocessed to yield weapons-grade plutonium.
Washington has criticised Moscow for pushing ahead with Bushehr despite Iranian defiance over its secretive nuclear programme. But a US State Department spokesman has said Washington did not view the reactor as a proliferation risk.
Iran is under four rounds of UN sanctions because of fears that its uranium enrichment programme, which is separate from Bushehr, is aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability. Tehran insists its enrichment work is for peaceful energy only.
Bushehr’s launch is a milestone on Iran’s path to harness technology that it says will reduce consumption of its abundant fossil fuels. It says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, and aimed at allowing it to export more oil and gas and prepare for the day when mineral riches dry up.
Iran’s arch-enemy Israel, widely assumed to be the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence. Its stance has raised concerns it could attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
Kuwait’s own ties with Iran soured during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war because of Kuwait’s financial backing of Baghdad’s war effort, but relations have since improved.
Missile
Iran showed off an improved domestically made missile on Wednesday, the latest in a string of announcements about new military hardware it hopes will dissuade enemies from attacking.
The United States and Israel both say they do not rule out bombing Iran to prevent it getting nuclear weapons. Tehran, which started fuelling its first nuclear power station on Saturday, says its atomic programme is peaceful.
State television showed a test-firing of the nine-metre-long (30-ft) missile it said was a new version of the Fateh-110 weapon with an improved range of 250 km and better precision than previous models.
In recent days Iran has also publicised new mini-submarines, armed speed boats and a prototype long-range bomber drone. Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said neighbouring countries had nothing to fear from Tehran’s improved defences.
He criticised Washington’s decision this month to sell the latest Patriot interceptor missiles to Kuwait to counter a potential Iranian threat. Just across the Gulf, Kuwait could be in range of the upgraded Fateh-110.
“America is seeking to create a climate of fear about Iran by installing new (weapons) systems in the region, but there is no necessity for these systems,” Vahidi said.
Many of Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbours are concerned about the Shi’ite state’s increasing clout in the region and the prospect that it might acquire nuclear weapons.
Kuwait has expressed safety concerns about Iran’s Bushehr power plant which most analysts say does not increase Iran’s chances of getting a nuclear weapon.
Vahidi reiterated Iran’s offer of support to the Lebanese military, initially suggested after a deadly cross-border clash with Israel.
“Lebanon and the Lebanese army is our friend and if there were to be a request we are ready to help them,” Vahidi was quoted as saying by the students news agency ISNA.
The offer from Iran, which supports Lebanon’s militant Shi’ite group Hezbollah, could fuel Western fears that Tehran is increasing its influence near Israel’s northern border.
Concern about Iran’s nuclear programme centre on its uranium enrichment programme and its missile capabilities.
Iran has long-range missiles including the Shahab 3 and the Sejil which could be used to hit Israel and regional US bases.
Tehran is still awaiting the delayed delivery of Russian S-300 air defence missile systems. The United States and Israel oppose Iran getting the systems as they could help it withstand any future air strikes against its nuclear sites.
Uranium
Iran said Wednesday it is making the search for new uranium deposits in the country a top priority now that it has started up its first in a planned network of nuclear power plants.
The head of Iran’s atomic energy agency did not explain why Iran was intensifying the exploration at home. Tehran has in the past denied its uranium stockpile was running low, as some international nuclear experts have concluded.
UN Security Council sanctions bar countries from selling uranium to Iran in response to its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce fuel for power plants or material for bombs.
“The most important priority, after the Bushehr nuclear power plant, is the exploration and discovery of uranium throughout the country,” the official IRNA news agency quoted nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.
The United States and other nations have tried to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium out of concern Tehran is seeking a pathway to weapons production under the cover of its civil nuclear power program. Iran denies such an aim and says it only wants to enrich uranium to fuel a future network of power plants.
With Russian help, Iran began loading uranium fuel into its first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr on Saturday after years of delays.
Salehi, who is also Iran’s vice president, said only one-third of the country has been explored for uranium deposits. He said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will carry out exploration work anywhere it detects a uranium vein.
“With the assistance of President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and the allocation of a budget, we hope to survey the whole country as far as uranium exploration is concerned,” Salehi was quoted by IRNA as saying. He didn’t elaborate but said the study and exploration activities throughout Iran may take eight years.
“Anywhere there is a vein of uranium, we will enter into exploration work,” the Iranian government website quoted Salehi as saying.